Visibility of GoSafe Cameras? Inappropriate Speed limits: How are they set/amended?

Latrade said:
Which doesn't explain what's happened to the M1 near the airport. While two lanes it went from 120 down to 80. Now three lanes it has gone to 60.

60 km/hr on a 3 lane stretch of motorway. How's that encouraging people not to speed? The Malahide road is 60 km up to Coolock.
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Maybe the lower speed limit is to account for tourists in unfamilar hire cars coming from the airport?
 
I'm all for the safety cameras if used and issued appropriately. A 5-10% leeway depending on the speed limit i.e. 10% of 30 is 3km (33) where as 10% of 120 is 12 (133) the latter would seem a little excessive leeway. Maybe a flat 5km. I don't know about anyone else but sometimes I find clock watching can be more dangerous and other factors should be accounted for, speed of general surrounding traffic, road conditions, weather. I know in the UK there is leeway, I just hope we will not be too zealous and loose the safety message.
That said generally driving in Ireland attrocious, even on motorways peoples bad habits are growing, last minute cutting in at exits, no indication and excessive speed.
Speedlimits should be set nationally based on contributions from local authorities. Too often speed limits are not appropriate, too fast in some areas and too slow in others. I agree with posters above the Waterford circular is one of those.
 
Unmarked speed vans ?

According to the Garda website, the GoSafe speed vans are supposed to be Hi Visibilty and clearly marked. I have seen unmarked RED vans (the cameras are clearly visible, and they park at the same place where the marked vans are usually parked).

Are these unmarked vans not official, and if so would fines issued from these vans be open to challenge ?
 
Latrade said:
Which doesn't explain what's happened to the M1 near the airport. While two lanes it went from 120 down to 80. Now three lanes it has gone to 60.

60 km/hr on a 3 lane stretch of motorway. How's that encouraging people not to speed? The Malahide road is 60 km up to Coolock.
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Our flagship motorway - EuroRoute 1 - has a speed limit of 60kph - only in Ireland.
 
redstar said:
According to the Garda website, the GoSafe speed vans are supposed to be Hi Visibilty and clearly marked. I have seen unmarked RED vans (the cameras are clearly visible, and they park at the same place where the marked vans are usually parked).

Are these unmarked vans not official, and if so would fines issued from these vans be open to challenge ?
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I think they're Garda vans, I've seen a red one with a Guard in it several times on the dual carriageway just north of Dundalk as you come down the hill from Newry.
 
I have notice that some speed signs are hidden by overgrown trees and you are not aware until you get your fine through the door.

They are not interested, they just want your money to pay for the the Gosafe contract. It's now a case of watch your speedo not the road.

Does anyone know the legal situation regarding road work speed signs?

If you have a complaint, write to your TD, I have already done this.
 
roker said:
Does anyone know the legal situation regarding road work speed signs?
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If the sign has a red circle around a speed limit then you are committing an offence if you exceed the stated limit

If the sign is black text on a rectangular white background then this is a cautionary advice. This type of sign is common at roadworks. These signs are used in the case of an unfinished road which might not have the neccessary skid resistance. They are also set up on a temporary basis to slow traffic down to protect the road workers, pedestrians and other vunerable road users.
 
ajapale said:
If the sign has a red circle around a speed limit then you are committing an offence if you exceed the stated limit
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I believe (but could be wrong) that even temporary speed limits have to be voted on at the local/road authority meeting and published in Iris Oifigiuil. There was an appeal about two years ago, lots of speeding fines were quashed and I think most councils are a lot more careful now.
 
Yes, but even a temporary (duly established by the local authority) speed limit needs to have the limit within a red circle to be enforceable. The black on white limits at temporary roadworks are cautionary.
 
There's a 3 mile stretch between Bandon and Innishannon with 55 km road works restrictions part of the way, but they do not have de-restriction after the road works, so you are technically still speeding for the whole 3 miles if you go over 55. This has to be an oversite and could catch you out.
 
roker said:
.. between Bandon and Innishannon with 55 km road works restrictions part of the way, but they do not have de-restriction after the road works, so you are technically still speeding for the whole 3 miles if you go over 55.
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No, since these signs do not have a red circle around the speed limit they are cautionary and so they don't have to be de-restricted. The cautionary speed only applies to the stretch of road within the clearly defined roadworks (ie between the man at work signs, where the cones are).
 
Road speed limits in the Republic of Ireland - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Cautionary speed limits

The Minister for Transport issued a direction to road authorities under section 95(16) of the Road Traffic Act 1961 in February 2007 with respect to a range of non-regulatory traffic signs. Chapter 8 of the Traffic Signs Manual was superseded by an updated version which allowed for the erection of signage stating a cautionary speed limit in the vicinity of Road Works. These speed limits are purposely different from legal speed limits and always display a speed limit that ends in 5, for example 35 km/h (22 mph), 45 km/h (28 mph), etc. They are not legally binding on drivers but it is likely that in the event of a road traffic accident that the issue of if they were being complied with, would be taken into account.
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If the limit ends with a "5" then it is a cautionary speed limit and not a regulatory (red circle) speed limit.

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Is the one roker refers to cautionary or regulatory when it has a red circle around it even though it ends with a 5?
 
In the unlikely event that such a sign has a red circle and the speed that ends with a "5" then it is a non standard sign which does not comply with the Road Traffic Acts (road signs).
 
Thanks ajapale, that clears it up, so I assume we can decide ourselves when the de-restriction applies.
 
roker said:
I assume we can decide ourselves when the de-restriction applies.
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No, the "man at work" signs and the "man at work ends" indicate the extent of the roadworks. The cautionary speed limit appplies for the extent ususally about 500m max.

and ends at the “Críoch END”.

It makes sense that you would progress slowly through roadworks as you have roadworkers and heavy plant working in close proximity to cars, busses and other vunerable road users such as pedestrians, bikers, equestrians etc. Also the permanent road wearing course surface or road markings may not have been applied yet leading to a risk of a skid etc.
 
The difficulty appears to be where large stretches of road are subject to restrictions but no relevant works are taking place on them so people assume they can speed up.

I've come across many such temporary restrictions myself and they are so bad its bordering on entrapment.
 
onq said:
.. but no relevant works are taking place on them so people assume they can speed up.
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In the case of an unfinished road surface with a low skid resistance there may be no apparent activity at all on the road but it is still highly dangerous.

Also in the case of semi static road works such as hedge cutting etc it may be neccessary to designate a length of road of up to 2km as roadworks and have a cautionary speed limit.

It is important to realise that if you exceed the cautionary limit you cannot be "entrapped" for speeding however if an accident occurs and you were exceeding the cautionary speed then you may deemed to have contributed to the accident.

However I know of several locations where a regulatory speed limit was imposed and remained in place years after the original hazard had been removed rectified.
 
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