The government plans to bring in new speed limits as part of a national campaign aimed at reducing the number of fatalities on Irish roads.
Under the proposals motorists in rural areas would have to reduce their speed by 20km/h.
The Minister of State at the Department of Transport, Jack Chambers, told media this morning that “it is important to bring legislative and policy change and bring reform which I think will have a lasting impact.
“That is why we have had a speed limit review which has been undertaken for the last couple of years.”
The speed limit review will propose the following changes:
Road Current speed Proposed speed Motorways 120km/h 120km/h National secondary 100km/h 80km/h Local and rural 80km/h 60km/h Urban areas (Towns, cities, residential) 60km/h 30km/h Arterial and radial routes in urban areas 50km/h 50km/h
The speed limit review, according to a spokesperson for the Department of Transport, “will be presented to government and published in the coming weeks, with an implementation plan put in place thereafter.
“The review was driven by road safety concerns, looked at best practice internationally and is underpinned by extensive transport modelling.”
The proposed speed limit reductions would be made possible through the signing into law of the Road Traffic and Roads Act 2023 in June 2023, according to the Department of Transport.
The act also contains a range of provisions to improve road safety, including:
- The rollout of variable speed limits in response to adverse conditions;
- The use of cameras to support safety at accident blackspots;
- Measures to reduce the number of uninsured drivers and assist Gardaí in their enforcement of road traffic legislation.
The speed limit changes, according to Chambers “will bring radical changes to end the inconsistency and fragmentation of speed limits across our road network”.
The ability to revise the changing of the speed limits would be held by local authorities on these roads, according to the minister of state.
“There’ll be discretion with good design and safety standards that speed limits can be revised upwards by local authorities in terms of local, rural and national secondary road,” Chambers added.
Chambers also said this morning that there would be €1.2 million allocated to increase in the GoSafe speed van hours by 20%.
Since 2010, an Garda Síochána has used the service provider GoSafe to operate safety cameras on its behalf with a fleet of marked vehicles.
Costs of speed limit change
Speaking on the proposed changes, Blake Boland, head of communications at AA Ireland said: “With 127 deaths to date this year alone…it is very difficult to argue against any measures that will help.
“We do have concerns that the necessary resources will be put in place to make these proposals a success.
“An Garda Siochana and other relevant bodies will need to have the funding to carry out proper enforcement of speed limits.”
But he warned that there would also need to be “a sizeable sum of money spent on updating signage on tens of thousands of kilometres of road”.
Boland added: “Some members of the public will find some of the changes frustrating, and some journey times may be lengthened slightly.
“However, we have to keep in mind that the end goal is saving lives and reducing serious injuries on our roads.”