30k speed limits for all urban areas on the way

I'm struggling to understand the point of this somewhat ... I had to recheck the definition of culpability just to make sure there were no mistakes on my part. It was as I expected.

I'm not sure what you are claiming exactly - that all motorists involved in motorist-pedestrian collisions are culpable because they weren't going slower? That the pedestrians are never culpable because their actions or negligence can be excused as an "error?"

Because you seem to be suggesting that if a motorist is driving at a reasonable speed, observing traffic controls, using a reasonable level of observation, it's somehow their fault if some muppet jumps out of a bush or something and runs out into the road without looking, as if the latter were not the root cause of a resulting accident. Not that this even happens that often in a country where fatalities are so rare that they occur only around 3 times per billion vehicle-kilometres and most of those incidents don't involve pedestrians.

I'm not sure what you're getting at with 50kph because the topic of this thread is the desire to make motorists waste time and fuel with 30kph speed limits.

As to your bizarre reference to the red flag laws of ... what was it, the 19th century? Nowadays, cars have headlights and newer cars have Daytime Running Lights, or DRLs, and those seem to handle the problem of vehicle visibility. If you think that having a man waving a red flag in front of cars would increase vehicle visibility, you can feel free to advocate for it. It should also be noted that something being legal doesn't necessarily mean it's a good idea. Yes, you are free to wander around unlit rural roads late at night, in only dark clothes, not carrying a flashlight or anything. AFAIK that is legal. But if you have an ounce of common sense and any awareness of your surroundings, you would either do this with extreme caution or not at all. Of course, doing the same in an urban environment where there are things like streetlights should usually be OK.

I notice you're conveniently ignoring the 724 serious injuries in urban areas? If we can reduce that we should. Having a 30kph speed limit does that. We don't want kids with spinal injuries being the "ah sure its grand" of Irish Road safety policy

Wow, there's a lot of unfounded speculation there 😂

As to me being unable to "see past the creature comforts of his own car" wrong. I just don't like collective punishment. And that's what's being proposed - holding all 2.8 million Irish drivers responsible for incidents they weren't involved in, let alone the cause of. I'm also not a fan of mendacity, and the people pushing to wallpaper the country with 30kph limits are being ... economical with the truth ... in their suggestion that lowering speed limits has only positives and either no negatives or not wanting to talk about them. In reality, lowering speed limits inappropriately would have significant downsides both in terms of peoples time wasted and extra fuel used for no reason. Likewise the allusion I've seen that lowering speed limits wouldn't have much effect on anything because journeys in urban areas are only at peak times and on streets where there's a red traffic light every 200 metres.

As to my supposed "insufferable personality" ... frankly I suspect this is a case of projection.

Saw some of them on the entry to small towns in Spain over 20 years ago.

One comment under that article I had to laugh at was:

Maybe in Canada cyclists actually obey traffic lights LOL here they treat them as theoretical. And I've always wondered why cyclists care so much about speed limits on the road considering that they can and do cycle on the footpaths with absolute impunity.

You know that what @SeanW posted is bull$h!t. The rest of us know that what @SeanW posted is bull$h!t. @SeanW knows that what @SeanW posted is bull$h!t.

Don't feed the trolls is the best approach, I think.

I'm a regular pedestrian in Ireland's towns and cities, and I don't usually care what speed the drivers are doing because I'm on the footpath and they are on the road. As long as they observe traffic controls (i.e. yield to me at zebra crossings, stop when required at light-controlled pedestrian crossings, don't block junctions etc) I have no issue. And the data affirm this view.

As to my observance of laws, I observe traffic controls, don't drive on the footpath and generally choose a speed that is appropriate for the conditions and allows me to stop in the distance I can see to be clear. As such, I'm one of the 99.5+% of Ireland's 2.8 million drivers that have never been and likely never will be involved a fatal incident, let alone the cause of one (which is a different matter).

And since footpath riding has been de-facto legalised, cyclists shouldn't care that much about speed either. Yes, it's technically illegal, but enforcement and penalties are basically zero, so the laws are entirely theoretical. I also suggest that you look up Irish road fatality statistics, per 100,000 vehicles, per billion vehicle-kilometres drive. Also get the statistics for the number of drivers license holders in the State. Get the absolute statistics and them compare them relative to the rest of the world. You'll find that broad-brush claims about "motorists" in Ireland killing "many" are overstated. And that's being generous.

The only thing that is bull droppings are the claims that there is any case whatsoever for broad scale speed limit reductions in Ireland.

Installing 30 limits and implementing them are two very different issues.

The 20 mph (32.2 km/h) limit in certain hot spots of the UK, like central London and the urban streets of Wales is not observed by 87% of drivers.

Hard cases make bad law and laws in turn must have public backing or there is no point in introducing them.

Having an urban 30 km/h limit and an 80 km/h rural limit on tiny blind little boreens all serve to undermine faith in the entire model of appropriate limits for appropriate settings.

30 km/h limits belong on residential estates, cul-de-sacs, school zones and through traffic calmed commercial areas like Blackrock or Dundrum. Any other application of a 30 limit would have to be on a specific case made like an industrial estate or port road network, where they may be conflicting movements of heavy vehicles etc.

Tell me again about how drivers are on the road, not on the footpath Seanie?