not journalism, but a reasonably level headed response to that report of cyclists in the UK who were clocked at nearly 40mph; and the police pulling them over and offering advice that that was a little too fast:
Sheep have dogs now? Guard dogs obviously. Clever creatures.
...
There was obviously an illiterate sign writer doing well for himself in that general area, Hollystown Golf Course still has the sign up with "Smile your on camera" whilst there's a few, albeit hand written, on the road from there to Ratoath along the lines of 'you're dogs are killing sheep..", something along those lines anyway.
edit: I do appreciate the irony in my grammar mistakes in my initial post, I won't even bother blaming it on autocorrect.
yes, there are signs up, and there have been white chevrons painted on the speed bumps - but spray painted on, so probably just temporary till they can get the 'proper' street marking paint done.
there were already three or four signs on approach to the school anyway, so i guess a new one would be less likely to pop out than one standing completely alone.
this is one of my all time favourite road safety signs, probably not much more than 1km away. not only did they use the wrong form of 'your', they managed to misspell it at the same time.
https://www.google.com/maps/@53.4490443,-6.3438963,3a,75y,146.8h,98.59t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sBpyb_Dx-Gg48Uc81k2Bhyg!2e0!7i16384!8i8192?entry=ttu
A skid mark of 30m long, that's a decent speed. 70kmph minimum considering they still hadn't stopped and that is on older cars. I imagine a lot faster on a newer car to manage that. Outside a school. I know it is the evening and I am not local but easily could have kids hanging about playing ball. What's the point. Also the "forgetting they are there" is even worse as you shouldn't need to remember, you should see them and let your foot off the gas accordingly.
Are there signs up for the speed bumps, I haven't been there for awhile
i had a minor disagreement with her on twitter a few years ago; she had written an article which blamed MAMILs for being actively bad for the image of cycling (however, this was not the main focus of the article IIRC). trotted out a couple of the usual tropes.
i drove past kilcoskan school again yesterday, twice and two hours apart. between the two trips, someone laid down a set of skid marks i guess somewhere between 30 and 40m long approaching one of the new speed ramps, and was clearly still skidding as they hit it. that was between about 5:30pm and 7:30pm yesterday; it was a bright evening, with the sun behind the driver. as you know, the road approaching from either direction is straight for 700m.
my guess it was someone clearly just on autopilot, driving home a little tired, on a road they've been on hundreds of times so their guard is down, having probably forgotten about the new speed bumps.
one thing i was thinking though was that a lot of the skid marks there (probably half a dozen or more since the weekend) aren't 'dotted' like i thought they would be when ABS kicks in. maybe that's just a misunderstanding on my part.
In 2016 the Rural Speed Limit sign was introduced to exactly avoid having to put 80km/h signs on boreens - “This sign seeks to remove that visual ”target””
I don’t think that the uptake by local authorities has been that high on many roads.
In the end it doesn’t really matter without enforcement. I’ve seen speed checks on motorways, national roads, some suburban roads but very rarely off the beaten track on local roads. The speed checks are usually on high trafficked roads where the number of offences detected per hour is likely to be the highest. That’s efficient but perhaps doesn’t really move the dial considering that 70% of road traffic fatalities are on rural roads.
What speed would be the max you could go and still be able to stop in the space you cannot see in front of you (including reaction time)? That's the limit inside the limit. There are other limits, such as what would allow you to deal with a dip, a blowout, groove in the road and so on but this to me is the important one (although the others are related). Coming around a bend with no sight line, you are not meant to be going at a speed you can swerve in time if there is a pedestrian. You are meant to be going at a speed that you can stop dead without even coming close to hitting them, no swerve, no deviation, just stop. That's it. I can assure you, on a country road, that speed is not 80, or even 60. You might get round the corner but you wouldn't be able to stop in time if there was a pedestrian collapsed on the road.
I remember in the pre-metric days you'd just have a white sign with a black slash through it to indicate "end of specific limit, general speed limit applies". Meant the same thing at the end of the day, just less of the "here's a speed for you to target" subliminal messaging. Kind of like "learner permit" vs "provisional license"
Given that it is very difficult to reasonably assess all rural roads in the country, would a solution be to remove speed limits altogether from those roads and make an assumption of dangerous driving, until proven otherwise, on the driver?
Jesus, as an athiest it is an odd phrase to use but 'there but for the grace of god' springs to mind reading his post, it could easily be any of us, sadly it has been one or two posters on this forum.
I am not sure that is correct, you don't have to be above the limit to be driving dangerously. The get out is that many in the Gardai and Judiciary do not seem to grasp this.
The guy that was hit in Cork posted a follow up on reddit. He doesn't paint a pretty picture of the dealing with the Gardai
No clue, read it online
Was that in the print edition also or just online?
I’m pleasantly surprised but also amazed they published it.
The sense of entitlement to speed and to be able to drive and park etc wherever we want should be called out. 150 road deaths a year is now considered normal/baseline and therefore essentially acceptable and that’s absolutely mental when you stop to think about it. To want to do anything to make us all safer is nearly considered ‘woke’ or some other bullshit.
And to think feck all people had a car as recently as 60 years ago. Maybe it’s possible to turn the tide.
In the name of jaysus, where's me BMX, I'd definitely have cleared the ramp this as a kid
Not sure if posted already
Speed limits set to be reduced under Govt plans
random aside - offaly saw not just the world's first fatal road accident, it saw the world's first aviation disaster. a hot air balloon crashed in tullamore in 1785 and the resulting fire burned down probably 100 homes. the town's coat of arms is actually based on the incident.
Excellent piece!
You can laugh at this and it is laughable, but it does mean that drivers cant be prosecuted for dangerous driving, even when they are driving dangerously. Its a mighty get out - you would have to wonder what the councillors are thinking.
The other thing is that Google Maps sends traffic down this way when it wouldnt have previously been there.
One thing I was struck by on National Slow Down day is that all the offence captured by the Garda were on 'fast roads' - 150k on a 120k road and so on.
I never see speed traps around Dublin City Centre, on the artery roads.
Not a bad piece from the Indo... captures a lot of the sentiments expressed here in recent days...
Geraldine Herbert: Road deaths are preventable if we tackle our entitled car culture (msn.com)
Some myopia in the Indo's letters section
"The number of people I see, particularly young people, crossing our roads with their eyes glued to their mobile phones is alarming.
I recently noticed a lady pushing a buggy with one hand while crossing a busy road junction on the N11. Cars were stopping to let her cross but, to my astonishment, her other hand – and her eyes – were fixed on her phone. All I could think was that in a split second all could change."
This one shocks me everytime I see it!
https://www.google.com/maps/@54.1432507,-8.1034293,3a,75y,78.15h,63.82t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s65DNQh3Xl56v2eqb-5lwrA!2e0!7i13312!8i6656?entry=ttu
The man in 5th is the fastest up it without assistance.
He everested this
The name of townsland is wrong though, that's Silaheen 😁
Fair play to the two who done it at 26kmph, but even more so the rider who done it at 23.5kmph and only had a bpm of 119. My HR is higher on an easy commute
https://maps.app.goo.gl/4P8HGFL4vpTMu5vR9
In the late 1980's I watched (sitting in top of ditch) the Circuit of Ireland go up that road.
Not sure what speed Cosworths etc would have powered up there at but it felt, sounded and looked fast. @Mefistofelino might give it a good guess.
https://www.strava.com/segments/7081925?utm_source=com.strava&utm_medium=referral — Gareensterk
They would have descended down that on the other side
I can't even do 80 going downhill on a bike...
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