\nReduced speed limits could save lives, but the widening rural-urban divide on The Speed Limit Review\u2019s proposals has delayed action\n<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Rural local roads have an 80kmh speed limit despite the 60kmh recommendation by The Speed Limit Review. Photo: Getty<\/p>\n
What changes were recommended by The Speed Limit Review?<\/p>\n
The Speed Limit Review in 2023 recommended three major changes: lowering rural local road limits from 80kmh to 60kmh, cutting national secondary roads from 100kmh to 80kmh, and making 30kmh the default in urban areas.<\/p>\n
Why were these changes proposed?<\/p>\n
The rationale was clear: above 80kmh, a head-on collision on rural or single carriageway roads is almost always fatal, regardless of how safe the car you are driving is. The 30kmh urban limit is the only speed at which vulnerable road users like pedestrians and cyclists have a realistic chance of surviving a crash. All changes were in accordance with the \u201cVision Zero\u201d philosophy that aims to eliminate road deaths by making roads safer by design.<\/p>\n
So why have these reductions not been implemented if they were passed in law?<\/p>\n
Road-safety reform has become tangled in politics and what should have been a pragmatic safety policy has turned into a symbolic battle in Ireland\u2019s widening rural-urban divide.<\/p>\n
What is happening now?<\/p>\n
Instead of universal speed limit reductions, any further changes will only take place if local councils decide on them via special by-laws and public consultations. The original vision of a consistent, national approach has been replaced by a fragmented and much slower process.<\/p>\n
Was it not always the case that local authorities introduce speed limit changes?<\/p>\n
Councillors\u2019 powers to set speed limits were always protected. The proposed national changes were meant to set a safer default, not to undermine local democracy. Councillors retained flexibility to vary limits where appropriate, and when the rural local road limit dropped to 60kmh, many L-roads remained at 80kmh by local decision. <\/p>\n
If you have any queries, contact Geradline Herbert via email: sundaymotors@independent.ie<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Reduced speed limits could save lives, but the widening rural-urban divide on The Speed Limit Review\u2019s proposals has…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":76528,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[72,7781,61,60],"class_list":{"0":"post-76527","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-geraldine-herbert","10":"tag-ie","11":"tag-ireland"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76527","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=76527"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76527\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/76528"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=76527"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=76527"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=76527"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}