Driving at 30KPH causes engine damage and stalling

Yes, like Eamon Ryan, you won't be happy until we're all bolloks naked on the ground trying to suck minerals from a stone

I think people are over-playing the safety aspect of this. There’s a much simpler, more practical reason for the reduced limit.

Park at the Cricket club and try to cross the road to the zoo. When people are driving at 50kmh almost no-one will stop to let you across because their speed gives them the impression that their journey is important and human consideration isn’t required. When people are driving at 30kmh, they’re more likely to be aware of and engage with their surroundings.

You could argue that pedestrian crossings would solve this but motorists are bad are observing zebra crossings and they’re not suitable for all road users anyway. Controlled crossings solve that problem at huge cost and typically delay pedestrians a lot. And even then, you’re forcing presentations to walk out of their way just to cross a road *in a park*.

There isn't a problem as long as you change down to an appropriate lower gear & don't lug it along in a high one. When I worked at an Opel dealer we would see problems with valves sticking in the guides very briefly & causing the engine management light to come on & log a fault code, mainly happened on Astra's, it was traced to the owners invariably being elderly & on drives with them they were going at a low speed in too high a gear.

This is the same council that removed litter bins to solve the litter problem.

Sounds more like a lot of excuses for not doing anything. The argument against pedestrian crossing is the exactly the same as your argument for speed limits. Lets have speed limits we don't enforce. But its ok because we have anecdotal stores that they work and change driver behavior. Even though we have data saying they don't.

There is data that pedestrian crossing, especially signal crossing work well, in conjunction with other safety measures.

Of course of this is based on the premise that the existing roads and infrastructure is dangerous. But since no ones tracking any of that properly its just based on assumptions. Which also means you can't measure the changes in safety in stats. Because we aren't tracking any before and after data.

Is this for real, you are attempting to justify a 30kph speed limit because you park in the cricket grounds and when leaving nobody will stop randomly in the middle of a main road to let you cross as they are travelling at 50kph - do you not get that stopping randomly in the middle of a main road is what causes crashes?

Almost nobody obeys it, because its practically impossible to actually obey 30kph unnecessarily, even for driving miss daisy.

The real problem now that people on here seem to have ignored is that when someone does actually attempt to obey 30kph they are now getting overtaken as there has to be some practicality built in to such as speed limit which doesn't exist, therefore Karen has now inadvertently made what was a completely safe road into a risky stretch.

Its a park with deer and children. If you are unable to stop and emergency stop you, shouldn't be driving.

The problem with having a rational conversion about the park, its completely side tracked with these nonsense arguments. Unable to to drive at 30kph, unable to stop.

Unable to drive end of.

It's a park. It's not a motorway, not a national road, not anything else. It should not be a challenge to cross the road there. I should not have to stand at the side of the road hoping for a break in traffic to get to the other side. If you want to drive in that kind of environment, the country is littered with motorways, dual carriageways and roads. If you're in a park, you do not have priority. If the driver in front of you can't stop to let people cross without you ploughing into them, you need to consider your driving skills.

Its not random. Its a park, and around the zoo heavy with pedestrians.

If you don't get that, you shouldn't be driving.

To be fair, it's not your fault that you perceive a road through the park as being the same as all other roads. Nothing about the road layout or how it's policed would lead you to see it any differently. But thankfully that mistake is being rectified now and not just in Phoenix Park. The introduction of reduced speed limits, raised tables at crossings, reduced junction widths and other road diets in residential areas are subtle but effective ways to remind drivers that they are not given priority on those roads. It forces them to share the road in a way that hasn't happened in the recent past.

Sorry but it is his fault. You can't drive into the park and not realise its a park.

Even if you are on a motorway you are expected to leave enough space so you can stop safely. That someone is unaware of this, means its their habit not to do this. Shouldn't need to be told, its common sense.

I'd tend to agree with you but look at it from their POV. Standard, generous lane widths, very straight roads with great sight-lines, pedestrians corralled away from the road, poor cycling facilities, zero pedestrian crossings, roundabouts instead of junctions to ensure traffic flow isn't interrupted - it's classic car-centric design and it reinforces for many that drivers have priority there. The complete lack of parking enforcement with cars abandoned on every cycle lane and grass verge just adds to the message. This is a normal place where normal driving conventions apply. Pedestrians can sod off somewhere else.

I don't think you grasp the concept of "randomness", traffic lights aren't random, they work because they are raised so motorists can see them as they approach, thereby providing safe and consistent information to all approaching motorists.

What makes roads safe at 50, 80 or 100kph is that there are pre-agreed rules to driving such as lanes, traffic lights, roundabouts, pedestrian crossings etc

Somebody driving through chesterfield avenue deciding they should stop because there's a family on the path wanting to cross is not part of the pre-agreed rules, so we would say this is completely random, therefore dangerous - to even disagree with this makes me question the quality of drivers on our roads, driving instructing schools shouldn't assume common sense has been inherited during primary/secondary schooling.

50kph is not allowed in the park. So you fail at step one.