Midlands motorists unaware of dramatic changes to speed limits next month

Motorists will be faced with new speed limits in a little over two weeks and local authorities across the Midlands are preparing to erect new signs on all local roads and in town centres.

However, the Midland Tribune spoke to motorists travelling on the N62 in the Roscrea and Birr areas this week and discovered many are unaware of the impending changes, but all agreed that speeding is a serious problem on rural roads.

Speed limits on most sections of the N62, the main traffic artery through the Midlands and corridor for traffic proceeding West, will drop from 100kph to 80kph as part of the revision of speed limits later this year - but many motorists are in the dark about the change.

Motorists who spoke to the Tribune in Birr's Applegreen Filling Station on Monday night were surprised to hear of the dramatic reduction in speed limits set to come into effect in a little over a fortnight.

One woman told this newspaper she lost a relative in a traffic accident in Limerick during the easing of pandemic restrictions in 2021 and that she thinks drivers are "more reckless" on the roads since then.

One motorist in Roscrea's Texaco filling station on the Birr Road was aware that changes are fast approaching and predicted an avalanche of speeding offences will create awareness "overnight" among the motoring community.

The changes are part of a ten-year Road Safety Strategy plan to halve the number of road deaths and serious injuries on Irish roads and Tipperary County Council were informed that, following a lengthy review process, the new default limits are set to come into effect on Friday, February 7th.

The Department of Transport carried out a review of speed limits nationally and the decision to change the default speed limits for roads in Ireland were signed into law in April 2024.

The changes to the legislation will reduce the default speed limits on some road categories including: 60km/hr on Rural Local Roads (currently 80km/hr); 80km/hr on National Secondary Roads (currently 100km/hr); 30km/hr in Urban Areas (currently predominantly 50km/hr).

It is proposed that implementation of the speed limits will be done over three phases as follows: Phase 1 - Rural Local Roads; Phase 2 - National Secondary Roads and Urban Areas; Phase 3 - Other Special Circumstances, such as schools.

The default speed limit will commence nationally on February 7th 2025, when all rural local roads will have a 60km/hr speed limit unless special speed limit bylaws have been adopted by local authorities.

Local roads within urban areas will not be considered part of the first phase of changes.

THURLES BYPASS

Meanwhile, the members of the Thurles/Roscrea/Templemore Municipal Council are lobbying to have the N62 Thurles Bypass included in the next National Development Plan (NDP).

Independent Tipperary TD, Michael Lowry also addressed the issue of Thurles bypass when he spoke on local radio on Tuesday morning and urged the Municipal Council and County Council to create a submittable plan for the development.

Speaking to Fran Curry of TippFM, Deputy Lowry said he continues to pursue a link road for Thurles and wants to see the Thurles bypass be included in the NDP, a project he first proposed but was shelved following the global financial crash in 2008.

The creation of a bypass in Thurles, which has grown considerably in recent years as a major education hub and suffers from severe congestion in the town centre, was a major issue locally in the recent local and general elections.

Elsewhere, the much anticipated N62 Slievnamon Road in Thurles project has progressed to the second phase and construction is expected to begin later this year. and will see a complete redesign of pedestrian and traffic infrastructure.