30k speed limits for all urban areas on the way

Most motorised bikes can hit 50 km/h, it is the limiters that stop them from doing so. Relatively easy to remove the limiters.

https://www.cyclingnews.com/features/can-i-chip-my-e-bike-and-is-it-legal/

Let me get this clear, you want a 30 km/hr speed limit for cars on roads, but no speed limit for bicycles and if they can exceed 30 km/hr that's all ok?

Well yes. Do you need someone to spell out the difference in relative dangers, given the basic physics involved?

And this would be necessary because of thecurrent high accident rate outside schools, I'd presume. So what are the statistics on this?

If you cause an accident travelling at 50km/h+ outside a school with a 30km/h limit causing injury you will be in court for dangerous driving with absolutely zero defense looking at a hefty ban and a sentence that will show on all future vetting. Maybe even a news article on the conviction that will appear anytime you are googled. Nothing academic about it.

It's inevitable that adherence and respect for 30km/h zones will increase as time goes by either through a shift in what society views as acceptable or the FCPN system gradually shifting towards harsher punishments for when this lax enforcement catches you. It's a matter of when not if. All you have to do is change the risk reward balance enough and people's behavior will shift. And as more an more drivers respect the 30 km/h rule, it stands out more and more when you drive 50km/h and becomes more and more unacceptable in the eyes of everyone else.

So the lax enforcement regime we have for nearly all road traffic offences isn't a great point against further changes to road rules.

Like we could go down the road of immediately introducing more speed checks and larger penalties coupled with any limit reduction to ensure compliance from the offset. But I kind of feel that's not something people against lowering speed limits are actually advocating for here?

These numbers should really be reported on a per capita basis or as a percentage of the number of road users. The statistics are purposely chosen to grab headlines. It's difficult to know if the true incidence of road deaths relative to road use has actually increased. Our population is growing and I'm guessing the number of cars on the road has too. So this statistic may or may not mean that driving in Ireland became more dangerous in 2022. It's drivel by the RSA, they need to be outputting better statistics.

Do you know what an academic exercise is? Can you explain in the event of enforcement by either a speed check or the aftermath of a collusion, the 30km/h speed limit would remain irrelevant to real life and of no real consequence on how things proceed if you were in excess of that by 50+%.

Jesus wept. The impression I've got from your previous posting that I've seen is that you seem to be well informed about road safety issues. I'm not going to go digging for examples but I would have thought you'd be aware that it is well demonstrated that most drivers (not all) respond to both speed limits and road conditions. Given identical road conditions, putting an 80 sign up will result in faster average speeds than if a 50 sign were in place. Most drivers do not ignore speed limit signs. They may not comply with them (90%+ break speed limits regularly) but they do adjust their speed based on the posted speed limits.

If drivers react to signs by reducing their speed then they are clearly not ignoring the signs. Again, not complying with them is not the same thing.

People said exactly the same about the drink driving laws, smoking ban and charges for shopping bags. People also said that all the newly constructed cycle lanes would be ripped up once Covid was largely over. It turns out that Irish people are not as resistant to positive social change as you think. Don’t mistake your opinion for everyone’s opinion.

It’s not so very long ago some people were insisting that it was absolutely fine to go to the pub, have a rake of pints and drive home. There’s no one out walking at night, I know the roads, I drive extra carefully when I’ve had a few, it’s harmless, everyone is doing it, blah blah blah. Everyone was sure that the government wouldn’t do it, the guards wouldn’t enforce it and it would be completely ignored. Thankfully now that daft practice is largely gone. It was the same wrong arguments then as it is now and we’ll look back in a few years and wonder why we ever allowed it.