Night/Off Peak Speed Limit Enforcing

cormie

Hi,
I was driving home from the Monaghan area last night and had to go along the M1 etc. Anyway, it was about 2am and the roads were empty. The road in particular I'm talking about was the N2, it had a 100KMPH limit. Now I'm guessing that based on road/traffic conditions etc, that if the limit sign was electronic and was able to set a limit based on the above criteria, that it would have been higher than 100kmph. I was going slightly over the limit but I felt the speed I was going was safe for the conditions. I'm just curious, has anyone had any experience with being caught at this time for going such speeds?

Also, with regards speed limits for areas with roadworks on them of about 50kmph where it would usually be 100kmph, what is the situation with the limit at say 2am when there is obviously nobody working on that particular job taking the above criteria into play? Again, if the limit signs were electronic, do you reckon they should increase the limit after hours?

thesteve

It's not even the case of them being electronic, in Germany on certain stretches of the Autobahn it will say 120 (6am - 8pm) because they know the traffic will be calm around these times. Saying that they have electronic signs also that change during heavy traffic, bad weather, roadworks, accidents, etc...

This is an excellent idea though. If the normal signs came in after the war, let's see, how long do you reckon it'll take Ireland to use them? I'm thinking the day feckin teleporting machines are introduced and travelling by vehicles is abolished...

Ernie Ball

the day the petrol runs out

cormie

so does anyone know the story with roadwork limits after working hours

Seth Brundle

cormie wrote:

so does anyone know the story with roadwork limits after working hours

it is the same story as during daytime! A speed limit is a speed limit! Just because it is stupid doesn't unfortunatley mean that you can break it! Anyhow, it is becoming more common to have roadworks at night!

Hagar

From watching the morning news and hearing the number of people killed in overnight accidents I would be inclined to believe that the speed limits are even more important over night. That and not going through red lights because "sure there's nobody coming. I'm the only one on the road at this hour of the night". Who knows, if your going at a reasonable speed you may even be able to avoid the suicidal drunks who seem to infest the entire road network every night.

Our man in Havana

kbannon wrote:

it is the same story as during daytime! A speed limit is a speed limit! Just because it is stupid doesn't unfortunatley mean that you can break it! Anyhow, it is becoming more common to have roadworks at night!

Putting up signs don't mean the limit is lawful. One should check with the NRA that the limit is properly consituted. Could save you a few €'s.

I once beat a speeding rap because the council had used the wrong sort of 30 sign.

slade_x

Night/Off Peak Speed Limit Enforcing

If anything a speed limit should be decreased in proportion to how much your field of view/ distance at which you see to be clear is affected/ decreased at night time

cormie

In some circumstances night driving is allot safer though, especially on windy roads where in the day time you would have no sign of an approaching car where as at night you can see the beam from their headlights in greater time.

slade_x

cormie wrote:

In some circumstances night driving is allot safer though, especially on windy roads where in the day time you would have no sign of an approaching car where as at night you can see the beam from their headlights in greater time.

It must be nice for some, but a lot of people around where i usually drive, they like to be A$$holes and keep their headlights on full,(especially while right behind you aswell as oncoming) or theres always 1 or 2 with them really annoying yellow headlights that are a lot more distracting than should be allowed

But as for the windy roads you should enter them slowly, that way it doesnt matter how much oncoming traffic that are not visiblt to you at first, you will be able to stay well in the middle/to the left of the bend, or at the very least slow enough to stop safely

seamus

cormie wrote:

so does anyone know the story with roadwork limits after working hours

As Bond says, temporary speed limit signs for roadworks may not actually be enforceable. That doesn't really justify ignoring them though. Even after hours, the road will have cones lining it and will usually be a narrower and more hazardous place to be, hence you should still drive with extra caution.

_Kaiser_

I'm guessing this is the current roadworks on the N3 just outside Blanch/Mulhuddart that we're all talking about?

Noone seems to pay any attention to these limit anyway regardless of the time of day, and if you do reduce speed accordingly (as I do) you get idiots tailgating you till it becomes 100 again

cormie

So basically you can do what the normal speed limit is unless the NRA have put it in place, would this hold up in court yeah?

jlang

cormie wrote:

In some circumstances night driving is allot safer though, especially on windy roads where in the day time you would have no sign of an approaching car where as at night you can see the beam from their headlights in greater time.

Driving at night can lead to this kind of complacency, that you'll see the lights before you get around the corner. Just be aware that there are cyclists and pedestrians at night too, and even if well lit/reflected you won't see them until you get around the corner.

Blitzkrieger

thesteve wrote:

in Germany on certain stretches of the Autobahn it will say 120 (6am - 8pm) because they know the traffic will be calm around these times.

You've got that backwards. That means there's no speed limit outside those hours, or "national speed limit applies". In Germany this means you're allowed to drive to a speed where you can maintain control of your vehicle and stop in the distance you can see. They trust people to know what an appropriate speed is. Here we have a nanny state of overpaid ****wits with no grasp of road safety to tell us how fast we can go.

MrPudding

Apparently one of the things that will start happening once speed detection goes private is "out of hours" speed checks.

It seems that the locations and times of checked will proportional to the accidents that occur. That is the plan anyway, apparently.

MrP