Civic groups back 30km/h limit

REPRESENTATIVES FROM over a dozen civic organisations have urged Dublin city councillors to maintain the 30km/h speed limit in the city centre.

Signatories of the open letter come from a wide range of bodies including the Children’s Rights Alliance, National Council for the Blind of Ireland, An Taisce, Dublin Cycling Campaign, pedestrian advocacy group Cosain, Friends of the Irish Environment as well as Dr Declan Bedford specialist in public health medicine and broadcaster Duncan Stewart.

The letter follows much media comment and criticism of the initiative since the limit was introduced almost two weeks ago.Critics have included motoring lobby group the AA, several Fine Gael politicians and a number of radio broadcasters.

The letter also comes ahead of a Dublin City Council debate on a motion to drop the 30km/h speed limit. It says that those who oppose the measure “need to explain their motives” because one conclusion that can be made is that they “seek to maintain car dominance of what is a shared public space”.

The longest delay caused by the speed reduction along the quays is 68 seconds which is “a small price to pay for safety” the letter states.

The group said that 49 people lost their lives in the area in road collisions over the last 15 years while 300 people were seriously injured. The probability of dying if a pedestrian is hit by a car is reduced from 40 per cent at 50km/h to 5 per cent at 30km/h it states.

Separately, a new pedestrian group has been set up by city centre residents to lobby in support of the new speed limit. Feachtas na gCoisithe (The Pedestrian Campaign) said that any attempt to reverse the speed limit extension would be “retrograde”.