Dubliners are getting more time to cross the road due to a campaign to increase road safety among the growing number of older motorists and pedestrians.
A team of traffic engineers from Dublin Corporation is adding more "green-time" to more than a third of the capital's 230 pedestrian crossings as part of the Dublin Road Safety Council's "Older and Wiser" awareness campaign launched yesterday by the Lord Mayor of Dublin, Ms Mary Freehill.
The rest will be updated over the next two years.
A spokesman for the council said the move was part of a number of "traffic calming" measures aimed at making the city more pedestrian-friendly.
He said the public could ring the corporation's free-phone number to report sites where they felt that not enough crossing time was given.
Mr Conor Faughnan, of AA Roadwatch, welcomed the move, saying that "nobody could have a difficulty with giving older citizens more time to cross the road".
The "Older and Wiser`' initiative is designed to reduce the number of accidents among the elderly and urge younger motorists to give more time and consideration for older pedestrians and drivers.
"International statistics show an increase in road injuries and fatalities among older people primarily due to difficulties assessing speed and distance or lack of mobility," the spokesman said.
Poor eyesight among older drivers is also an issue, and motorists were advised to have their eyes checked regularly by a qualified optician.
The number of older drivers is growing rapidly, and the council estimates that in three years one in every five motorists in the State will be over 65.
As part of the campaign 50,000 leaflets and posters will be distributed throughout the city along with 5,000 reflective armbands for older pedestrians and cyclists. A pilot refresher driving course is also being run.
The law states that only drivers aged 70 and over are obliged to obtain a medical certificate to renew their licence. This can last for either one or three years at the discretion of their GP.
A spokesman for the driver control section of the Department of Environment said this could sometimes cause problems for doctors.
"We get a lot of calls from GPs whose patients won't accept the fact that they do not meet the minimum health requirements and then threaten to go to another doctor for the test," he said.
This differs significantly from licence requirements in other countries. In Finland, for example, drivers over the age of 45 must have an eye test every five years.
A driving instructor, Mr Jimmy Cope (76), a former chairman of the Dublin Road Safety Council, said he had noticed a lot of disregard by younger people on the roads.
For their part older people were often guilty of hesitancy, signalling late and bad positioning, he said.
"But this kind of breach of etiquette is also visible among young and middle-aged drivers," Mr Cope added.
The Free-phone number to report problems with pedestrian crossings is 1800 293949