N6 Athlone Bypass - Speed limit reduction to 80k

I wonder will they use a lower-noise wearing-course. This has been done on re-surfaced sections of N40 in Cork - there's a marked difference in road noise between the old and new surfacing. If that's a recent picture of N6, the surface there looks like it would be pretty noisy.

Shame. It would be the cheapest and quickest respite for the residents, and wouldn't require planning permissions.

It was resurfaced "recently" as in the last decade wasn't it? Will be quieter than a 90s surface already

Correct. Reducing speed limits makes everyone's journeys longer. Though there appears to be a suggestion above that the addition is not large, it must be remembered that this is a per-journey increase which means that the total in person-minutes lost would be insane. And also this must be taken into the context of moves to lower speed limits nationwide, which will make all journeys longer still.

80kph is far too low for a national road and type 1 dual carriageway.

First corner coming from Dublin is wildly out of spec for 120

80/100/120 km/h maps more closely to the old MPH limits of 40,60 and 70. 40mph to 60km/h was a speed reduction, but acceptable given how 40mph stretches were used (open road, but with some hazards).

Adopting 50/70/90/110/130 in 2005 would have either increased the speed limits beyond safe levels (e.g., ex-40mph stretches becoming 70, large sections of the secondary network going to 110) or created unpopular dramatic reductions (60mph > 90km/h). There was also the concern about "70" on open roads being misinterpreted as MPH. (60 and 80 were almost never used on UK or older Irish MPH signs)

But, in the context of this week's announcement on speed limits, maybe adopting the European system could provide an acceptable compromise:

30: inner city shared streets, residential areas

50: urban areas

70: all regional roads, unmarked roads... replaces 80 as the new default national limit, basically.

90: national routes of Type 3 or 2 single carriageway, regardless of primary/secondary numbering

110: new-built type 1 SC and type 2 DCs

130: Type 1 DC and Motorway

The higher limits could be countered with stricter enforcement, resulting in no actual change of traffic speed. But that's a topic that's rightly been closed, so I'll say no more.

From memory, 70/90/110 (and 20, although there is a design for a 20km/h roadsign) would actually need legislation to make them legal. Only 30/40/50/60/80/100/120 exist as valid limits.

40 was not in the original regs and was allowed since 2012 and I have never seen one.

I would very much be in favour of 130 and maybe 140 for specific sections of motorway but there is zero chance of that happening with the current Government and barely any more chance with anyone else. Varadkar as Minister increased bus and truck motorway speed limits to bring us to European norms, and 130 is fairly common in Europe but I'm not sure that argument would wash!

Arklow main street has a 40 limit, it’s the only place I’ve seen it myself.

Sound barriers and the road surface they use can make a huge difference...

They've spent a lot of the summer resurfacing various sections of n11 between jn5 and jn14. Its actually done a great job of reducing road/tyre noise.

So if you were to be a person who commutes 5 days a week (and takes 4 weeks holiday per year), you'd lose about 9 hours of your free time per year by that speed decrease, taking into account bank holidays. That's more than the time spent working on average workday! Seems a lot now, doesn't it?

Also, 40km/h limits are commonplace on slip roads on/off the M50. Here's the slip from M50 south to N3 west, as an example: