A 30km/h speed limit could be standard on most main streets and roads in the Dublin City Council area as part of the city council’s post-lockdown mobility plan.
Under the draft plans, the wider sections of the Finglas Road, Ballymun Road, Malahide Road will remain at 50-60km/h, and as would most of the route from Cork Street to the Naas Road would stay at 50km/h.
Other roads to stay at 50km/h under the draft plan includes all of the the Howth Road, the Naven Road, East Wall Road, the Oscar Traynor Road, and the Drumcondra Road / Swords Road route between the Royal Canal and where it meets the motorway.
The draft plan is expected to be presented to the Dublin City Council traffic and transport committee today before coming before a full meeting of the council. The recently released mobility plan will also be discussed at today;s committee meeting.
On speed limits, the mobility plan said: “In line with other European cities consideration is been given to temporarily reducing vehicular
speed limits on many of the routes to 30km per hour, in order to protect the larger numbers of pedestrians, cyclists and vulnerable road users moving around in these areas and on the road carriageway due to Covid-19 travel restrictions and social distancing requirements.”
Cllr Michael Pidgeon, the Green Party leader on Dublin City Council, said: “This is a really big and worthwhile change. Aside from lowering speed limits, it sends a clear signal that dangerous speed isn’t welcome in the capital city. This should clear the ambiguity by making 30km/h the norm.”
“A change like this isn’t just important in itself – it’s what it requires us to do off the back of it,” said Cllr Pidgeon. “It’s clear that some roads will have to change physically, too. It’s hard to imagine a monster road like the four-lane, one-way Pearse Street keeping the same layout at 30km/h.”
He added: “We know that a lot of drivers will break these limits, but that’s just another reason to improve enforcement. Lower speed limits also allow us to redesign roads to make more space for trees, cyclists and pedestrians. We can add in traffic calming measures and pro-pedestrian interventions that just wouldn’t be feasible on a 50km/h road.
Mairead Forsythe, a spokesperson for Love 30, campaign group for lower speeds, said: “Love 30 is very pleased to see Dublin City Council expanding 30 km/h speed limits to many distributor roads, which will include urban villages like Phibsborough, Rathmines and Ranelagh.”
Forsythe added: “However, we fear that speeds on these roads will not reduce unless the new limits are accompanied by associated traffic-calming measures. We urge the city council to set aside the necessary funding to install whatever traffic-calming measures are needed.”
KEY:
YELLOW: To be reduced to 30km/h
BLUE: To stay at 50km/h
GREEN: To stay at 60km/h
PURPLE: To stay at 30km/h
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Who’s going to enforce this? The Gardaí? Who’ve been so active on speed limits over the last few months, with a single day of action on Slowdown Day and an operation over the bank holiday.
I’m assuming DCC don’t have the power to install cameras, that would be a true game-changer.