Garda Speed Checks - Outer Ring Road

red_diesel

It really annoys me when I see the traffic corps looking for easy pickings on this road. Dual carriageway, barrier seperating the traffic, very little chance of a serious accident. 60KMH is a ridiculous speed limit on this road.
I travel to Dublin regularly via Carlow route. I have never seen gardai on this route and believe me there is some scary driving going on!
So traffic corps, get the finger out and do some work where your actions are likely to prevent accidents and save lives. Thats your job!

mike65

Pathetic isn't it? They will be polluting that road until they get thier monthly quota (ie from now until Sept 1st)

wellbutty

Very well said. Meanwhile you can do 80kmh on the back road to Tramore...which is faster than the main road at the moment and knowing there wont be any speed checks on it :rolleyes:

I'm all for road safety but please enforce it on the dangerous roads, not the most profitable.

On a similar note, will the speed limit on those parts of the new bypass that are within the city boundary also be 60kmh (i.e. from the new bridge to Carriganore)?

sydsad

Yeah lads, have to agree, tis a load of crap. Its immpossible to stay at that speed. Bloody silly. :mad:

trishw78

red_diesel wrote: »

I travel to Dublin regularly via Carlow route. I have never seen gardai on this route and believe me there is some scary driving going on!

OT: I've seen them there twice in the last two trips to/from Dublin...

red_diesel

Conor Faughnan, AA, was on Matt Cooper a while ago giving out about ridiculous speed limits on certain roads. He specifically mentioned the outer ring road as an example. He made the point that it was just lazy practise to categorise a road according to the type of road it is (National Primary, secondary etc) without actually looking at the type of road it is, dangerous bends etc. He gave some examples of roads that were only the width of a car, with dangerous bends, yet had 80mph speed limits!
Apparently the relevant department is in the process of recategorising some roads, how long that takes is anybodys guess!

red_diesel

trishw78 wrote: »

OT: I've seen them there twice in the last two trips to/from Dublin...

Fair enough, but they are not a consistent presence as far as I can see.
The point I am trying to make is that their time would be much better spent maintaining a visible presence on these roads, where a serious accident is more likely to happen, than on a modern dual carriageway pulling people doing 80 on a 60 stretch of road.
They have been on the ring road the last two mornings.

Kotek Besar

My sat nav says the speed limit on the outer ring-road is 120km/h :eek:

I was pulled a few months back for doing ~72. Slap on wrists was all I got - luckily.

That road reminds me very much of a particular stretch of the A38, when I lived in England. Speed limit on that is 70mph. That's 113km/h! Almost double the speed limit of the outer ring-road! Amazing.

scout353

sydsad wrote: »

Yeah lads, have to agree, tis a load of crap. Its immpossible to stay at that speed. Bloody silly. :mad:

Drive the early part of the M4 in Wales and you have exactly the same type of road - two lanes each direction with a concrete median. Speed limit 70mph (112mph) yet we have to put up with a limit half of this on the same road!

tonc76

red_diesel wrote: »

It really annoys me when I see the traffic corps looking for easy pickings on this road. Dual carriageway, barrier seperating the traffic, very little chance of a serious accident. 60KMH is a ridiculous speed limit on this road.
I travel to Dublin regularly via Carlow route. I have never seen gardai on this route and believe me there is some scary driving going on!
So traffic corps, get the finger out and do some work where your actions are likely to prevent accidents and save lives. Thats your job!

This road was given a speed limit of 60 kmh as ring roads by their nature attract residential/commercial development. It is easier to enforce a 60 kmh limit on this road from its opening rather than apply an 80 kmh or 100 kmh limit from its opening and then try and reduce to 60 kmh limit at a later stage. The M9 that bypasses Carlow is in a rural setting with grade seperated junctions which makes it completely different from the ORR.

red_diesel wrote: »

Conor Faughnan, AA, was on Matt Cooper a while ago giving out about ridiculous speed limits on certain roads. He specifically mentioned the outer ring road as an example. He made the point that it was just lazy practise to categorise a road according to the type of road it is (National Primary, secondary etc) without actually looking at the type of road it is, dangerous bends etc. He gave some examples of roads that were only the width of a car, with dangerous bends, yet had 80mph speed limits!
Apparently the relevant department is in the process of recategorising some roads, how long that takes is anybodys guess!

Mr. Faughnan is either talking throught his ar$e or you were listening through yours :pac:. When speed limits were changed from imperial to metric in 2005 the simplest approach to doing so was to bracket roads by type i.e. National Primary/Secondary - 100kmh, Regional/Local - 80 kmh & Local/Urban - 60 kmh/50kmh. Within the act that made the change possible is a section whereby any local authority can apply to increase/decrease the speed limits on roads as set out above. The Minister for Transport has the final say in each speed limit adjustment application. The N2 Dublin - Ashbourne has a speed limit of 120 kmh (even though it is a National Road) and similarly the R470 Waterford Outer Ring Road has a speed limit of 60 kmh (even though it is a Regional Road)

nkay1985

tonc76 wrote: »

This road was given a speed limit of 60 kmh as ring roads by their nature attract residential/commercial development. It is easier to enforce a 60 kmh limit on this road from its opening rather than apply an 80 kmh or 100 kmh limit from its opening and then try and reduce to 60 kmh limit at a later stage. The M9 that bypasses Carlow is in a rural setting with grade seperated junctions which makes it completely different from the ORR.



Mr. Faughnan is either talking throught his ar$e or you were listening through yours :pac:. When speed limits were changed from imperial to metric in 2005 the simplest approach to doing so was to bracket roads by type i.e. National Primary/Secondary - 100kmh, Regional/Local - 80 kmh & Local/Urban - 60 kmh/50kmh. Within the act that made the change possible is a section whereby any local authority can apply to increase/decrease the speed limits on roads as set out above. The Minister for Transport has the final say in each speed limit adjustment application. The N2 Dublin - Ashbourne has a speed limit of 120 kmh (even though it is a National Road) and similarly the R470 Waterford Outer Ring Road has a speed limit of 60 kmh (even though it is a Regional Road)

Thanks for the information but none of that makes a blind bit of difference to me. All I know is that it's the most ridiculous speed limit I've seen on any road. So much so that I actually avoid it and drive the Cork Road/Folly way to my house more often than not. It's just too difficult to stay below that limit and too easy to get caught.

bp_me

red_diesel wrote: »

I travel to Dublin regularly via Carlow route. I have never seen gardai on this route and believe me there is some scary driving going on!
So traffic corps, get the finger out and do some work where your actions are likely to prevent accidents and save lives. Thats your job!

I've seen ANPR laden cars on the Carlow bypass as well as static speed checks at Paulstown, on the carlow bypass and on the stretch of road "before the 80kph zone after the last petrol station". I have also met checkpoints between Paulstown and Carlow.

And that's not even considering the amount of unmarked cars I didn't notice.

ex_infantry man

i,d say that road only a goldmine for the gardai.

Traumadoc

Interested the accident statistics: anecdotally, the tramore road, or the road to New Ross seems to have far more serious accidents and deaths.

I also wonder what would the time saving be if the speed limit was increased to 80 or 100 give that you seem to have to stop ever 800 m or so, for the junctions.

I agree it is difficult to drive at 60kmph, but if the speed limit is increased you will have more crashes.

How would you feel if you have some one unsure of the road approaching a roundabout at 100km, and they hit you and kill your front seat passenger as they lose control.

mike65

Whats that got to do with intelligent law enforcement? You can be killed at 30kp/h by a driver as well on foot/bike.

Traumadoc

The reason the speed cameras are there is because thats where drivers are breaking the law. Perhaps if the speed limit was increased there would be more collisions at the roundabouts as cars come to a stop and drivers are forced to come from 100 kmph down to 0.

Bards

Nakatomi wrote: »

Interested the accident statistics: anecdotally, the tramore road, or the road to New Ross seems to have far more serious accidents and deaths.

I also wonder what would the time saving be if the speed limit was increased to 80 or 100 give that you seem to have to stop ever 800 m or so, for the junctions.

I agree it is difficult to drive at 60kmph, but if the speed limit is increased you will have more crashes.

How would you feel if you have some one unsure of the road approaching a roundabout at 100km, and they hit you and kill your front seat passenger as they lose control.

have a google and read of the 85 percentile rule amd come back and tell us how there will be more accidents if the limit is increased.

If anything a speed limit set too low is just as, if not more dangerous than a speed limit set too high



there is a limit of 100 KM/h on the kilkenny ring road and only a white line to seperate traffic and that too has roundabouts not too far apart. Are the cats better drivers then the deise???

mike65

As thats a full blown suburban road it should be less than 100, but gets away with it for being a N route, when its bypassed by the M9 it'll be redesignated, be interesting to see if they go for 80 or 60.

Deisekickboxing

more revenue for the state coffers at the expense of the already over taxed motorist:mad:

RSA ADI MARK

i really can not see a problem with 60km/h on the outer ringroad,and if you can not keep to that speed[remember you control the car] then you should think about driving

Grissom

red_diesel wrote: »

It really annoys me when I see the traffic corps looking for easy pickings on this road. Dual carriageway, barrier seperating the traffic, very little chance of a serious accident. 60KMH is a ridiculous speed limit on this road.
I travel to Dublin regularly via Carlow route. I have never seen gardai on this route and believe me there is some scary driving going on!
So traffic corps, get the finger out and do some work where your actions are likely to prevent accidents and save lives. Thats your job!

I agree completly:) Last week I was passing down and the Guard was taking off his hi-vis jacket so he obviously woulndn`t be seen until it was too late........sly pig:D It would definately be more effective to have a squad car parked where everyone could see it so it would stop them speeding in the first place....prevention is better than cure

sydsad wrote: »

Yeah lads, have to agree, tis a load of crap. Its immpossible to stay at that speed. Bloody silly. :mad:

It is both difficult and frustrating. The frustration is the danger, not focusing on the driving but on how quickly you can get home/work/college....

nkay1985 wrote: »

Thanks for the information but none of that makes a blind bit of difference to me. All I know is that it's the most ridiculous speed limit I've seen on any road. So much so that I actually avoid it and drive the Cork Road/Folly way to my house more often than not. It's just too difficult to stay below that limit and too easy to get caught.

Undoubtedly the most ridiculous speed limit, no referendum required here:rolleyes:

Trick of the Tail

That just shows it. The intention is not to slow people down, its to catch as many people as poss.

A friend of a friend works for the Guards. I'm told they often station themselves on the ORR to get the numbers up, or to give cadets some experience.

That is just scandalous.

The Guards' spokesmen keep spouting the nonsense: "Slow down". Why not "Drive safely"? If slowing down is a good thing, lets reduce speed limits to 5mph and have a man with a red flag walking in front of every car.

If it saves one life...


A.

Cabaal

Buttom line is although people feel the road should be faster then 60k (incl myself), everyone knows what the limit is and if your caugh for going over it your still breaking the law.

It sucks but sure thats reality until the speed changes,

recharge

alinton wrote: »

That just shows it. The intention is not to slow people down, its to catch as many people as poss.

A friend of a friend works for the Guards. I'm told they often station themselves on the ORR to get the numbers up, or to give cadets some experience.

That is just scandalous.

The Guards' spokesmen keep spouting the nonsense: "Slow down". Why not "Drive safely"? If slowing down is a good thing, lets reduce speed limits to 5mph and have a man with a red flag walking in front of every car.

If it saves one life...


A.

I heard the exact same, and as the guard said, they have to pay for the road some how

Kotek Besar

recharge wrote: »

they have to pay for the road some how

Motor Tax?

manus30

dont take my word for this, but a couple of years ago i was talking to a mates cousin who is high up in the council. she told me that when the council were submitting the plans for the new outer ring road to the european union to be passed, a certain person submitted the speed limit in m.p.h. ( ie. 60 mph). it should have been submitted in k.p.h., so the e.u. passed the plans with a speed limit of 60kph.
said person mixed up mph with kph.
as i said dont take my word for it, thats what i heard..

Cabaal

manus30 wrote: »

dont take my word for this, but a couple of years ago i was talking to a mates cousin who is high up in the council. she told me that when the council were submitting the plans for the new outer ring road to the european union to be passed, a certain person submitted the speed limit in m.p.h. ( ie. 80 mph). it should have been submitted in k.p.h., so the e.u. passed the plans with a speed limit of 80kph.
said person mixed up mph with kph.
as i said dont take my word for it, thats what i heard..

I doubt this is correct for one major reason, the ORR is 60kph

manus30

Cabaal wrote: »

I doubt this is correct for one major reason, the ORR is 60kph

mistake corrected, should have read 60kph. thanks for pointing that out.......

Bards

manus30 wrote: »

dont take my word for this, but a couple of years ago i was talking to a mates cousin who is high up in the council. she told me that when the council were submitting the plans for the new outer ring road to the european union to be passed, a certain person submitted the speed limit in m.p.h. ( ie. 60 mph). it should have been submitted in k.p.h., so the e.u. passed the plans with a speed limit of 60kph.
said person mixed up mph with kph.
as i said dont take my word for it, thats what i heard..

So, we now have to ask the E.U if it is OK to build roads - I don;t think so

The Same council who said that they asked the gardai if they could increase the limit, but was told only if they take legal responsibility for any road accidents.

I smell a bit of passing the buck here to be honest.

The Reason that the limit is 60 Km/H is the fact that the Dept of Environment gave them most of the money under the strategic roads fund, to open up tracts of land for housing etc.