Motorists may have to drive slower on motorways under climate plan

Sven Hassel

I'd raise the speed limit.

beauf

Patww79 wrote: »

This post has been deleted.

Kinda hard to complain about the commute then...

Freindly

Imagine the possibility....The year is 2020. 2 cars driving down the empty Cork to Dublin Motorway at 2am. You're in one. You are in an electric driving at 115km/h. A speed you were deemed qualified to drive at safely back in 2017 and had done for the 15 years prior. The other car is a 15 year old Merc with a 2.5 litre diesel engine, which gives off a visible cloud when the boot is put down. That car is travelling at 110km/h.

A gard carries out a speed check. You are pulled over. Not for driving at an unsuitable speed, but because you were driving at a speed that the government has arbitrarily decided no car can drive at due to the emissions. You get 3 penalty points, an €80 fine and your insurance premium rises by €200.

The future is amazing.

Shenshen

Freindly wrote: »

Imagine the possibility....The year is 2020. 2 cars driving down the empty Cork to Dublin Motorway at 2am. You're in one. You are in an electric driving at 115km/h. A speed you were deemed qualified to drive at safely back in 2017 and had done for the 15 years prior. The other car is a 15 year old Merc with a 2.5 litre diesel engine, which gives off a visible cloud when the boot is put down. That car is travelling at 110km/h.

A gard carries out a speed check. You are pulled over. Not for driving at an unsuitable speed, but because you were driving at a speed that the government has arbitrarily decided no car can drive at due to the emissions. You get 3 penalty points, an €80 fine and your insurance premium rises by €200.

The future is amazing.

Unlikely scenario - most drivers of electric cars are likely to keep below 100kph for long journeys anyway, to make the charge last as far as possible.

Cookie_Monster

keoclassic wrote: »

For a person who has a 1hr 20 min commute along the motorway in the morning,

ah but see, you are part of the problem. An hour and 20 mins is an insane amount of time to commute. Thats Kilkenny to Sandyford for example...

How much rubbish does your car pump out every day on this needlessly long commute, never mind the time cost to you and commuting costs which easily outdo any extra costs of living closer to work.

Overheal

For a person who has a 1hr 20 min commute along the motorway in the morning

You commute 3 hours a day? May want to re-evaluate that lifestyle: aside from 3 non-productive hours of your life, there's the maintenance costs (engine, oil, tyres, spot checks), the fuel costs, and the likely bump in your insurance premiums because of the inflated amount of time you're commuting for. Your risk for accidents and moving violations goes up.

You spend 33 days a year behind your car wheel. What money do you think you are saving by giving up your 12th month of the year to make this living arrangement suitable?

Capt'n Midnight

professore wrote: »

Just ban farming. Problem solved.

Actually the solution is to feed seaweed to cows

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/ireland-cows-methane-emissions-climate-change-supercows-james-cook-university-a7849646.html

Irish farmers to create seaweed eating 'supercows' in bid to fight climate change

Change of diet could reduce methane emissions by 99%, researchers claim

Capt'n Midnight

Trucks use more fuel than cars.

So drop the HGV limit back to 80Kph.

Or they could enforce the existing limits , save lots of emissions.

Skylinehead

Shenshen wrote: »

Unlikely scenario - most drivers of electric cars are likely to keep below 100kph for long journeys anyway, to make the charge last as far as possible.

Not in 2020 they won't.

greencap

keoclassic wrote: »

So not only are the government happy to drive young people out of the city by crazy rents and inflated house prices, but they now want to increase the time it is taking us to commute into the city along the motorways!!! For a person who has a 1hr 20 min commute along the motorway in the morning, i am starting to wonder about this country :mad:, i have already given up all of my free time during the week so i can work a full time job in the city and have no time for my pastimes in the evening because im so wrecked, FU@k these "think-tanks" that come up with this stuff!!! Rant over.

eventually the prevalence of motor vehicles will cause back to back traffic.

so better to have them all travel at a steady rate. in fact - if the cars just all joined up it would work even better.

But theres no real point in having lots of joined up cars, waste of metal, so a conveyor belt which leads to the various buildings might be better again.

come to think of it why so many buildings, lets just have 1 giant conveyor belt from the houses ....nae .... house ... to the production facility and back again.

mortgages on a place in the house will cost about 60 years of work.

ps; its illegal to live outside the house.

Mooooo

Collyb101 wrote: »

The Government is under pressure & will not meet the 2020 Gas Emissions targets. Especially as we are so eager to let Apple build their Galway Data Center. So if you look at the graph above, this means MORE yellow, LESS brown. Only problem is we need to transport ourselves to our commercial/industry positions. Makes no sense at all. I'm not sure if the Agriculture posts above are people joking or not but this probably would be the right way to go. UK will not be buying our expensive EU cheese for much longer and sadly, to export this, we need to use our roads!!!!

85% of dairy produce is exported anyway, the UK buying it is still exporting so the roads are used anyway. If we are doing this for world climate change Irish ag is more environmentally friendly than most due to the grass based diets and eu legislation., if not produced here either the yanks will fill the void with their exports or south America will cut down more forest. Nobody seems to have an issue with buying it elsewhere when European product is most likely the most regulated and monitored of any agri sector. It's nimbyism on a larger scale

BillyBobBS

Ashlynn Greasy Beard wrote: »

Most likely in the future insurers will want to stick a black box in yer car to constantly monitor 'driving behaviour' (until the robots take control of actual driving, that is).

Along with urban limits on the horizon it makes no sense why car makers are constantly improving speeds and performance.

Happening already and i completely agree with it.

Micky 32

All this talk of climate change crap in the media i'm hearing everyday is only going to result in one conclusion, especially in this kip of a country. Heavy taxes on fuel, end of ........... Of course the way the goverment is at the moment being a minority no one wants to spell it out just yet but just wait ;-)

Mooooo

BillyBobBS wrote: »

Happening already and i completely agree with it.

No problem with it if they quarter the premiums they charge robbing fcukers

Dirty Dingus McGee

keoclassic wrote: »

So not only are the government happy to drive young people out of the city by crazy rents and inflated house prices, but they now want to increase the time it is taking us to commute into the city along the motorways!!! For a person who has a 1hr 20 min commute along the motorway in the morning, i am starting to wonder about this country :mad:, i have already given up all of my free time during the week so i can work a full time job in the city and have no time for my pastimes in the evening because im so wrecked, FU@k these "think-tanks" that come up with this stuff!!! Rant over.

A much better idea would be to improve public transport so that we finally get rid of the ridiculous situation where people every single day driving into work with 1 person in a car fit to hold 4 or 5.

4068ac1elhodqr

BillyBobBS wrote: »

Happening already and i completely agree with it.

The black boxes have their pros and cons.

The acceleration in these new electric motors is phenomenal. It will likely become a 'heavy foot' tax before too long in the 25/30kmphr zones, at least the AI autobot will know not to go over it.

Also most of these fairly standard new 2.0 petrol saloon motors will say hello to 150mph, there is no real need for this outside of the autobahn or unless you have blue lights.

LordSutch

The_Valeyard wrote: »

I agree. 120 on some of our motorways is perfectly fine. This just seems to be a cash grab for speed vans, just using environmentalism as the cover for it.

And even 120 km/h isn't that fast for motorway driving.

120 km/m only equates to 74 mph

I wonder what they'll drop it down to?

andekwarhola

120 is fine as it is.

That said, on roads like the M50 during commuting hours, speed limits (and correct lane usage) are utterly nominal anyway as it's not fit for the volumes of traffic it attracts.

Infrastructure investment in Ireland is always reactive.

OldMrBrennan83

This post has been deleted.

andekwarhola

Patww79 wrote: »

This post has been deleted.

I drive it every day. It's not, terrible drivers aside.

gramar

In Spain in 2011 the speed on Motorways was reduced to 110 from 120. This was to save fuel and avoid stocks going too low
due to the Arab Spring uprising that was threatening supply. I definitely remember getting more miles to the gallon going at a lower speed on the motorway. For fuel economy it works but for practicality the limit should be set at 130 which is perfectly reasonable on the
vast majority of motorways.

pedigree 6

Not all cars are the same.

Some larger engined higher geared cars can tip along at 120km/hr and use less fuel than a smaller sized and smaller engined car doing similar speed.

LordSutch

I actually think motorway speeds should be increased from 120m/h (74mph) to 160 km/h (100 mph).

We were short changed in the speed department when we moved from mph to km/h (not that long ago).

Wanderer78

LordSutch wrote:

I actually think motorway speeds should be increased from 120m/h (74mph) to 160 km/h (100 mph).

Ah 120 is fine, plenty of people going beyond it regularly. We d need to revamp our whole learner driver system before attempting an increase, needs to be done anyway.

beauf

pedigree 6 wrote: »

Not all cars are the same.

Some larger engined higher geared cars can tip along at 120km/hr and use less fuel than a smaller sized and smaller engined car doing similar speed.

The issue is drag and air resistance not engine efficiency or gearing. That will come down to frontal cross section and the slippiness of the shape.

Things like the Prius. Though some cars like the A6 and S Class are also slippery. Then engine efficiency and emissions comes into it. Bigger engines generally having higher emissions. Such is why large hybrids generate some of their power via electric motors. Reduce the emissions and get the same power overall.

beauf

Wanderer78 wrote: »

Ah 120 is fine, plenty of people going beyond it regularly. We d need to revamp our whole learner driver system before attempting an increase, needs to be done anyway.

Lots of people over the current limits is very true. Stick to the current limit and often your holding up the left lane!

marklazarcovic

Those charts,they never show military use, especially ships,aren't they worse for the environment than all cars combined? And I mean in just emissions terms

Fr_Dougal

If the government are worried about the environment, data centres should be the first thing they look at. Their power consumption is immense, and they employ feck all people.

Sofiztikated

LordSutch wrote: »

I actually think motorway speeds should be increased from 120m/h (74mph) to 160 km/h (100 mph).

We were short changed in the speed department when we moved from mph to km/h (not that long ago).

How'd you figure that?

30mph became 50kmph, which is 31mph.
Granted, 40mph became 60kmph, which is only 37.3mph.
60mph became 100kmph, which is 62.1mph.
70mph became 120kmph, which is 74.5mph.

In all bar 1 limit, we "gained" speed.

Wanderer78

Fr_Dougal wrote:

If the government are worried about the environment, data centres should be the first thing they look at. Their power consumption is immense, and they employ feck all people.

But but, they are centres that contain loads of data about us, sure they must be good for us!

Sofiztikated

Fr_Dougal wrote: »

If the government are worried about the environment, data centres should be the first thing they look at. Their power consumption is immense, and they employ feck all people.

And the fact we have turf fired power stations.

beauf

marklazarcovic wrote: »

Those charts,they never show military use, especially ships,aren't they worse for the environment than all cars combined? And I mean in just emissions terms

Unlikely in Ireland....

LordSutch

Sofiztikated wrote: »

How'd you figure that?

30mph became 50kmph, which is 31mph.
Granted, 40mph became 60kmph, which is only 37.3mph.
60mph became 100kmph, which is 62.1mph.
70mph became 120kmph, which is 74.5mph.

In all bar 1 limit, we "gained" speed.

You're right.

AMKC

alchemist33 wrote: »

Reminds me of when everybody in Star Trek agreed to not go over warp 6 for the universe's sake, except in emergencies. I'd say the evidence base for both proposals is.pretty similar.

Fixed it for you. It was Warp 6 they were limited too.

Dirty Dingus McGee wrote: »

A much better idea would be to improve public transport so that we finally get rid of the ridiculous situation where people every single day driving into work with 1 person in a car fit to hold 4 or 5.

Agreed.

beauf wrote: »

Lots of people over the current limits is very true. Stick to the current limit and often your holding up the left lane!

Very true. Nearly always see people speeding on the motorways. I think the speed limit should be increased to 140 not decreased. Stupid humans instead of moving forward and going places faster we are getting slower and taking longer to get there. Just look how backwards the Human race has become in the last 20 years. Concorde does not fly anymore and has not yet been replaced. The Space Shuttle is retired and is being replaced by a Rocket not another shuttle. Cars are far more advanced now but on average go slower than cars 20 years ago because of more traffic on the roads and less space. Awe but sure its all ok we have the internet now sure no one needs to go anywhere anymore just do everything over the internet.You can chat to people from anywhere in the world on it, buy things, watch films and series on it, play games, make money on it, even have internet sex over it sure why would anyone want to go anywhere anymore.

beauf

Why increase it to 140 if its traffic thats slowing you down?

SeanW

Extend the DART ... along existing tracks to Balbriggan? That's their big idea? Well ****...

Lower the speed limit on the motorway? 120 is already a bit low, and how much CO2 do all these fast motorists cause anyway? Sweet F... All is my guess.

Reduce the level of parking available in urban areas? I can't speak for anyone else, but I almost never shop in areas where parking is scarce or where I have to pay for parking, watch the clock and check it against my ticket stub constantly lest I be fined or clamped. Make parking scarce and expensive and I for one will shop online, get deliveries or cross the border into Northern Ireland even more often than I already do.

No mention of nuclear power, either here or via interconnection with the UK. Altogether an uninspiring, boneheaded plan.