Dublin City Council will ask the National Roads Authority (NRA) to delist O'Connell Street as a national primary road so it can reduce its speed limit from 50kph to 30kph.
The council wants to cut speed limits to 30kph on O'Connell Street and much of the city centre from Parnell Street to St Stephen's Green, excluding the Liffey quays, as part of a road safety pilot scheme.
Marino and parts of Ringsend and Irishtown will also be included in the pilot, which the council says will reduce the number of pedestrians killed on the roads.
The pilot scheme limits are part of the council's new speed limit bylaws which were put to public consultation in November.
The council has the power to determine speed limits on most roads within its boundary.
However, The NRA has jurisdiction over the speed on all national primary roads and the council must seek NRA approval for changes to them.
The council is currently in discussions with the NRA about the bylaws which will also determine the speed limits for the Dublin Port Tunnel and the city section of the M1 motorway.
However, it now intends to ask the NRA to delist O'Connell Street as a national primary road so that the council will in the future have total autonomy over the city's main street.
The proposal is likely to find favour with the NRA. Assistant city manger Tim O'Sullivan said:
"The NRA long term has no strategic interest in relation to any roads within the M50 boundary."
Mr O'Sullivan said that he hoped the discussions with the NRA would be completed soon as it was necessary to enact the bylaws before the opening of the port tunnel.
There was little response to the public consultation process, which was "disappointing" he said, but there were also few negative comments.
The Garda had raised concerns that it did not want to be seen to be trying to enforce unreasonable speed limits.
Mr O'Sullivan said the low limits would be largely self-enforcing because of city traffic.
Under the bylaws the limits in built-up areas will be 50kph, except in the specially-designated 30kph zone.
On the national roads, such as Howth Road, Naas Road and Finglas Road, it will be 60kph for most of their length.
An 80kph limit will apply in the port tunnel and on the M1 southbound between the city boundary and the port tunnel.
The M1 motorway, northbound from the N1 to the city boundary, and the Chapelizod Road from the county boundary to its junction with Con Colbert Road, will also have a limit of 80kph.
