Local Roads - New Speed Limits

SC024

yes indeed i imagine it would, the people that need their car or van that they pay handsomely for crawling along at 30 kph watching the cyclists & e scooters & joggers undertaking them.

SC024

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123134712#Comment_123134712

This is ireland, not Oslo, Paris, Amsterdam or anywhere else.

Seth Brundle

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123133970#Comment_123133970

Could be me, could by you. Could be anyone. When we get behind the wheel we all take our lives into our hands. We take the risk on the small chance of getting into an accident for the convenience of getting around.

That risk is increased when you increase speed or any other factor that can lead to a collision.
And they're not "accidents" if they are caused by increasing risky behaviour!

Road deaths are an unfortunate part of modern life and something we can’t get around. Ireland has some of the safest roads in Europe. But you’ll always have the hysterics wringing their hands, same type of argument was used during Covid to keep the country on lockdown because a minute % of people would die. Absolutely bonkers stuff.

That's bo11ocks! While you will always have some natural fatalities, etc. most of the road deaths are caused by people doing something they shouldn't. The aim is to reduce that factor.

As for this "safest roads in Europe" line that is trotted out, maybe that is because people tend not to walk or cycle on them anymore. Do you let your kids cycle to school? Does your neighbour?

This 0 road deaths stuff is pie in the sky and will never happen until 99% of cars are off the road.

I didn't mention 0 and I agree, its a daft to set an unachievable target but that is not what is being discussed in this thread.

Seth Brundle

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123135051#Comment_123135051

If an e-scooter is capable of going over 20km/h then it is illegal on our roads…

https://www.rsa.ie/road-safety/road-users/special-purpose-vehicles/e-scooters

SC024

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123135104#Comment_123135104

yes the guards enforce that rule, they give them folks penalty points & fines all that safety related malarkey strangely enough ive been toddling along at 45 km/h minding the speed van / squad car pulled in on numerous occasions only for the e scooter to fly by me on the inside.. Imagine that

Seth Brundle

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123135123#Comment_123135123

So in the one sentence you say that the law is enforced but that you also see it not enforced?
Either way, absence of enforcement is one thing but will hopefully change soon. That doesn't mean that the speed limit change is a bad thing.

SC024

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123135143#Comment_123135143

come on now sarcasm, have you ever heard of cyclists / e scooters getting fined or penalty points for breaking rules of the road? them fines & penalty points are only for the poor motorist

Montage of Feck

More legislation and laws while having frig all meaningful enforcement of existing laws, sure it's the Irish way.

combat14

when does the 40% reduction in speed limits from 50 to 30km kick in

this has all the smell of a green carbon emissions donkey and cart initiative off it .. nothing to do with road safety

No_Hope_Club

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123135051#Comment_123135051

Not sure what point you're trying to make relating to what you quoted or how your statement relates to a reduction in speed limits.

Seth Brundle

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123135151#Comment_123135151

Your sarcasm might be more obvious if you use some full stops!

Plenty of cyclists get fined.
However, in terms of garda resources when policing the roads, in a fairly obvious way to anyone who thinks about it, they tend to go after the road users who have the potential to cause far more damage!

FishOnABike

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123133853#Comment_123133853

Maintaining road markings so they haven't faded to to the point of near invisibility might help. Those road markings would be difficult enough to see in daylight, let alone on a dark, wet night.

No_Hope_Club

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123135055#Comment_123135055

That's way off topic and nothing to do with a reduction in the default speed limit on rural local roads

No_Hope_Club

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123135069#Comment_123135069

True but it was in response to the following hyperbole - "This 0 road deaths stuff is pie in the sky and will never happen".

No_Hope_Club

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123135172#Comment_123135172

Urban speed limits would be for another thread. And it is a road safety initiative.

KrisW1001

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123135366#Comment_123135366

That’s the StreetView camera. The markings and signage are clearly visible in real life. There's also a Stop sign on the minor road facing that junction. It's a misleading junction design, and that’s the main issue.

@No_Hope_Club - people who bitch about the 30km/h limit in towns have never looked at their speedometer while in a town centre. But I guess there’s a big overlap with the ones who never look at it all.

My average journey speeds in the centre of Cork are about 20 km/h. If I had to drive before 9am, it’d be more like 15 km/h. Lights, junctions and roads narrowed by parked cars make it impossible to sustain 50 km/h for any distance. Putting a 30 limit makes no difference to actual travel times, but it stops little boys trying to gun up to 50 every time a light goes green.

But honestly, this whole thread is attracting the kind of culture-war bullshit that makes the Motoring forum impossible to visit without losing faith in the intelligence of humanity.

No_Hope_Club

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123135928#Comment_123135928

I agree, those who reference "green agenda", "similar to restrictions during Covid" or "emmissions" in relation to a default speed limit on rural local roads are deflecting from the truth. Lower speeds = lower risk = lower deaths and serious injuries. But not in isolation.

We can discuss urban speed limits and their environments when that's out on public consultation.

tigerboon

"people who bitch about the 30km/h limit in towns have never looked at their speedometer while in a town centre. But I guess there’s a big overlap with the ones who never look at it all."

This is also true for most L roads. Chances are you're only doing around 60 anyway so the speed limit would make sense for drivers unfamiliar with the road. There's no doubt there's plenty of L roads where the higher limit would be appropiate and the higher limit should be applied in these locations assuming it's for a reasonable section of road and not a couple of hundred meters here and there. There's also a safety concern with speed limits being too low causing boredom, lack of concentration, focus etc. Maybe there's a case for further sub-categories of the L roads where two lane, properly marked rural roads with decent sightlines are in a higher 80kph category. There are some L roads similar in nature to (and sometimes better than) the regional roads. Also, it should be the engineers that decide on this and not the councillors.

creedp

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123135928#Comment_123135928

Says who? The usual cohort who seem to think every driver, other than themselves, is some kind of scud missile about to create carnage on the road unless big brother steps in and puts the jack boot to their throats?

No_Hope_Club

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123136158#Comment_123136158

It's a road safety initiative that is aimed to reduce lives and serious injuries. Nothing more sinister than that.

KrisW1001

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123136158#Comment_123136158

"Says who?"... I haven't heard that level of debate since I was a kid.

magicbastarder

i have wondered whether one of the local authorities in ireland could request data from google from their location gathering (used to generate traffic conditions) because it should be straightforward enough to model the effect on journey times of capping speeds at various levels.

No_Hope_Club

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123136777#Comment_123136777

Why is a slight increase in journey times a concern when they're trying to save lives?

magicbastarder

because that's the usual pushback. many people think that reducing speed limits by say 30% results in an automatic, proportional increase in journey times.

creedp

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123136766#Comment_123136766

Good lad, a very good example of a post with a awful bang of superiority complex about it. It's an anecdote but I'm not sure if it's representative of the poster

KrisW1001

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123137020#Comment_123137020

Well, talk to me like an adult then. What do you disagree with? Make a counter-argument. Leave the playground.

Vicxas

Is there a map anywhere to show whats changing on Friday? A part of me thinks that the R147 from Navan will be 60. Or am i wrong?

KrisW1001

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123137145#Comment_123137145

County Councils prepared maps, but Meath seem to have nothing online. R147 is not affected by this law: the changes discussed here apply only to roads categorised as L-roads (“back roads”, most of which don’t have actual route-number signs on them).

combat14

why dont we just ban walking while we are at it that will probably reduce deaths also

hans aus dtschl

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123137613#Comment_123137613

We've mostly done that though, we're at diminishing returns in terms placing the responsibility for safety on pedestrians and school kids, rather than on the licensed operators of machinery. We've tried to hi-vis them up and demand they stay on footpaths and out of our way, but still they persist in getting in the way from time to time.

So unfortunately we might need to slow down, so that when we hit them, fewer of them die.

I'm also incensed by people asking me to slow down on L roads, by the way. I should be allowed to go as fast as I please, I don't see why there are any speed limits at all.

"Might is right" as it says in all the road design manuals: if you have a big vehicle, everyone in a smaller vehicle has a responsibility to get out of your way.