Local Roads - New Speed Limits

I think the reason it hasn’t got much attention is that it’s been very hard for the usual anger-merchants to generate much opposition to it. L-roads are what most of the houses in “Rural Ireland” open out onto, and people I know in the country are not at all happy the speed of traffic outside their homes.

This legislation also helps fix a lot of dangerous rat-runs on the edges of cities, where back-roads are still 80 by default, but a safer main road is 60.

If you want to see what’s being done in your area, the speedlimits.ie site has a list of all proposed and adopted changes. Be sure to include closed consultations and sort by date to see only the latest changes.

Adopted-Current Bye-laws | speedlimits.ie

Waited until the election was over before introducing them.

yes

I am with you guys as far as road safety goes . I thought lower speed limits would help . However when i look at the root cause and the downsides to this i can help but thing there is an agenda other than road safety .

Looking at it economically its going to cost consumers 217 million a year . So food , clothing and power generation costs are going to rise . THis is going to cost more and more as Co2 will rise meaning more emissions taxes . The only benefit i can see out of this is for government funding .

Instead of doing the obvious thing we punish people . Lets change the licensing to driver based experience rather than planned route test . Its amazing we teach people how to drive at slow speed in towns but we dont teach them how to drive on national highways and rural roads . We dont teach people what to do in bad weather . WHat we are currently doing is teaching people to pass a test not teaching them how to drive .

On the flip side we have a policing problem . People who drink drive will do it anyways speed vans wont catch them . Speed freaks dont care because they know where the local speed van parks . people still mess with smarts phones while driving . Unlicenced and uninsured drivers will still drive because speed vans dont catch them . As long as there is no chance of getting caught and stopped by anyone a fine in the post doesn't means anything to them . Get rid of speeds van and get the guardai back policing speed limits . Nothing is more intimidating then the sudden appearance of a squad car in a random place . That will get people to behave on the road .

I am all for road safety . That said there are too many downsides for any of this to make any sense . Its not only the drivers that are going to suffer . The costs will trickle down to you and me . Yet the answer to our problem is just policing the roads .

You likely should set the limit at the maximum safest for a stretch of road, so if anything this would indicate that it should be lower.

A responsible person will drive according to the conditions, an irresponsible one will not be influenced by a sign since there will be little enforcement. This is a displacement activity to pretend to do something, to avoid actually doing something useful.

There are lots of irresponsible drivers however. You have to legislate for the least responsible so the rest of us are safe. If everyone was perfect at driving there would be nil need for speed limits. However that isnt the case, thus the need for them to exist.

there is absolute uproar from any one who has heard of this green agenda change

all drivers are being tarred with the same brush

in reality as other posters have said speeders will continue to speed

there will be an increase in over taking, more collisions, road rage and increased speeding on any road without speed cameras to make up time making driving even more dangerous out there

all.to satisfy the green party lower emissions agenda - and the irish people didnt vote for them last time out

As i said earlier this has another agenda bar road safety . Its costing 8 million to to change the signs . The slower speed are set to increase the cost to consumers by 217million per year . Accidents have risen and so have pedestrian fatalities in places where this has been introduced . C02 emission will double from road users spending more time on the road at speeds where cars are just not efficient . More public transport will also be needed to keep time schedules . Hauliers are gonna raise pricing because they need to hire more personnel . According to studies where speed limits have been reduced its a huge snowball effect on the economy .

3.3 million cars on the road . 10000 serious accidents of which 175 resulted in fatalities .so less than 1% of drivers the cause the most impact when it comes to serious issues . The problem is the roads aren't policed . Everything can magically be stopped by the speed van or so they think .

Anyone claiming that this will increase road safety needs to read the studies the greens and the rest of government thrown out in favour of their own cherry picked results . Legislation for a minority always hurts the majority of people . Meanwhile our government hotshots can break the speed limits all they want as long as is for government business .

The speed limit will be in place on february 7th . No one has an excuse if the new signs are not up . That is the governments stance and all statements they have made point to that . SO yes you will get fined .

Maybe they should rise them all to 120 and unlimited on the motorways..

You wont get fine's because a speed limit sign isnt changed is wishful thinking . BY all means if you want to test it let me know the result . I for one will be taken matters up with local TD's and fight this tooth and nail . I dont fancy spending 6hrs a day driving just to work 8 hrs . It wont be worth my while working at that point .

Minister for Justice Jim O’Callaghan said:

“I am delighted to support the launch of the Slower Speeds, Safer Roads information and awareness campaign, and indeed the lower speed limits being introduced. Successful road safety strategies require us to consider a number of matters that together can save lives: technology, road design, driver behaviour and education, severity of penalties, and speed limits. And of course, ongoing enforcement is a very important aspect of the Road Safety Strategy, be that by Gardaí themselves, mobile, static, and average speed cameras or other technology being deployed”.

Basically you have been warned .

A serious number of drivers fail to abide by the limits set on our roads now.

Only a fool would believe that these drivers will accept lower limits on any of our roads.

Do any of the people who make these decisions drive our roads with any frequency.

Hopeless.

Thanks for the warning but rest assured, I won't be taking any chances.

I have a clean licence and I want to keep it that way.

If passing from one limit zone to another one isn't marked I'll default to the lower speed limit on all country roads whenever I have to drive on them.

If a lot of people do this it will be even worse news for you on your commute.

On the bright side while Mr. O'Callaghan seems to mean business he doesn't mention signage so maybe there is hope.

50km to 30km per hour a 40% reduction is a big drop in road speed more than the 25% drop touted

if everyone deliberately drives 10km lower than the new speed limits this will cause enough chaos to get the new limits rescinded like other countries

the real speeders wont give a toss about the new limits anyway as they mostly arent policed as is

can see taxi fares also jumping for vulnerable users on top of everything else as journey times will now be significantly stretched

on the plus side fuel will prob cost less as most people will donkey and cart transport more convenient by the time the greens are done

That's what I thought - until I saw the new signs on the R166 (Drogheda to Clogherhead) yesterday. It's changing from 80 to 60.