The Dublin Cycling Campaign made a submission (see pdf file below) on the draft Bye Laws on speed limits on local and regional road in Fingal.

We support the expansion of the number of roads in Fingal with lower speed limits, as proposed in the revised bye-laws. In due course, it may be appropriate to raise the speed limit on a small number of other roads.

With these bye-laws, the number of residents of housing estates with 80km/h speed limits drops from about 40,000-50,000 to 5,000-15,000. Most of those roads are moving to 50km/h. However, there will still be some housing estates and a large number of country laneways with extensive ribbon development that will remain at 80km/h.

While this is substantial progress, we feel that there is much greater scope for lower speed limits throughout the county, even to make 30 km/h the default limit in pedestrian-rich areas (with exceptions being made for certain roads).

Lower speeds result in less noise and pollution and greater fuel efficiency (high fuel consumption is associated with stop-start traffic, not slow traffic). On residential roads and shopping streets, people simply don’t want to be exposed to the noise, fumes and dangers from higher speed traffic. While the drop from 80 km/h is both substantial and welcome, further progress is needed.