Love 30, the Campaign for 30 km/h Speed Limits, made a submission on proposed changes to the Offaly Speed Limit Bye Laws on the 6 October 2023.

Love 30 welcomes Offaly County Council’s proposals to update its speed limit bye-laws. However, we are disappointed that a lower speed limit was not chosen in the vicinity of many schools and residential areas. We also note some wholly inappropriate speed limits on very minor roads, e.g. Clonoghill Lane in Birr (see photo above).

There are a large number of places where speed limits could be lower or that a low speed limit proposed by the bye-laws needs to be extended further. This relates primarily to schools and residential areas. This is particularly so in towns that are already bypassed, like Banagher, Edenderry and Tullamore. The investment in these bypasses should be protected by ensuring that through traffic uses the bypass, not the town centre roads.

Love 30 recommends that 30 km/h should be set as the default urban speed limit in all built-up areas throughout Offaly County, with exceptions for specific roads, as required by the Stockholm Declaration of February 2020 co-signed by Ireland. 30 km/h is the recognised safe vehicle speed where pedestrians, cyclists, and other vulnerable road users are mixing with vehicular traffic.

The submission is attached.