It is called the Belfield flyover syndrome. The 40 m.p.h. speed limit on this now infamous stretch of dual carriageway between RTÉ and Mount Merrion is always raised whenever the question of unfair speed limits is raised.
With many drivers finding it almost impossible to keep within the limit, they have been easily caught by Garda speed checks often placed close to the UCD campus flyover.
Now the Department of Transport has produced a priority list of speed limits in 45 areas it wants reviewed, including the Stillorgan Road. The Department is asking the local authorities to look at these limits and to consider raising them unless there is a major safety reason.
The speed limits on the list tend to be on the major national routes which now carry 60 per cent of traffic. Many of the problem limits are on the approach roads to and from major cities. The list includes stretches of road that have become notorious for speed traps, including the 40 m.p.h. zone on the Lucan bypass, the 30 m.p.h. zone on St John's Road approaching Heuston Station, Dublin, and the 30 m.p.h. zone on the Galway bypass near the Tuam Road roundabout.
In recent letters to local authority managers, the Minister for Transport, Mr Brennan, has asked them to carry out a general review of speed limits in their areas before the introduction of metric signs.
Welcoming the initiative, the AA said unrealistic low speed limits caused great annoyance to drivers, who were punished even though their driving was not posing a danger to other road users.
"We have been the loudest and most persistent voice on this," said Mr Conor Faughnan of the AA. "Essentially from the arrival of penalty points, people have begun to get penalty points in areas where their driving was exemplary but the speed limit was unrealistically low," he added.