Richard O'Donoghue
Question:5. Deputy Richard O'Donoghue asked the Minister for Transport what impact the new proposed speed limit reductions will have on the transport network system in Ireland. [4899/24]
View answerThursday, 1 February 2024
Questions (5)
Oral answers (10 contributions)
Will the Minister outline what impact the proposed speed limit reductions will have on transport networks, including goods and bus networks?
A key objective of the speed limit review is to align speed limits with the safe system approach to managing safety on the road network. The safe system approach is a means of managing and developing the road network so that, by design, it is forgiving of human error and mitigates serious collisions. In response to the upward trend in road deaths in recent years, we sought Government approval to publish the Road Traffic Bill in December, with the Bill subsequently published on 25 January and due to come before the House in the next couple of weeks. It is a concise Bill, focused on addressing key road safety issues. I aim to pass it into law as soon as possible. The Bill will implement the core recommendations of the speed limit review with regard to safer default speed limits. The default limits on national secondary roads will be reduced from 100 km/h to 80 km/h, on local rural roads from 80 km/h to 60 km/h, and on roads in highly urbanised areas from 50 km/h to 30 km/h.
Reducing speed has been fundamentally proven to significantly reduce the risk of death or serious injury in road collisions. The World Health Organization has estimated that a 5% reduction in average speed could result in a 30% reduction in fatal collisions. Furthermore, the evidence shows that 50% of pedestrians struck by a vehicle travelling at 60 km/h will be killed, compared with 29% of pedestrians struck by a vehicle travelling at 50 km/h and 5% of pedestrians struck by a vehicle travelling at 30 km/h.
In addition to the Bill, the Department has commenced work on updating the guidelines for managing speed limits in Ireland. The update will seek to address matters relating to the default speed limits in support of the Bill. Although transition arrangements will be required, significant work is under way in relation to the ongoing process for the local authority reviews to make sure the process will be consistent following publication of the guidance. Also, it is proposed to leave the speed limits on the motorway system at 120 km/h, on national primary roads at 100 km/h, and on regional roads at 80 km/h. The speed limit review leaves those limits as they are. The proposed changes relate to the other speed limits I referenced.
We wanted clarification from the Minister of State on that because what we heard was, fail to prepare, prepare to fail. It was shown that a blanket ban was to apply to the transport networks. The message going out around the country was that there was going to be a blanket ban. That would have required increasing the number of buses and trucks on the roads because buses and trucks would not meet their targets. Truck drivers are subject to the DigiCar system and are only allowed to drive so many hours a day. I agree 100% that speed kills but I am also looking for the facts on accident black spots where people have been killed and seriously injured. Let us look at the facts. People have been knocked down on the streets by vehicles travelling at only 5 km/h or 6 km/h. That is not speed. We want to make sure we get this right first time and do not add extra vehicles to the roads where there have been no accidents or speeding recorded.
Many of the HGVs and much of the logistics network use the motorway system and national primary roads, on which, as I said, the limits will remain as they are. They have a higher engineering standard compared with some of the other roads. It is important to have a lower baseline in highly urbanised areas, villages and towns where there are schools and vulnerable road users are at risk. We have seen 43 pedestrians killed last year and speed, unfortunately, was a factor in many of those instances. We also have to invest in junctions and other accident black spots the Deputy mentioned. TII has a work programme on that.
The legislation, which we hope the Deputy will support, will be enacted in the next number of weeks. Guidance will then be issued to local authorities to conduct speed limit reviews and they will then assess what the appropriate speed limit is on each road in the context of the guidance issued. That is how the process will evolve.
In towns and villages that do not have policing services, many complaints are made about speeding. Even where speed indicators are installed, they do not work. What is the view of the Minister of State on having speed ramps in towns and villages that do not have a policing presence? In many towns and villages where these have been introduced, they are working. They are slowing the traffic down in the streets. They are having an impact. They do not need to be monitored because people slow down when they hit a speed ramp. They should be introduced in every town and village where there is no police presence.
They will save lives and slow traffic and it does not cost the State to police them. They police themselves.
There is guidance given to engineers on traffic-calming measures. We are all constituency TDs. I support many traffic-calming interventions in urbanised areas, particularly around schools and in villages and towns. In addition, where there is an inappropriate speed limit, it sets the context for motorists travelling through a village or town. That is why we have to set a lower default speed limit to slow traffic and protect vulnerable road users.
There is no policing.
On the wider point I mentioned to others earlier, there is a need to improve enforcement and policing across the country. That is a key priority in our engagement with An Garda Síochána.
Do you agree with me on speed ramps?
I support traffic-calming measures in towns and villages. It is a local authority function to implement traffic-calming measures in addition to changing the default speed limit in urbanised environments.