What are people's reactions to today's proposed speed limit changes?

There are two "jokes" on Irish road singns every foreigner recognizes when driving in Ireland:

1) A narrow country lane, not even asphalt, speed limit set to 80 km/h and no overtaking. With a bit of sense, one can't even do 40 on these roads, let alone overtaking

2) After having arrived on the ferry and driven for 20 to 30 minutes through a city, out in the country, the sign finally comes: "in Ireland you have to drive on the left" in all langages, French, German, etc... Well, if you have gotten this far into Ireland and driving on the right, one would either have caused a lot of accidents, or have been extremely lucky not to have.....

This government initiative is providing yet another incentive to get rid of the car and it's associated expenses and headaches and switch over to our fantastic public transport network of buses and trains. You know the reliable, cheap, clean and frequent bus and train services that get you anywhere you want to go quickly and efficiently? Perhaps the govt. have another motive.

Another Jnr minister completely out of their depth and a refusal/inability to police the laws we already have… solution more draconian limit’s which will be ignored by the same cohort who currently ignore them and the rest of us are punished…

Appropriate speed limit are needed, but a good driver will drive according to the road conditions.

Slow drivers are a source of danger. I was behind a car doing no more than 40 an an 80 km road. I knew the motorway was in 5 km and I wasn’t in a hurry so didn’t mind that there was no opportunity to overtake as it was a busy time.

However the car behind was tailgating me dangerously and was obviously in a hurry. Should I have overtaken the slow driver in an unsafe manner to allow the following car attempt an overtake? Should I have pulled in to allow him pass? I considered both but either way the time saved for it would be less than a minute. Maybe I saved a crash or maybe I further frustrated the driver? I did keep my distance from the car in front but meant two cars were in the way.

At the roundabout the leading driver hesitated too long and then drove onto it too late, causing the car already on the roundabout to brake. The driver was neither very young or elderly, just incompetent or completely unaware.

Air Crash Investigation is one of my favourite programmes and having talked to a couple of commercial airline pilots about it, it is factual and based on actual investigations. The human factors are very interesting and some would be applicable to road fatalities. Was the driver sleep deprived due to work patterns? Were they stressed at work? Family problems? Mental health difficulties? Maybe this is covered in inquests , if it is it requires some digging to find. If we are serious about reducing "tragic accidents" this information needs to be out in the open.

We know that Jacob Veldhuyzen van Zanten's impatience was a major factor in the deaths of 583 people at Tenerife airport. Similar human weakness could see a driver overtaking into fog when he can't see and causing multiple fatalities because he's late for work, will be docked money and not be able to pay his rent etc.

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I can't see ireland ever publishing proper investigations of car fatalities into the public domain, where we will be able to see exactly who was at fault.

Too often it would go totally against the media reports about how great a person X was, how much they did for their local gaa team etc.

Can you really ever see it being reported that X was driving 30km/h over the speed limit, in the pouring rain, with 2 bald tyres, and managed to crash into a wall? Can't see it happening.

The amount of young racing in cars and tractors is increasing, with 2 to 3 not even 14 or 16 year olds in tractors

I'd be for increasing the driving age to 21 for cars and 18 for tractors and if caught dangerous driving then a long time ban, speeding and no seat belts, fines and bans, drunk and drug driving, bans

There is many with multiple offences still driving

Enforcement is most definitely needed

I live in a rural area, not on a boreen where even those with a small bit of sense slow down, but on a twisting 80kph 'R' road. The surface is smooth as a pool table which encourages speed, the hedges are overgrown reducing visibility and giving pedestrians and cyclists nowhere to go.

This road has been either 80kph or 50mph all my life. Even with the onset of huge farm machinery over the last 20/30 years, it hasn't been a major safety issue. Even 10 years ago, walking into town on it wouldn't cross me a thought and I used to cycle on it during lockdown.

Nowadays, I wouldn't walk or cycle on it unless I was stuck for a lift and had no other option. In the recent years, what I can only describe as rallying has started happened in the area. Cars with loud exhausts being absolutely flogged at full pelt can be heard from at all hours of the day and night. A nearby crossroad is continously covered in tyre skids from lads doing donuts, I've often heard this going on at 3pm, never mind 3am. There's a daily roar of engines blasting through the townsland at what must be at least 100kph, day and night.

Who are these people and where did they come from? They are the Gen Z sons (not too many daughters let's be honest) of local people, going to and from GAA training, commuting to and from work and travelling to the pubs and clubs on the weekend. I can guarantee you some new roadsigns won't affect them. Nothing but increased checkpoints will solve this. And a long term plan for changing the culture.

But of course Leo et Al won't worry about that. Just look busy, get re-elected and punish law abiding road users by forcing them to drive at a snail's pace, causing more accidents.

Agreed, it is pedestrians who are at fault for these awful statistics. If you need proof just listen to the message the RSA is sending time and time again.

Don't know how it can be ruled as accidental death.

If you get behind the wheel high on drugs and alcohol it's murder.

This round of GP rule, (yes rule, because the tail wagged the very SF worried dog) has baked in some almost irreversible negative change for the citizens of this country.

Congratulations, - you facilitated that. We warned you but you knew better.

No crocodile tears now...

The infantile focus on catching people speeding on mostly wide national road and motorways will do nothing to stop road deaths or reduce them from the current level. Look at the fatal crashes - would a speed camera van in the locations they always put them or a random lower speed limit have stopped many of them?

The speed cameras are pretty much the easiest thing to be seen doing, that happens to earn a few quid to offset the effort

Every time there's a national slow down day they release a report along the lines of

"GoSafe vans recorded 325,752 motorists and have issued 829 fines"

Now, even taking into account some motorists might be aware it's a national slow down day and are keeping an eye out for vans, and taking into account many rural motorists know the regular spots, there is no way in hell circa only 1 in 350 motorists who go past a van were speeding.

1 in 3 might be more on the money.

Are the GoSafe vans ridiciliously unreliable for getting a reading or what's the story?

Signed,

Someone who has sped past at least four of them, and is waiting by the letterbox to see if I was snapped on Stephens Day.

Yet road deaths are lower than 10 years ago.

In fact despite more cars and more people they're lower than at pretty much any point in our history, same as crime.

This is entirely the point. The general idea is redolent of coming from a committee that resides in greater Dublin and who only have to waddle down the road to catch the Dart. It's cack heavy handed and will have very limited if no impact on serious road accidents. Driving safely, using the roads safely is a matter of attitude and mind and nothing to do with rules like this. Bad law just gets ignored.

Not sure if he was myself.

However, another pedestrian on the M1 last night/this morning.