No plans to raise city's lower speed limits, says council

CHANGING THE new 30km/h speed limits, which have been in place in Dublin city centre for one week, would take a minimum of six to eight months, Dublin City Council has said.

The council added it had no plans to raise the speed limits and that the new restrictions would improve road safety and were in line with international best practice.

The lowering of the speed limits from 50km/h to 30km/h has attracted much criticism, particularly from motoring lobby group the AA, and several Fine Gael politicians, who have called for the decision to be reversed.

However the council said it cannot revert to the old 50km/h limit as the new limits were introduced through a bylaw and could only be changed through the creation of a new bylaw.

The making of a bylaw is a formal statutory process which requires the council management to give public notice of their intention to make a new bylaw, to hold a period of public consultation, and to have the bylaw ratified by councillors.

A spokesman for the council said this process would take a minimum of six to eight months. However, in this case, when councillors last October voted by an overwhelming majority to ratify the bylaw, they agreed it would be reviewed six months after implementation, so it is likely that any move to change the new limit would not be considered until this six-month period had concluded.

The 30km/h bylaws for the city centre were released for public consultation in November 2005. The council was unable to reduce the speed on O’Connell Street, the quays, and from D’Olier Street to Christchurch because they had national primary road status.

Unlike the rest of the streets in the city centre, the national primary network is controlled not by the council but by the National Roads Authority (NRA). The council later obtained permission from the NRA to change the status of these routes, which resulted in the 30km/h limit being introduced on them last week.

In a statement at the weekend, the council’s traffic department defended the 30km/h limit.

“The extension of the 30km/h speed limit to areas of the city centre with high volumes of pedestrians and cyclists was implemented solely to improve road safety,” the statement said.