Dublin City Council has started rolling out zebra crossings without Belisha beacons after the National Transport Authority and other local authorities trialed the new type of zebra crossings.
Two of the crossings with just signs now complement the four previous zebra crossings the council had installed with beacons on its roads and streets. Dublin City has now as many zebra crossings as some towns, but other towns have many more.
Councils in Dublin have been slow to join a country-wide resurgance in the use of zebra crossings, which decades ago went out of favor with councils as there was a focus on traffic flow over pedestrian priority.
IrishCycle.com has mapped well over 1,000 zebra crossings across Ireland, most of which were installed in recent decades, and the vast majority, 900, are using Belisha beacons. This website also mapped over 170 zebra crossings without beacons or signs — until recently, all of which were not compliant with the law and many of which still are not.
Legal changes last year removed the requirement for beacons for all zebra crossings. The new crossings built by Dublin City Council use continental-style zebra signs with a high-vis border. These new type of zebra crossings have been allowed for wider use since February 2024, when the Department of Transport updated guidance.
There is also an option to install zebra crossings in low-traffic 30km/h areas without any beacons or signs; these require raised crossings to be used. However, the Dublin City Council is so-far not using this option.
The law was also changed last year to clarify that motorists and cyclists must yield to pedestrians who are waiting to cross at a zebra crossing.
This clarification to the law was made to override an officialised myth which developed that people must put a foot on the crossing before users of vehicles had to yield. There was never any clear legal reason given for this interpretation.
Dublin City Council said: “Since the changes in legislation, two new zebra crossings on the Blackditch Road, Ballyfermot and on South William Street have already been installed” and that it “intends to install further zebra crossings in the city council area this year.”
The South William Street example was installed on a street which is only for deliveries and egress from a car park and is on a raised crossing, which would likely qualify it for a zebra with just road markings and no signs.
Dublin City Council said that it will use the the new crossings with signs in line with the guidelines where the 85th percentile speed is less than 50km/h in speed limit zones not exceeding 50 km/h, and where two-way traffic volumes are less than 500 vehicles per hour without a refuge island, or 750 vehicles per hour with a refuge island.
Much more of these please!!! Low to negligible cost to install. I suspect the biggest attributed cost will be the engineering and consultant costs within the council executive rather than the labour. yes, there may be additional cost if a speed ramp is installed with it, however, there are hundreds of existing speed ramps that have adjacent tactile paving and direct access could be adapted to have a zebra painted on them at pace.
“…where the 85th percentile speed is less than 50km/h in speed limit zones not exceeding 50 km/h…” Is this tacitly acknowledging that speeding is the norm in some locations? Why does the council not act upon those locations by introducing traffic calming such as narrowing carriageways, footpath build-outs to slow drivers down rather than just give up?
The limits of 750 vehicles per hour are pretty high. I seem to recall that the likes of the Rock Road peaks at somewhere about 1000 per hour, so 750 would include quite a chunk of roads and streets.
Do non-belishas still need the stripes? Here’s a ‘courtesy crossing’ in Leixlip: https://maps.app.goo.gl/uQSD2VJGU9pWJEUi6
It’s 50/50 whether a driver will stop, more likely if it’s a single car, very less likely if they’re part of a string of traffic.
I’m a bit divided – I appreciate lack of belishas make them easier and cheaper to install, but they’re also much less visible. Unless non-belisha zebras should have signage still?
Yes, the zebra stripes are needed for all zebras. It would not take much to add zebra stripes and signs to that crossing.
Re “unless non-belisha zebras should have signage still” — the signs pictured above will replace the Belishas in most cases. The zebra crossing with no Belishas and no signs are restricted to 30km/h zones, low traffic and must have a raised crossing — this are most likely to be used in places like in the town centres on shopping streets etc.
Thanks Cian, that’s not a 30kph zone… yet.
Bad idea we want more pedestrian crossings but with beacons not without. Plus tii has already mandated all crossings are to be raised
If “we” is the general public, that seems to be a minority view. As shown in the trial and in countries across Europe, the beacons are not always needed. They can still be used where there is a need for them.
As far as I know, TII has not mandated that all crossings be raised. I’ve heard that idea before, but there’s no official source saying it. TII also only controls a minority of urban roads — for example, their guidelines hardly apply to anywhere inside the M50.
Department of Transport guidance mainly regulates the use of zebras, and raised crossings are only required for zebras with no signs or beacons.
Its the view of the visually impaired wheelchair users and those with learning difficulties who find changes like this hard to understand and need to be trained. I note the first ones installed over a year ago in dublin port were only on roads not used by the public mainly whilst all the main roads got belisha crossings and all were done properly
It looks like Dublin port are rolling out the new signs, I came across one such crossing on the southern end of Branch Road North yesterday with the new signs in place.