Speed limits and road safety

Sir, – The esteemed Dublin City Council’s latest proposal to reduce the speed limit between the canals to a snail’s pace is irritating to say the least.

All statistics show that Dublin carries a far lesser road deaths burden relative to its share of the population than other counties, and of course all reasonable efforts to continue the improvement in road safety must be encouraged. However, our city’s councillors should focus more on the current appalling state of the road infrastructure in the city centre, with the seemingly interminable Luas and other laying works a blight on the nation’s capital. The omni-shambles that is the Clontarf Road renovation is nothing short of disgraceful. Michelangelo himself would be at ease with the pace of much of the work in the city these days.

The council and councillors should focus on improving what they are currently executing very poorly, not looking for other areas to micro-manage. – Yours, etc,

BEN HEADON,

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Drumcondra, Dublin 3.

Sir, – Will a 30km/h speed limit throughout Dublin’s central area ever be enforced?

At the pedestrian crossing on Amiens Street serving Connolly Station, 20,000 people a day risk life and limb crossing the road to and from Dart and Luas as cars, buses, vans, taxis and motorbikes hurtle along Amiens Street at speeds of up to 100km/h despite the current 50km/h limit, and cyclists blithely whizz through red lights.

There is never any Garda presence there, notwithstanding that a pedestrian died on that part of Amiens Street in the past two years.

Were a speed camera ever positioned on that street, a blizzard of speeding tickets would ensue, but this writer has never seen a speed van or Garda speed check on that stretch of road. Reducing the limit to 30km/h would appear to be purely cosmetic; we don’t do enforcement in Ireland. – Yours, etc,

BRENDAN FRAWLEY,

Blackrock,

Co Dublin.