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Plans to cut speed limits ‘will significantly improve road safety' – minister

irishnews.com

81–90 of 92 posts

Re: Plans to cut speed limits ‘will significantly improve road safety' – minister

#81
post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not the government's job to pay people more (beyond the public sector obviously), and while they can do certain things to improve commutes, reduce working hours, or increase holidays… I don't have any reason to believe those are the reasons for the rush. (My belief may be biased by a certain person I used to know: he was driving one of two vehicles with me and my friends to an event that wouldn't start until bot…

Sure, there's a handful of crazies out on the road, but the majority of speeders are due to economic incentives. It's called 'rush hour' for a reason.

The majority speed because it feels fun to stomp on the accelerator. If you compare door to door travel times, they’re almost always paying a good bit more - and maximizing their risk to everyone else - for a tiny fraction of the total travel time, especially at rush hour.

Re: Plans to cut speed limits ‘will significantly improve road safety' – minister

#82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That was 55.

Yeah, but the hard speed limits existence in the first place was from this. There used to be roads with limits, and the limits also took a long time to go up, they are still low, and most backroads are still like 55 or lower

Yeah, but the hard speed limits existence in the first place was from this.

I don't even have a rebuttal for a statement so demonstrably untrue. Speed limits were in place for decades before the 70s gas shortages.

And the limit on backroads is reasonable considering that oncoming traffic is passing by you mere feet/meters away.

Re: Plans to cut speed limits ‘will significantly improve road safety' – minister

#83
post #4

Anyone that thinks this is going to change anything in Ireland has never driven around Ireland. To say speed limits as taken as an amusing suggestion here is the biggest understatement I’m going to make all day.

In the UK we're starting to install average speed cameras in lots of places. Almost every major road in my area has an average speed camera on some stretch. And I, for one, I think it's great. It's not a popular position but I'm a speed limit enforcement maximalist. I think if you're going 31 in a 30, after accounting for measurement errors, there should be enforcement action. Driving is one of the most dangerous thi…

There are good reasons why someone might temporarily be breaking the speed limit, that are even accepted legal defences in some countries (if you have enough proof).

Biggest one is just merging / changing lanes. Often you have to go 10 or 20 over the limit to merge without impeding a lane of traffic. I sometimes see people stopping(!) at the end of a merging lane when there was a perfectly good gap they could have gotten by just speeding up. Trying to merge from a dead stop onto an 80kph+ road is more dangerous than going 90 fore sure.

Another one is on 2-lane roads. You catch up to a truck/lorry and see a gap. The gap is big enough to get the overtake done, but you instinctively go faster to make the whole thing less of a close call. Is society really helped if every truck has a 20-car queue behind it because people are afraid they'll get fined if they help traffic flow?

On a more general note, I agree that there needs to better enforcement. However, better enforcement to me includes removing all the sneaky money-making schemes you see in the wild. They put a speed limit sign on the wrong side of the road, behind bushes or behind street-side parking (often making the limit non-enforceable legally), put up a speed camera and cash in on people that won't defend themselves.

That shit has to stop, put those ressources on deadly country roads, in front of schools and other accident hotspots instead. While we're at it, do more preventative traffic stops. It's not right that blind grandma or psychotic grandson have to seriously hurt someone before anything happens.

Little anecdote here: I passed my driving exam despite going 30kph over the limit while overtaking a tractor. I just told the examiner that I was trained to leave the opposite lane asap, slowed down as soon as I noticed how fast I was going and there was no issue.

Re: Plans to cut speed limits ‘will significantly improve road safety' – minister

#84
post #3

Probably not unless the plans start with a road redesign so people drive slower.

Yeah, make Irish roads even thinner and more twisty!

The walls are too smooth and need some spikes added

Re: Plans to cut speed limits ‘will significantly improve road safety' – minister

#85
post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Depends on the car. With a V6, it’s pretty negligible. My SUV gets better mileage at high speed cruising due to the gearing. As long as you’re not constantly accelerating/decelerating and going with the flow.

> My SUV gets better mileage at high speed cruising due to the gearing. what model would that be? > As long as you’re not constantly accelerating/decelerating and going with the flow. this can save even more fuel, if your SUV still uses fossil fuels and you accelerate at the optimal engine load and then glide. It's called pulse and glide.

Honda Pilot. I find myself taking the same 3 hour drive every couple of weeks this year. With the cruise set at 65 or 85, you’re in 10th gear (iirc) and there’s no significant difference. Variance is more driven by traffic in the city.

Once you start working the pedal, mileage drops ~20%.

Re: Plans to cut speed limits ‘will significantly improve road safety' – minister

#86
post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> potential future introduction of road pricing Interesting, because in the states, similar infrastructure is being deployed specifically for road pricing. I assume then we can start working on the more sensible uses you describe, but don’t have high hopes that it will be easy or quick.

That seems very sensible: in the United States driving is massively subsidized but even with so much general fund revenue we have more road infrastructure than we can maintain because cars don’t scale well. Shifting the cost back to the direct users will both provide desperately needed maintenance funds and reduce congestion by deterring low-value trips.

In theory, yes, it's sensible to fund the infrastructure. However, I think the priority should go towards safety issues first. Hell, they would issue so many tickets, I bet at first it would far outweigh the revenue from express lane tolls. Not everyone is using express lanes, but basically everyone is speeding, and speeding tickets cost more than the express lanes do. Once you hit long tail status, then move to express lane tolling.

Re: Plans to cut speed limits ‘will significantly improve road safety' – minister

#87
post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

130km/h is just ludicrous. The consumption compared to 100km/h is about 50% extra and the time saved is wiped out with just one bathroom break.

Depends on the car. With a V6, it’s pretty negligible. My SUV gets better mileage at high speed cruising due to the gearing. As long as you’re not constantly accelerating/decelerating and going with the flow.

> SUV

That's a big safety and pollution problem in itself.

Re: Plans to cut speed limits ‘will significantly improve road safety' – minister

#88
post #2

Some local backroads are not limited enough and some motorways are limited too much. This won't do any good if this fact is not taken into consideration.

I’m not aware of motorway speeds other than 120km/h except on the M50 and near tool booths. That seems appropriate and broadly in line with the rest or Europe. (edit: and It's not like everyone is cruising along at or above the limit. I pass a lot of cars in free flowing traffic when driving with cruise control on at 120) The 80kph roads that are double track with grass down the center are a ... fixture of the Irish…

I was directly pointing to m50 on that count. It's not even an even limit on the whole m50. Some parts are 100km/h some parts are 120km/h. And I can agree that part is not much of a problem.

But most of the rural 80km/h road strands are too dangerous.

Re: Plans to cut speed limits ‘will significantly improve road safety' – minister

#89
post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The road from Head of Dunloe down into the Black Valley is 80km/h. You'd be lucky to push 40 on the straight sections!

Hah. That's the one place I've ever had a car pull over to let my bike by.

ditto :-) Those tight switchbacks are fun too...

I'm based nearby so Dunloe/Black Valley/Molls is a regular cycle route for me

Re: Plans to cut speed limits ‘will significantly improve road safety' – minister

#90
post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the UK we're starting to install average speed cameras in lots of places. Almost every major road in my area has an average speed camera on some stretch. And I, for one, I think it's great. It's not a popular position but I'm a speed limit enforcement maximalist. I think if you're going 31 in a 30, after accounting for measurement errors, there should be enforcement action. Driving is one of the most dangerous thi…

There are good reasons why someone might temporarily be breaking the speed limit, that are even accepted legal defences in some countries (if you have enough proof). Biggest one is just merging / changing lanes. Often you have to go 10 or 20 over the limit to merge without impeding a lane of traffic. I sometimes see people stopping(!) at the end of a merging lane when there was a perfectly good gap they could have go…

In the UK there is no legal tolerance for going over the speed limit to overtake or merge. The only defence (and not even technically a defence) is that there was some emergency/duress. Some police might individually tolerate it, but it won't get you out of a fine and you'd almost certainly immediately fail your test. I'm actually kind of shocked to read that a (presumably European?) country would tolerate going 30kph over the limit on a driving test! However, the UK is fairly strict about traffic rules. You can't even go through a red light to let an ambulance through here. People have been fined for it, and their fines have been upheld at appeal.

Personally, I would imagine it's very unlikely to improve safety, and have seen near crashes result from it, so I think if you're needing to go 30 kph over the limit to make the overtake, then you probably should have just waited. However, I am completely willing to accept that this is a case where evidence should outweigh anecdotes, so if there was some study and reliable data to show that this sort of a tolerance is a good idea, then we should absolutely adopt it into the law under some objective criteria.

I do of course agree about malicious enforcement though. Again that's something that doesn't tend to be a big problem in the UK. Speed limits must be posted on both sides of the road to be enforceable, and if it's not the default limit (e.g. 30 in a built up area), there will be repeater signs every 200 metres or so. Plus we tend to also paint the limits on the road, and speed cameras are painted yellow and have a sign telling you that there are cameras, often with a reminder of the limit. You do occasionally get situations where the signs are obscured by trees, especially now that maintenance budgets have been cut, but you can use that to get out of the fine. My experience driving around the UK is that it's really rare that I don't know what the limit is, and if I don't, 99% of the time it's my fault for not paying attention.

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