Anyone monitoring 80kph zones?

One of the changes I fully agreed with when the speed limits were altered this year was the lowering of the limit on small, single carriage regional roads to 80kph (50mph) Some of these roads are quite narrow and twisty, have poor surfaces and markings and are poorly lit. Statistically it's also where a large proportion of accidents and fatalities occur.
I drive on some of these roads and usually maintain the upper limit of 80kph. More and more I am overtaken by cars far exceeding 80kph. I have never seen a Garda speed camera on these roads, some of them very dangerous.
Has anyone ever seen one set up on the roadside? I dont mean in the money traps of the 50kph and 60kph zones but the 80kph zones. Perhaps more tellingly, has anyone ever received a speeding ticket issued in such an area?
If the authorities are serious about reducing speeding and road accidents, I believe they need to look at the situation of regional roads and monitor the speed of vehicles using them.

It's a good point. The [broken link removed] report states that 91% of fatal collisions occur on single lane carrigeways. I've done about 20,000 miles/year for the last few years and the vast majority of the garda check points I've passed have been on dual carriage ways (in fact I can only recall one that wasn't and that was on a wide straight section of road just after a section of motorway ended). Lack of suveillance on the national road network (unfortunatly) leads people to have scant regard for the rules of the road when on our smaller and more dangerous roads. In fact my parents live on one of the routes listed as a priority for action and it's been years since I've seen a speed check on that road...

I drove home from outside Dublin on Thursday - five and a half hour drive. The only place I saw a garda checkpoint was when I reached the M50 and traffic was so bad that nobody could travel faster than about 60kph. It's a joke. Some I the roads I'd been on earlier that day were so dangerous.

It seems to me that the buachilli in gorm are maybe more interested in getting easy speeding convictions by targetting the dual carriageways rather than the boreens.. if they were really interested in reducing road deaths, they'd be in pub carparks on a saturday night instead of the m50 on dry days....daithi

I don't suppose there is any chance that we would blame the actual drivers who are driving at 80 kph in the first instance, before we slag off the Gardai?

No one is saying that the drivers are blameless; the blame lies first and foremost with them. However, they drive in the manner they do because they have a very high degree of confidence they won't be caught - and that is a matter for the Gardai. The Gardai can't be everywhere, but in my experience their focus is not on speed control on single lane carriageways where 90% of fatal accidents are occuring. I can only speculate on the reasons why...

RainyDay why oh why do you feel the need to take the moral high ground at every oppurtunity?

On almost every thread I read here these days you seem to enter into the thread with a post that, rather than add to the debate, aims to add a layer of abstraction which is essentially hijacking the thread as it generally takes the form of you wanting to discuss an ideological notion as opposed to the specific real-world issue which the original poster wished to discuss. I'm not saying you are not entitled to express your views but why not start your own new threads to discuss these tangents?

For example, re-read the posts in this thread above your one. IMO any objective observer would have the subtlety to realise that of course the other posters know that the actual drivers doing the speeding are the ones to blame for road accidents, and so do not need your admonishment (which is exactly what your post amounts to) insulting their intelligence. The original poster wanted to discuss Garda enforcement methods rather than the root cause as he/she obviously knows that there are some people who will break the law if they feel they can get away with it so discussing ways of improving the Gardai's monitoring to catch those people is far more constructive than getting up on the high horse about all those bold people out there speeding.

I drive on one of these roads everday and stick to the speed limit, i check my mirrors all the time and the amount of times i have seen a car appear out of no where right behind me and then try to intimidate me to go faster then they overtake at blind bends. Surely the point is if these speeders knew that the gardai would be doing speed checks on these roads they would not be as such speeders as the gards would just have to hide at one of these bends.

I too drive on 80kph roads every day and honestly see very little evidence of blatant speeding on these roads. However I do see plenty of dangerous overtaking, unlit trailers, etc

My own experience is that there is far more speeding on national (100kmh) roads and in built-up (50kmh) areas.

[broken link removed]

Another mystery solved!

OhPinchy said:

For example, re-read the posts in this thread above your one. IMO any objective observer would have the subtlety to realise that of course the other posters know that the actual drivers doing the speeding are the ones to blame for road accidents, and so do not need your admonishment (which is exactly what your post amounts to) insulting their intelligence. The original poster wanted to discuss Garda enforcement methods rather than the root cause as he/she obviously knows that there are some people who will break the law if they feel they can get away with it so discussing ways of improving the Gardai's monitoring to catch those people is far more constructive than getting up on the high horse about all those bold people out there speeding.

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Actually No - Addressing root cause is always far more constructive. Is there a seperate breed of bad/dangerous drivers - or could those bad/dangerous drivers actually be you & me?

I also drive on these kind of roads, nobody seems to stick to the speed limit. When I'm on this particular road to work I feel an awful pressure to speed up, you know, people tailgating or whatever. What kind of person drives like this?

I had an arguement over driving with a colleague of mine today who's from the midlands. He thinks it's ok to speed when nobody else is around and also that he only needs to use his indicator if there's a car behind - even in built up areas.

It's pure stupidity. I told him he was talking a load of cr*p and should be forced to memorise the rules of the road.

the dundalk to dublin road used to be called the N1. 60mph speed limit generally except for villages and towns ( leatherarses' abode included) it was bedlam on a good day.. then along comes the MI from Dublin to just shy of Dundalk. (the NI continues for the present from Dundalk to the Border - 60mph - chock a block with traffic) so some bright spark renumbers the old NI ( Now minus 90% of previous traffic) R132 or something silly like that and hey presto its now an 80kph road. Despite the fact that most of the traffic is gone. and the good bit --when the traffic rejoins the road (N1)hey presto its back to 60mph. Eurovision voting wouldnt get a look in for crazyness.

Cahir said:

also that he only needs to use his indicator if there's a car behind - even in built up areas.

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If I recall correctly, one of the tenets of advanced driver training (aka defensive driving) was indeed that there was no point in using an indicator if there is no-one round to see it. The question is whether the driver is observant enough to be 100% sure that there actually is no-one (including pedestrians, cyclists) who could benefit from the turn signal.

Using an indicator is only an indication of the direction in which you are travelling - it is the responsibility of the other drivers on the road to be aware of the hazards of travelling too close to you. "Apparently"
Don't scream me down on this guys
Yes, it is drivers best practice to use indicators and good courtesy on the roads, and you would probably fail your driving test if you didn't use them. But I don't think that the use of indicators is compulsory!

Should have made it clearer. He seemed to think that he didn't have to use indicators if there were "only pedestrians" around or if there was, for example, a car at the next exit of a roundabout but no car behind him.

When I was learning to drive my Dad taught me never to trust indicators and he's so right but I still would always use them myself.

I would also be of the opinion that you should never trust indicators. Just because someone has their left indicator on, does not automatically mean that they WILL turn left.

cuchulainn said:

..... so some bright spark renumbers the old NI ( Now minus 90% of previous traffic) R132 or something silly like that .... .

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I understand that the reason for this is that the CoCo is responsible for funding R roads but the NRA fund ( at least in part ) N and M roads.

Of course your point about most of this road ( in good conditions ) being good for more than 80 is right. Equally I can think of many many R roads where it would be madness to do 60 never mind 80.

Would it be better to have no explicit limit on R roads and encourage Gardai to decide when speed is excessive for the road conditions at the time ?