From today's 'Scotsman'. Judging by the report, clearly the metrication of road signs in Irleand won't deal with the road safety issues, but, what the heck, so long as money is poured down the drain to realise the metricators' fantasies of an all-metric world where all customery measures have been exterminated - Tony

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Thu 20 Jan 2005

Hurry up and slow down as Irish speeds go metric

SHAWN POGATCHNIK IN DUBLIN
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IN IRELAND, the speed limits are all changing - but few people are sure whether they are going up or down.

Today’s nationwide switch from miles to kilometres has been designed to bring consistency to the country’s roads, where both systems have been in use for decades: speed limits in miles per hour, most destination signs in kilometres.

But the reform is introducing new confusion to a country where driving can be mad because of lax enforcement of speed limits.

"They can list these speeds in watts or grams or - whaddya call ’em? - megabytes; I still won’t get a ticket," said Pat Cullinane, a Dublin taxi driver who, like almost all drivers in Ireland, has a car with a speedometer principally in miles per hour.

For the record, the Republic’s best roads are getting small increases in their limits, as are those in towns and cities. But more than 90 per cent of the road network - the often hedge-lined, winding rural roads barely wide enough for two-way traffic - is having its speed limit cut from 60mph (97kph) to 50mph (80kph).

A few drivers have added makeshift markers in tape or ink to their speedometers, highlighting the new limits for main roads, country roads and in cities. But most people plan, as usual, just to go with the flow of traffic or, when it is quiet, as fast as the road will allow.

Road-safety campaigners hope speed reductions on the most dangerous and poorly policed roads will mean fewer deaths. Ireland - unusual within the 225-member European Union where road deaths keep falling each year - suffered a surge in traffic fatalities last year: 380 dead compared with 336 in 2003. That is about ten per 100,000 of population.

The rate is nowhere near as bad as most eastern European countries, but it is also far from Ireland’s long-term goal of matching the statistically safest countries: Britain, the Netherlands and Sweden, where six in 100,000 typically die in crashes each year.

"We’re trying to create a greater degree of commonsense," said Brian Farrell, the spokesman for the National Safety Council, which distributed leaflets to 1.6 million homes this month that spell out the speed-limit changes.

Mr Farrell noted that crews were taking down about 35,000 speed signs this week - including the ubiquitous white disc with a black stripe that displayed no number but represented a "general speed limit" of 60mph (97kph) - and replacing them with nearly 60,000 new signs with limits written explicitly. On many roads, he said, drivers "might become conscious for the first time of what the limit actually is".

The big problem facing any new road law in Ireland is the widespread belief that it simply will not be enforced. That is understandable in a country where the police established a traffic enforcement division only two months ago and where drivers’ offence records are still not fully computerised.

About 250,000 people - or 17 per cent of drivers - have either failed to pass a driving test or are still waiting to take one. Yet under Ireland’s unusual licensing laws, people who fail a test are issued with a "provisional" licence anyway.

It is little wonder then that encountering jaw-droppingly bad drivers in Ireland is an everyday occurrence.

"Ireland remains Europe’s Wild West in terms of enforcement. Nowhere in the western world is it safer to speed or drink-drive," said David Maher, a director of a bicycling rights pressure group, the Irish Cycling Campaign.

A major push to instil fear of enforcement launched in 2003 worked for a few months. The death rate dropped as drivers slowed down, fearing for the first time that they could lose their licences if caught speeding too often.

But word quickly spread that the risk of being caught was low and, worse, drivers who were ticketed but failed to pay their fines mostly did not end up in court.

Last year’s Christmas anti-drink-driving campaign saw 1,974 people breathalysed during a five-week crackdown - on average only two people per day in each of the Republic’s 26 counties.

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ENDS

Tony,

Our close neighbours the Irish converting to metric with so little fuss, seems to have really got to you.

I can see why. You must be worried that the UK will soon follow.

You seem to have skipped over all the references to safety in the report, so I'll highlight them for you.

1. Consistency, speed limits in same units as distances.

2. Speed limits reduced on 90% of road network - the most dangerous narrow country roads

3. Leaflets distributed to 1.6 million homes this month that spell out the speed-limit changes. On many roads, he said, drivers "might become conscious for the first time of what the limit actually is".

4. 35,000 speed signs taken down and replaced with 60,000


<<< 225-member European Union >>>

Blimey it really is taking over the world...

"Our close neighbours the Irish converting to metric with so little fuss, seems to have really got to you."

Erm - you get this conclusion merely from him cut 'n' pasting (goddamit!) from a news website?

"I can see why. You must be worried that the UK will soon follow."

[Adopts a relaxed pose]

"3. Leaflets distributed to 1.6 million homes this month that spell out the speed-limit changes. On many roads, he said, drivers "might become conscious for the first time of what the limit actually is"."

Andy - the (irish) govt have been criticised for not giving enough info/time (time?!?! how many times have they tried it?!?)

<<<Erm - you get this conclusion merely from him cut 'n' pasting (goddamit!) from a news website?>>>

I can definately sense panic in the pro-imperial camp ;-)

<<<Andy - the (irish) govt have been criticised for not giving enough info/time (time?!?! how many times have they tried it?!?)>>>

Some people will always find something to criticise. It sounds like the govt has handled this very well.

Having spent some time today reading articles about the changeover, a point often made is that it will be a good thing as it is making people aware of the speed limits whereas previously there had been a lack of signs.

<<I can definately sense panic in the pro-imperial camp ;-) >>>

Ah well, better run around the room for a bit while shaking my spread hands infront of me and going "ooh ooh" in a high voice.

Homer style, of course.

Tony obviously read the online version. The actual newspaper has a main headline of "Hurry up and slow down as Irish speeds go metric"

There is then a header above the actual story "NEW LIMITS Country switches to kilometres per hour in bid to cut deaths"

There is also a large picture of workmen replacing a 30 sign with one reading 50 km/h. It is captioned "On some roads metrication will increase the speed limits slightly, but mainly they are being reduced"

Sorry - Did someone say that Ireland have metricated their roads?

Ah - hang on!

Yes, I remember now....


;-)