New speed limits of 30 km/h are to be in place in Dublin city centre from this weekend, it was confirmed today.
The new limit, which comes into effect on Sunday, will now apply from Bolton Street on the northside to Kevin Street Lower and St Stephen’s Green on the southside. It will extend from the Church Street and Bridge Street areas in the west to Gardiner Street, Tara Street and Dawson Street on the east.
The zone includes national roads such as O’Connell Street, Dame Street, and the north and south quays between Church Street and Tara Street.
The limit will operate 24 hours per day.
The limit was recently approved by Dublin City Council last October. The council reduced speed limits around most retail and central business areas in 2006 from 50km/h to 30km/h.
The council said the lowered limits will make the city centre safer for all road users, particularly pedestrians and cyclists.
A council review of accident statistics for the Dublin city area between 1998 and 2007 showed 47 per cent of fatalities and 24 per cent of people injured were pedestrians. It also said 45 per cent of pedestrians die when struck by a car at 50km/h but only five per cent if hit at 30km/h.
Lord Mayor Emer Costello backed the plan. "It is well recognised that dangerous and inappropriate speed is the primary contributing factor to road fatalities," she said.
But AA's director of policy Conor Faughnan branded the move an absurd mistake which will infuriate motorists and shatter the council's reputation.
"There is just no sense in this," he said. "These 30km/h zones work when they are engineered properly, in traffic calmed areas where they are self-policing. That's what they are for. But applying them en masse on roads that are engineered for high volumes at flowing speeds is absurd.
"We have problems enough countrywide trying to end the scourge of badly set speed limits without the capital city making a mockery of sensible road design."
Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council introduced a similar reduced speed limit in some areas earlier this month.