— Rise in road deaths in recent years prompts new use of speed cameras.
An Garda Síochána has said it welcomes the Budget 2025 allocation of €9 million in funding for “up to 100 new static road safety cameras.”
After years of campaigning by locals highlighting the issue of speeding on the Crumlin Road, it is to get what looks to be Ireland’s only on-street urban fixed speed camera. Although it is expected the Budget 2025 funding will increase the number of locations in urban areas.
A mix of three average and eight fixed speed cameras are so-far planned along national and regional roads in rural locations.
The average speed cameras work by having two cameras set some distance apart from each other and calculating if motorists have traveled between the two points faster than the speed limit allows.
The cameras have been proven to be highly effective as they are not just single point cameras and are also seen as fairer as they generally don’t penalise a lower level of speeding as long as it is not continuous.
Ireland’s speed enforcement is mainly via mobile checks using GoSafe vans, Garda vans and Gardaí with speed guns. To date the only exceptions have been average speed cameras in the Port Tunnel (pictured) and one on the M7 motorway, both installed in recent years.
Gardaí said in a press release this morning that “Infrastructure and technology for two average safety camera systems have been installed on the N3 (Cavan) and N5 (Mayo).”
A spokesperson said: “The average safety camera sites have been chosen because they meet the criteria as being high collision sites with numerous road traffic collisions, involving injury, serious injury and fatalities.”
On the N3 the “Average Safety Cameras” have been installed between Kilduff and BIllis in Cavan, while on the N5 in Mayo the cameras have been placed Lislackagh and Cuilmore, Swinford.
The location of a third average camera arrangement is to be announced at a later date.
The fixed camera locations are as follows:
- Galway, N59, between Moycullen and Galway City
- Waterford, N25, between Glenmore and Luffany
- Wicklow, R772, Arklow Road, Aske, north of Gorey
- Donegal, N14, east of Letterkenny
- Carlow, N80, between Barristown and Levitstown
- Dublin, Crumlin Road/Parnell Road/Dolphin Road/Dolphin’s Barn Junction
- Mayo, N17, northeast of Claremorris
- Cork, N22, east of Lissarda, west of Ovens
- Limerick, N69, east of Askeaton
Thought they had also recently been installed along the m50 as the cameras are now on the gantrys
Having spent 18 hours driving on the UK motorway network last month, I can certainly see the value of a combination of variable speed limits with average speed cameras – especially in poor weather conditions. A sight to see thousands of motorists driving at 50mph for dozens of miles on stretches of motorway where the limit was dropped due to heavy rain and hard-shoulder road works. Made for a much safer driving experience, even if it all added about 2 hours to our overall driving time!