Local Roads - New Speed Limits

That would be very hard to implement properly because of schools' fractured opening hours. Would you have the lower limit on "election" days or days off etc? It seems more likely that schools will get "school zone" traffic calming and lower limits.

Er… we already have periodic “School-time” speed-limit signs here, and they’re widely used outside rural schools:

That “60” can be any of the regulation speed limits (30,50,60,80). This is the simplest type of Variable Speed Limit sign, in that it’s either lit or not lit depending on the time of day.

During school term weeks, the signs are active before classes start, and again for a period after they end. When the school is closed over summer, the sign is turned off permanently. If there happens to be an election that day, then the sign still lights, or maybe it doesn't if the school caretaker is able to turn it off and has done so. Honestly, though, anyone complaining about a short speed limit being in place despite there being no children around needs to consider why they think there’s a specific age a pedestrian can be when it’s okay to risk running them over…

The condition of a lot of L & R roads here in West Cork is appalling : some are worse than they were fourty years ago. Badly repaired, patches on the patches, potholes. Reducing these speed limits is the the same as the doors on the alcohol aisle in supermarkets, just for the Government to be seen to be doing something.

Enforcement of careless driving would be a positive start.

The signage manual (from where I got that illustration) says it this is a "periodic" Variable Speed Limit sign, where the limit applies only at certain times. I’m sure I’ve seen them with the speed part lit and not lit, but you’re right that most of these simply repeat the limit that's in effect already, with the addition of the yellow flashing lamps at school times.

Raised road surfaces are no deterrent these days, with the proliferation of SUV-styled cars with longer suspension travel. Pinches and chicanes are a much more effective way of passively slowing traffic, especially as they make travelling at speed more uncomfortable for drivers of bigger, heavier cars with higher centre of gravity… like SUVs.

I think you’re arguing with your own imagination here….

Where did see that all undivided roads are becoming 80 km/h? It's my understanding that National Primary roads (identified as N50 & below) are remaining as 100 km/h & National Secondary roads (identified as N51 & above) only are being reduced from 100 to 80 km/h.

M50 video displays do actively encourage driving at speed.

The journey times to various motorway exits, are based on driving at the maximum speed. I drive at 80kph in the I side lane, and that's what I feel comfortable with.

Surely the N17 will be 100 km/h or has the local authority decided it should be 80 km/h.

I'd love to know how you came to that conclusion !

He's not correct. Took a bit of digging but this is from the Citizens Information website.

In 2025, many speed limits in Ireland will be reduced.

The first change comes in on 7 February 2025 and affects rural local roads:

• The default speed limit on rural local roads will reduce from 80km/h to 60km/h.
• The rural speed limit sign will indicate a limit of 60km/h from 7 February 2025. This sign is a white circle with five diagonal black lines with another plate that states “Go Mall / Slow”.

Later in 2025, more reductions to speed limits will come in. These include:

• A drop to the speed limit in ‘urban cores’ to 30km/h. Urban cores include built up areas, housing estates and town centres.
• The speed limit on national secondary roads will reduce from 100km/h to 80km/h.

So national primary routes will remain at 100km/h as before but secondary routes will be reduced to 80km/h

🤣 No, and no one will ever be caught for it.

Are posters deliberately missing that all that happens is the default speed limit is reduced.

Any road can have a different special speed limit than the default. It just needs to be voted upon by the councillors.

It would have been a lot better to leave the default alone and actually identify the more dangerous roads requiring lower speed limits. You know like put a bit of effort in and do it right instead of the lazy virtue signalling gibberish that actalually happenned

No. The times shown on those boards are based on the average flow of traffic at that time.

Here's how it works: at a given point along the motorway, there are ANPR cameras that read a random selection of numberplates, and records the plate and the time it was seen. Further along, another set of ANPR cameras watches out for the same plates, notes when the cars reach that position, and by subtracting one time from another, the computer knows how fast each of the hundred or so cars has travelled. Throw all the times into a list, average them, and you've got a really accurate measurement of traffic speed. (The plate numbers themselves are not actually stored, and the information is deleted immediately after the time calculation is done, by the way). That data is used to update the "time to Junction" signs and also to decide on what variable speed limit to apply.

(Yes, this system can be used to enforce average speed penalties, but that works require new law.)