Local authorities have missed an opportunity to change inappropriately low speed limits during the metrication of speed limits, according to motoring representatives.
From January 20th, new kilometres-per-hour limits will be indicated by thousands of new signs. Limits will range from 30km/h (18mph) in some high risk locations to 120km/h (nearly 75mph) on motorways.
But Conor Faughnan of AA Ireland told Motors he believes the changeover provided an opportunity for local authorities to get rid of some controversially low limits which "drag speed limits in general into disrepute".
The Society of the Irish Motor Industry (SIMI) chief executive, Cyril McHugh, agrees. Local authorities and the National Roads Authority "have a job to do in ensuring there are no unrealistically low limits on roads capable of taking a better speed," he says.
Faughnan, a member of the Metrication Changeover Board (MCB), says: "It's to be regretted that some inappropriate limits were not addressed during this exercise. It's dis-appointing that locations where so many drivers have incorrectly earned penalty points have not been addressed. A badly set low speed limit is as bad for road safety as a badly set higher limit."
Dublin's Stillorgan Dual carriageway at the Belfield fly-over, Galway's Quincentennial Bridge and Cork's Blackpool bypass have been the subject of repeated complaint from motorists to the AA. A list of such locations was sent to local authorities last March. "Some local authorities responded well but others did not," says Faughnan.
He believes, however, that new 30km/h (18mph) limit at high-risk locations is appropriate in some cases but will be "very, very rare".
"For example, it could be used on Grafton Street during the delivery window or in housing estates," he said. "It certainly won't become widespread. One of the bits of misinformation is that the limit will be outside every school."
He also welcomed the new 80km/h (50mph) limit on non-national secondary routes as "unreservedly a good thing".
McHugh said metrication would "refocus people's minds on the speed limits. We certainly saw when penalty points came in and were being properly enforced, people did slow down and deaths on the roads decreased."
Local authorities will be able, for the first time, to apply different limits on different lanes, allowing slower speeds on lanes leading to sliproads on motorways.
The authorities will also be able to apply different limits on motorists travelling in opposite directions so that motorists leaving a village will not have to travel as slow as vehicles approaching it.
A €2 million information campaign, including distribution of 1.8 million leaflets and TV advertising, was delayed until the end of December to avoid clashing with Christmas advertising.
Brian Farrell of the National Safety Council, also an MCB member, says the "heavyweight campaign of intense messaging" would be sufficient to reassure motorists. "If we had gone too early it would have caused more confusion."
