Dead Slow! 30kph Limit to be imposed throughout Dublin City Centre

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Dublin city council is imposing an ultra-low 30kph speed limit across the entire centre of the city to apply 24/7 with effect from Monday 31st January. The new limit will apply to busy roads like Parnell Street, O'Connell Street, College Green, Dame Street, Dawson Street, Kildare Street and the North & South Quays from Tara Street to Fr Matthew Bridge near the Four Courts. The move is purportedly to improve road safety and traffic flow but AA Director of Policy Conor Faughnan is far from convinced.

Click here for a map of the affected area...

I have to say that I think this is a very bad move, writes Conor. The facility for Local Authorities to apply a 30kph limit was introduced in the Road Traffic Act of 2004 in the context of the switch to metric units. I was on the committee that helped devise the new limits and advised Government on their introduction. The ultra-low limit was designed to be used in specific locations, such as pedestrian-rich environments, shopping streets and school gates. It was never imagined that there would be a blanket imposition across a very large area.

This is an action that appears to the AA to be more vested in ideology than reason. In road safety terms Dublin City is one of the safest places in the country. There have of course been some fearful accidents. There was a dreadful tragedy on Wellington Quay in 2004, and other pedestrians have been killed or injured. There have also been fatalities involving cyclists and trucks turning left which were particularly horrific. But even in these high-profile cases the vehicles were travelling at less than 30kph to begin with. With opening of the Port Tunnel in 2007 and the subsequent removal of HGVs from the city centre the safety situation has improved considerably. The risk to road users is less in Dublin city centre than almost anywhere else in Ireland.

To pretend that these incidents will be prevented by forcing general traffic to slow to 30kph on the Quays is not realistic. It may indeed prove to be a considerable disincentive for any traffic to enter the city at all. Come to think of it, if we banned all trucks, buses, bikes, cars and pedestrians from using our roads at all we could reduce road death to zero. But then authorities do not have the luxury of a magic wand nor do they have a mandate for the wholesale social engineering that is implied by simply seeking to prevent or frustrate car use at any time.

It is always very easy to use safety as an excuse for extreme actions. Everyone wants to eliminate traffic collisions and it can be easy to claim that whenever you lower the speed limit you save lives. This is not true. The AA has always argued that for speed limits to be respected and observed they have to be logical, rational and consistent. Speed limits that are self-evidently inappropriate do not improve safety; quite the reverse. They undermine respect for speed limits generally. This leads to a population that may be on the lookout for speed traps but do not believe in the limits themselves.

This is true both of the country boreen with an 80kph limit and also of wide thoroughfares where the limit is absurdly low. Dublin City Council will create a situation whereby general traffic on the Quays will be artificially slowed to 30kph even at 5 o’clock in the morning. This runs counter to the engineering of the route and is against all the instincts of a smooth and careful driver.

30kph limits were designed to be introduced in conjunction with engineering measures and traffic calming so that they are effectively self-policing. In applying it to thoroughfares Dublin City Council is acting beyond the scope envisaged in the Road Traffic Act of 2004 and is presenting an absurd and unnecessary enforcement challenge for Garda which is wasteful of their resources.

I am a member of the Traffic Policy Committee of Dublin City Council and I would commend some of the excellent work that has been done to improve our safety, our transport and the built environment of Dublin. Measures like the city centre Bus Gate and new QBCs have been well supported by the AA.

General traffic in Dublin moves at an average speed of no more than 12 or 13 kph during the working day, so many might say that it will have little practical effect most of the time. Nevertheless I think this is an unfortunate and regrettable decision which will frustrate motorists, do no good at all for road safety and will undermine the credibility of both Dublin City Council and of the Road Safety Strategy generally.