New guidelines on setting and display of speed limits due

THE SETTING and display of speed limits on Irish roads is to be revamped by the Department of Transport. New guidelines governing the setting of speed limits are to be sent to authorities by the end of the month in a bid to remove frustrating inconsistencies on roads in different council regions.

Local authorities will be given a number of months to conform to the new guidelines, after which an audit of speed limits will be undertaken to judge compliance.

The Minister for Transport, Noel Dempsey, is examining regulations governing speed limits to see whether the Road Traffic Act requires amendment to allow greater flexibility and faster decision-making.

He is also planning to discuss how speed limits are displayed on roads, with the Minister keen to make them more visible by increasing the use of speed limits painted onto the road surface.

Inconsistent and inappropriate speed limits are a source of frustration for motorists and are the single largest cause of complaints to the Road Safety Authority.

Publication of the new guidelines is significantly behind schedule, with the work due to have been finished by early 2009, according to a deadline set in the Road Safety Strategy (2007–2012). An audit of all speed limits was also due to have been completed by this date.

The Minister had asked department officials to try and complete both pieces of work before the introduction of privatised speed cameras at the end of 2010.

Mr Dempsey defended the decision to introduce private speed cameras before the research work on speed limits was complete.

“Waiting is a recipe for doing nothing. Some people would regard the speed cameras as the most important thing.

“There is a general rule about speed limits. Whatever the speed limit is, it is not a target. If people have any doubt about the limit of a road they are on they should make ‘the mistake’ of being well below the limit.”

Referring to the length of time taken to complete the audit of speed limits, he said: “I didn’t make any secret of this. I was amazed at how long it was taking to do the speed limit audit. But in the UK I hear it is taking years to do a similar type audit. There is a question of time and resources.”

The Minister said that speeding contributed to an unacceptable level of deaths and accidents each year. According to the Road Collision Factbook 2008, speeding was identified as the main cause in approximately 54 per cent of fatal single-vehicle crashes.

The Gosafe consortium started operating private speed cameras at 750 locations identified by the Garda as sites for repeated speed-related traffic collisions on November 16th. When fully-operational later this year, 45 mobile cameras will provide 6,000 hours of speed checks per month across the State. The five-year contract is worth €65 million.