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29th Nov 2013

New speed limit signs could be coming to Ireland’s rural roads

Each week we’ll be keeping you up to date with the latest Irish motoring news all with thanks to the new Nissan Juke.

Oisin Collins

Each week we’ll be keeping you up to date with the latest Irish motoring news all with thanks to the new Nissan Juke.

The days of seeing an 80km/h speed limit signs on seriously dodgy rural roads could soon be over, as the Speed Limits Working Group, which was set up by Minister for Transport Leo Varadkar, has published a report suggesting the old signs be replaced by non-numeric ones.

Basically, we’ll go back to the old way of doing things with the “rural speed limit” sign. This means while the limit on a rural road may be still be 80km/h, there won’t be any numeric signs displaying the road’s speed. So it will be up to the driver to use their best judgment. Instead, the new signs will feature a black circle with a diagonal line.

Speaking about the news, Conor Faughnan of the AA said: “Irish Motorists have been hugely supportive of road safety policy in recent years. AA members are continually telling us that they support speed enforcement but that many speed limits across the country are set incorrectly.”

“The updated policy announced today is a huge step forward in addressing those anomalies. It will allow for a consistent and rational approach across the entire network which is very necessary and very welcome.”

The Speed Limits Working Group has also proposed the introduction of a process to allow the public to appeal certain speed limits. This will allow drivers to submit an appeal to their local authority over the speed of a certain road. The local authority must respond to the appeal and if they don’t it could be upgraded to a national appeals body.

So it’s good news for motorists on the speed limit front…

Brought to you with thanks to the new Nissan Juke.

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