Love 30 commends Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council on its proposals to pilot three new safe routes to upgrade and connect the existing walking and cycling network in the County. Love 30 hopes that these safe routes will encourage more people to walk or cycle within the County and, especially, that more children will be encouraged and permitted to travel to school on foot, by bicycle or by scooter.

The proposals to use existing segregated cycle routes and to modify junctions is commended but Love 30 is disappointed to note that, apart from a section of Avoca Avenue, it is not proposed to introduce 30 km/h speed limits on roads where cyclists will be sharing road space with motor vehicles and there will be an increase in pedestrian activity.

The United Nations General Assembly has endorsed the setting of 30km/h maximum speed limits wherever pedestrians, cyclists or other vulnerable road users mix with motor vehicles, following the adoption of Resolution #11 of the 3rd Global Ministerial Conference on Road Safety in February 2020 (the Stockholm Declaration), which mandates a maximum road travel speed of 30 km/h in areas where vulnerable road users and vehicles mix in a frequent and planned manner.

Love 30 is of the view that all roads in the scheme that do not have a segregated cycle track should have a 30km/h speed limit to comply with the Stockholm Declaration and the UN Resolution.

Love 30 notes that, although many of the residential roads in the County remain at 50 km/h, no additional 30 km/h speed limits have been introduced in Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown since 2017. We recommend that the Council should take this opportunity to review speed limits in the County with a view to introducing 30 km/h speed limits on all residential roads, in the centres of towns and villages, outside all schools and on all roads in this proposal that do not have a segregated cycle track. There is a particular need for more extensive 30 km/h speed limits during Covid restrictions when there are more people moving about on foot and by bicycle and when many pedestrians are likely to step out onto the carriageway to facilitate social distance from other pedestrians.

Love 30 has noted the welcome changes made in villages such as Blackrock and Dundrum in recent months to make them more accessible and safer for people to walk and cycle but is disappointed that these changes have not been accompanied by the introduction of 30 km/h limits in these villages. We recommend that a review of speed limits should commence as soon as possible so that the appropriate speed limit of 30 km/h can be introduced to these villages with the least possible delay. An initial non-statutory public consultation may be useful.