Local Roads - New Speed Limits

Yes, definitely not relevant to this thread.

This is not true. Can you provide any evidence to support it?

Maybe not so much that she's "wrong" per se, but she falls into the common trap of not putting things into full context.

Take this one, for example:

Myth 5: We have some of the safest roads in Europe

We did – past tense. Between 2019 and 2023, Ireland recorded a 31pc increase in road deaths – the worst trend in the EU. Meanwhile, other countries such as Poland and Cyprus reduced road deaths by 35pc and 30pc, respectively.

This ignores how we still actually fared far better than Poland in even 2023, which was by far our worst year in that timespan:

• Ireland: one road death per 28,600 head of population that year.
• Poland: one road death per 19,380 head of population that year.

So, even with our worsening situation and their improvement, it was still the case that Irish roads were actually far safer than Polish ones.

Also no mention of while Cyprus saw a 30% reduction in 2023 compared to 2019, it went on to see a 30% increase in 2024 compared to its record low of 2023.

Elsewhere, in Myth 1, she writes about how road deaths fell from 627 in 1978 to 174 last year, and she credits it to "Seatbelts. Safer cars. Better road design. Stricter drink-driving laws."

Speed limits actually increased during that time. In 1992, the default speed limit was raised from 55mph to 60mph. But rather than leading to carnage, the opposite happened:

• Average road deaths per year in the five years before the change: 461
• Average road deaths per year in the five years following the change: 428

There's evidence there that even an increase in speed limits can bring a drop in deaths if other things are addressed instead, and therefore some weight to the argument of those who say the imminent changes are unnecessary and/or heavy-handed.

I could give other examples too, but this post is already long enough.

For the record, am not taking either side of argument re. speed limit reductions myself. Am just addressing the claims in that article. To my mind, where she's "wrong" is in not putting things into proper context.

I'm absolutely dreading this…. despite much commentary that this is "only L roads", there are a LOT of new poles gone up on R roads especially in Offaly and Tipp. I suspect these (long) R roads will be knocked down to 60kmh also. I will then be driving them at 60kmh which is fine, whatever. But the endless stream of drivers who were up my boot when I was going at the 80kmh speed limit bulling to overtake, will now be doing even more stupid things now that I'm pottering at 60.

This is going to make rural driving very stressful, despite being well meaning.

What are you dreading?

Your suspicion that Regional roads are being affected are baseless and wrong. So what's the issue?

Its rural local roads that have the new default.

It was said earlier in the thread that new signs are going up after L road junctions to state the 80kmh limit.

Well should adjust their speed. The number of threads on this forum over the years about coming around a bend and having to slam on for a tractor/ horse/ loose animal/ pedestrian/ cyclists suggests this isn't abided to or reinforced enough. "Came out of nowhere, Joe…"

Is your last sentence about your comments? It would then be your most accurate contribution made to the thread.

When you're devoid of reason or sensibility, throw some widely inappropriate and untrue slurs around.

With all due respect, I've already said I won't arguing one way or the other here. I was merely addressing some of the faults with the article that was being discussed - something which you yourself had asked twice about.

My point being that it doesn't matter what the posted speed limit, you will always have circumstances when it will be too high for specific contexts even on a single stretch of road. The speed limit is only an arbitrary figure of what is reasonable on the rather arbitrary categorisation of road not the lowest speed limit for the worst bend on the road or for the least experienced driver or the biggest vehicle that will use the road.

For example if 60 kph is reasonable for a car on a straight stretch of L road, it will be necessary for car driver to slow down when confronted with a severe bend on the same road. Ditto the 60kph is likely too high for an artic so we will expect artic drivers to drive below the posted limit. That does not mean that the posted speed limit is dangerous for that road and you will just have to trust drivers to exercise judgement on what is reasonable for a given context. As I said previously, reading some comments you'd nearly believe that most drivers are some kind of kamikaze beings that will cause mayhem unless big brother places the jack boot on their throat. All IMHO or course

Not sure what statistics are needed. Since 2000, over 6,000 people have died on our roads. That's the equivalent of the entire population of Blessington or Kinsale.

If you have 10 family members of each deceased- that is the population of Waterford City and suburbs directly affected by a road death in Ireland since 2000.

It's all about reducing risks on the road network and therefore reducing fatalities and serious injuries.

The only relevant statistic is what I've provided. Anything else is a distraction.

I've already posted that Oslo got to 1 death in a year.