Local Roads - New Speed Limits

Ffs the persecution complex codswallop again. Give it a break will you. In any case if you truly believed it would behove you to try and help me by listening better to what I have to say🤣

If you close a median break on a dual carriageway, you're not changing anything about the drivers, you're just blocking off a dangerous junction - usually replaced with something safer like a roundabout, bridge, or grade separated junction.

The road - inherently - becomes safer.

Does any/many of the posters on here actually drive on these L roads ? I drive probably 90% of the time on these and the new speed limits have made little to no difference.

For example from my place into the local town is 5k of L road and the actual default speed is nearer 100 than 60. If you pottered along at 60 you would have a queue behind you all day every day. People have paid little to no attention to these and many unaware of it having changed. The likelihood of these ever being enforced is next to nothing as there is no chance of a speed trap occurring.

For most its a giant ball of irrelevance.

That's not my experience at all.Nobody was aware of this or paid any heed to it until the last month or so.No new signage around here that I have seen to date. That said, most people I know thought it just another irrelevant rule that will be forgotten about within a short while.The chances of this being enforced are minimal.

When was the last time you saw a Garda speed check on an L road ? The Go Safe vans are in known locations and its unlikely any local driver would be unaware of where they might be parked.

Like I said the road outside my place is a rural L road, now with a 60k limit. I would estimate not a single vehicle bar tractors are going less than that on it.

People are getting het up about something that will have very little effect in the real world.

Well I am hardly likely to tell you what road i live on now am I ?

Not really important either way if you believe me or not as i live on and drive on these roads every day and can see the reality.People drive at whatever speed they feel comfortable at regardless of any change to the posted limit. The chance of having a Garda speed check if so infetesmely small as to be almost non existant

Small sample I know and obvioualy Im not going to generalise this view to the population but I was talking to 3 different people on Sunday on this issue and 2, while they were all gung go about its a great idea to stop the speeders, didn't know which roads were affected and actually asked if the roads they lived on was an L road and if the speed signs had changed.

Which is the reason I asked is there an assumption everybody knows about this or have people actually said they are fully up to speed on the issue.

Right, tried an experiment this morning. Afraid i have no video evidence, internet quotes or references so you will gave to take my word for it.

Went down the road to collect sheep nuts.Drove along at my normal pace.Looked down at speedo changing from 3rd to 4th and it read an indicated 80k.Thats in a landcruiser with a trailer so not exactly boy racer material.

Tried going at 60k and it was seriously slow.If i saw a car or van driving around at that it would raise suspicion straightaway with any neighbour

Its an L road so no markings etc although its straight with a good surface.

It's possibly similar to some of the roads I was talking about previously, where the quality of the surface is good and it has long sections of good sightlines. Likely a name between L1000 and L4999? But some sections of the same road could have tight bends or camber or bad sightlines and require the lower limit. Or it might have lots of private entrances. So rather than fixing or signing just the bad section they leave the whole road at 60kmh. It's also possible that the road is a higher number than L5000 and there's no real reason it's been built so well, it's just an anomaly and needs traffic calming measures.

Here in Cork, they've taken the approach that they'll increase the limit on SOME L roads to 80, but it's not all Local Primaries (L1000-L4999). They've just done a scattergun kind of approach where some Local Primaries are worthy and others are not. If they instead upgraded their preferred handful of roads to Regional ( R ) then these would be standard widths and radii etc. The obvious problem with the Locals is that there's no standard widths, even for the Primaries. And obviously that's why we're stuck with the 60kmh.

A good compromise for everyone in the thread could be to dictate that some of the Local Primaries should be upgraded to regional. Or that Local Primaries can be above 60 if they meet a minimum spec (maybe the spec of regional?). But again, to restate, the blanket 60kmh is because the L's are a free-for-all in terms of road quality.

So they've taken the approach that none are suitable for 80 unless specifically checked and approved. And that's got to be the correct approach, rather than the opposite, which would be to assume that all are suitable for 80 unless there's been recorded incidents or near-misses. In safety terms, what they did is the logical and correct thing to do. It might irritate some people, but:

• It is the correct approach from a safety design perspective
• Individual roads can be and have been upgraded/reinstated as 80 with minimum fuss where appropriate

The old N2 between Clontibret and Castleblayney has been entirely reduced to 60Kmh, because its a "local road".

So when you come to Annyalla there is no difference in the speed limit in the village and in this section outside. This brings speed limits into disrepute, and reflects a poorly performing council, there should have been general guidance that former national roads should be 80Kmh in most cases.

In fairness, I'd suggest it's a big deal for the people who still regularly use that road.

70 km/h along a stretch of road like @Charles Babbage shows would hardly be breakneck or dangerous speed. But it would still result in the same fine and same penalty points as 140 km/h along the new N2 that you refer to.

But it's not about saving time by being able to drive at 80km/h rather than 60. Nor is it about people for whom the obvious and logical choice would be to use the new road instead while travelling through the area.

The point refers to people who live along that road, or any of the side roads off it, or who are regularly in the village for shopping or anything else. An 80-year-old who's never driven at more than 70km/h in their entire life could end up with a €160 fine and three penalty points for doing their customary 70 here while on their way home from Mass.

By the way, unusual for what was once a N-road to be downgraded all the way to L-road status. Normally it would become an R-road. Anybody know the background?