Letter of the Day

Rural roads and speed limits

The speed limit is a maximum allowed speed, not a target, as so many drivers appear to think

Letter of the Day
Letter of the Day
Fri Feb 14 2025 - 05:00

A chara, – The drivers who have been so vocal complaining about the reduction in the speed limit on local rural roads are missing the point. They, and most local authorities it seems, view the local road network as a transport corridor which should be maintained for the benefit of motor vehicles and they feel a sense of entitlement to use our local roads, as if walkers, cyclists and horse riders, etc, are impediments to which they should not be subjected.

However, if you look back at how the local road network evolved, it was originally people walking from their homes to the nearest village, river, port or highway that dictated the size and layout of these roads. They were narrow and meandered around trees and rocks and down to fords of streams, etc. As methods of transport progressed, these walking trails were adopted by horse riders, horse and carriage drivers and cyclists. Each new method of transport caused the routes to become wider but still to remain, in general, narrow, meandering and with soft surfaces only allowing slow progress.

The advent of motorised transport changed everything and over time these traditional walking and riding trails became hard-surfaced and used for an ever-increasing volume of bigger and faster motor vehicles. In general, the roads which evolved into regional and national roads were realigned to remove dangerous bends and have safety features to protect local residents and vulnerable road users, allowing for higher speed limits for those for who need to reach their destination quickly. Our typical local rural road has no footpath and no street lighting or other safety features designed to protect vulnerable road users. The only protection afforded is the requirement for drivers to limit their speed to the road conditions, including travelling well below the stated limit if circumstances require. In fact the requirement has always been for them to do so, irrespective of the stated speed limit, which is a maximum allowed speed, not a target, as so many drivers appear to think.

Some drivers have stated that the 20km/h reduction will lead to a 25 per cent longer travel time. While I have every sympathy for those with long daily commutes, I would very much doubt that much of their time spent on local rural roads was driving at 80km/h.

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Taking our road as a typical example, over the 8km length of our road, there are perhaps 2km overall where a speed of 80km/h could be considered safe in ideal conditions. For the rest of our road, this speed could not or should not be attained due to the narrowness of the road, bends, an old bridge and, most importantly, the possibility of encountering local residents walking, cycling or riding on the road where the driver’s view ahead is impeded. The possibility of horses, dogs, farm animals and wildlife on the road means that, unless drivers have total disregard for all other potential road users, their speed on 75 per cent of our local road should already have been 60km/h and indeed much less in the most dangerous spots. Therefore the overall impact of reducing speed on 25 per cent has negligible impact on travel times.

Drivers see our local roads as the fastest route to their destination, but in fact local rural roads are more than transport conduits, they are the arteries that allow community life to thrive. We use our road to walk or cycle up to visit neighbours, to litter-pick, to walk our dogs, to cycle with our children, to walk or cycle to access public transport and for myriad other non-motorised uses.

So, drivers, maybe you need to change your perspective and realise that you are not the only road users and rein in your sense of entitlement to drive at speed on our community roads to the detriment of the lives of local residents. – Is mise,

AMANDA O’SULLIVAN,

Coolbeg,

Co Wicklow.