Ireland's Lower Speed Limits

Richard Bates

Heard on Radio Four this moring that ROI has now converted all speed
limit signs to Km/h. The resulting approximation and rounding from the
previous mile/h has lowered speed limits.

Good or bad?

Somebody, I cannot remember who or what he was, complained that
motorists would be confused when travelling over the border from
Northern Ireland.

He also said that drivers would need to look at the speedometer more
often.

Excellent, I say.

--
Amazon: "If you are interested in 'Asimov's I-Robot',
you may also be interested in 'Garfield - The Movie'.
... erm, how do they figure that one out?

Mark Thompson

> Heard on Radio Four this moring that ROI has now converted all speed
> limit signs to Km/h. The resulting approximation and rounding from the
> previous mile/h has lowered speed limits.
>
> Good or bad?

Bad for motorists who /really need/ to get there a minute or so earlier,
good for everyone else. Probably slightly annoying for a few days before
you get used to driving at the slightly lower speed.

Be interesting to see what effect the minor drop in speed limits has on KSI
figures. Probably be lost in the random noise, but hey ho.

Richard Bullock

"Richard Bates" <usenet01@artybee.net> wrote in message
news:fldou0pruouqm59u7nkehon1ha80tq3ioi@4ax.com...
> Heard on Radio Four this moring that ROI has now converted all speed
> limit signs to Km/h. The resulting approximation and rounding from the
> previous mile/h has lowered speed limits.
>
The speed limits officially change on Wednesday night at midnight.

Not all of the speed limits have been lowered. A few have been raised.

The default speeds for towns and villages etc. will be 50kph (31.1mph)
for national roads it will be 100kph (62.1mph)
For motorways (and some national dual carriageway roads) 120kph (74.6mph)

Other limits may be reduced
On regional and local roads - the default limit will be cut from 60mph to
80kph (49.7mph)
current 50mph limits will become 80kph (49.7mph)
current 40mph limits will become 60kph (37.3mph)

Nathaniel Porter

"Richard Bates" <usenet01@artybee.net> wrote in message
news:fldou0pruouqm59u7nkehon1ha80tq3ioi@4ax.com...
> Heard on Radio Four this moring that ROI has now converted all speed
> limit signs to Km/h. The resulting approximation and rounding from the
> previous mile/h has *some* lowered speed limits.
>

My emphasis - IIRC limits on N and R roads have lowered, whilst limits on
motorways have been raised.

> Good or bad?
>

From what I gather from people's experiences of driving in the ROI, the
changes seem reasonable.

> Somebody, I cannot remember who or what he was, complained that
> motorists would be confused when travelling over the border from
> Northern Ireland.
>

No more so than when crossing any other border - one should be expected to
know the laws of the land one is in.

>
> He also said that drivers would need to look at the speedometer more
> often.
>
> Excellent, I say.
>

TBH, I think you are massively missing the point - from what I gather the
ROI change is simply to change speed limits to km/h - and nothing more.

Graeme

"Nathaniel Porter" <csucbj@warwick.ac.uk> wrote in news:cshl96$1ha$1
@wisteria.csv.warwick.ac.uk:

> TBH, I think you are massively missing the point - from what I gather the
> ROI change is simply to change speed limits to km/h - and nothing more.
>

And another point missed is how good are people at keeping at or below the
speed limits anyway? Many people drive at what *feels* like the right speed
after a brief glance at their speedo, "Right, I'm going 50 at the moment
and it feels like this. I don't need to look at that thing with numbers and
that pointy bit again." (not necessarily a conscious decision). Never mind
the fact that their speed will often creep upwards fairly rapidly :-/

Graeme

Simon Brooke

in message <cshl96$1ha$1@wisteria.csv.warwick.ac.uk>, Nathaniel Porter
('csucbj@warwick.ac.uk') wrote:

> TBH, I think you are massively missing the point - from what I gather
> the ROI change is simply to change speed limits to km/h - and nothing
> more.

'Tis you who are missing the point: 60mph limits are being converted to
80Km/h limits, a 17% reduction in speed.

--
simon@jasmine.org.uk (Simon Brooke) http://www.jasmine.org.uk/~simon/

;; All in all you're just another hick in the mall
-- Drink C'lloid

Lance Armstrong

"Graeme" <graeme@gpdods.removethis.com> wrote in message
news:Xns95E2626673260graemegpdodsremoveth@130.133.1.4...
> "Nathaniel Porter" <csucbj@warwick.ac.uk> wrote in news:cshl96$1ha$1
> @wisteria.csv.warwick.ac.uk:
>
> > TBH, I think you are massively missing the point - from what I gather
the
> > ROI change is simply to change speed limits to km/h - and nothing more.
> >
>
> And another point missed is how good are people at keeping at or below the
> speed limits anyway? Many people drive at what *feels* like the right
speed
> after a brief glance at their speedo, "Right, I'm going 50 at the moment
> and it feels like this. I don't need to look at that thing with numbers
and
> that pointy bit again." (not necessarily a conscious decision). Never mind
> the fact that their speed will often creep upwards fairly rapidly :-/
>
> Graeme



And not one of you will speed in this group when in charge of a proper mode
of transport, eh?

dkahn400

Lance Armstrong wrote:

> And not one of you will speed in this group when in charge of a
> proper mode of transport, eh?

There seems to be some confusion. In the UK the speed limit does not
apply to proper modes of transport, only to motor vehicles.
--
Dave...

Brendan Halpin

Richard Bates <usenet01@artybee.net> writes:

> Heard on Radio Four this moring that ROI has now converted all speed
> limit signs to Km/h. The resulting approximation and rounding from the
> previous mile/h has lowered speed limits.

Only one major limit changes down in any substantial way: R-roads
(equiv to B-roads) go from 60mph to 80km/h. Urban 30mph actually
rises marginally to 50km/h, and motorways rise from 70mph to
120km/h.

Actually happens tomorrow night.

Brendan
--
Brendan Halpin, Department of Sociology, University of Limerick, Ireland
Tel: w +353-61-213147 f +353-61-202569 h +353-61-338562; Room F2-025 x 3147
mailto:brendan.halpin@ul.ie http://www.ul.ie/sociology/brendan.halpin.html

njf>badger

Richard Bates wrote:

> Heard on Radio Four this moring that ROI has now converted all speed
> limit signs to Km/h.
>
> He also said that drivers would need to look at the speedometer more
> often.
>
> Excellent, I say.

Humm, a disaster more likely, looking at a speedo and trying to check
the speed against the new limits whilst driving. Driver awareness is bad
enough at the best of times, but each look down away from the road is
bad enough, let alone trying to work out which point on which scale on a
speedo as well, means more time to miss and register someone else on the
road.

njf>badger

Richard Bates wrote:

> Heard on Radio Four this moring that ROI has now converted all speed
> limit signs to Km/h.
>
> He also said that drivers would need to look at the speedometer more
> often.
>
> Excellent, I say.

Humm, a disaster more likely, looking at a speedo and trying to check
the speed against the new limits whilst driving. Driver awareness is bad
enough at the best of times, but each look down away from the road is
bad enough, let alone trying to work out which point on which scale on a
speedo as well, means more time to miss and register someone else on the
road.

Peter Clinch

njf>badger< wrote:

> Humm, a disaster more likely, looking at a speedo and trying to check
> the speed against the new limits whilst driving.

This wouldn't be a problem if more people didn't regard limits as
targets to sit at...

As it is, in the longer term the speeds should (/if/ enforced) come
down, plus it possibly brings forward the day when Britain joins the
rest of the civilized world in having a single measurement system in use.

Pete.
--
Peter Clinch Medical Physics IT Officer
Tel 44 1382 660111 ext. 33637 Univ. of Dundee, Ninewells Hospital
Fax 44 1382 640177 Dundee DD1 9SY Scotland UK
net p.j.clinch@dundee.ac.uk http://www.dundee.ac.uk/~pjclinch/

Peter Clinch

njf>badger< wrote:

> Humm, a disaster more likely, looking at a speedo and trying to check
> the speed against the new limits whilst driving.

This wouldn't be a problem if more people didn't regard limits as
targets to sit at...

As it is, in the longer term the speeds should (/if/ enforced) come
down, plus it possibly brings forward the day when Britain joins the
rest of the civilized world in having a single measurement system in use.

Pete.
--
Peter Clinch Medical Physics IT Officer
Tel 44 1382 660111 ext. 33637 Univ. of Dundee, Ninewells Hospital
Fax 44 1382 640177 Dundee DD1 9SY Scotland UK
net p.j.clinch@dundee.ac.uk http://www.dundee.ac.uk/~pjclinch/

Nathaniel Porter

"Simon Brooke" <simon@jasmine.org.uk> wrote in message
newso1vb2-j23.ln1@gododdin.internal.jasmine.org.uk...
> in message <cshl96$1ha$1@wisteria.csv.warwick.ac.uk>, Nathaniel Porter
> ('csucbj@warwick.ac.uk') wrote:
>
> > TBH, I think you are massively missing the point - from what I gather
> > the ROI change is simply to change speed limits to km/h - and nothing
> > more.
>
> 'Tis you who are missing the point: 60mph limits are being converted to
> 80Km/h limits, a 17% reduction in speed.
>

And they go up slightly on N roads and motorways, as well as in towns. There
is some window dressing regarding the slightly lower limit on R roads the
slightly higher limits on motorways, and the provision for new 30km/h
areas - but the purpose of the change is simply to change the units used for
speed limits, to bring them more into line with Europe, and other signs in
Ireland which have used metric since the 1970s.