ROI: NSL sign to be re-introduced

[Cian]

http://www.breakingnews.ie/ireland/big- ... 68127.html

The NSL sign - but meaning 80km/h as all higher limits will be signed - is being reintroduced. Mainly, it seems, to deal with the issue of 80km/h signs being placed on S1 roads with grass growing up the middle as its extremely common, e.g. every laneway off the side of a national road.

[PeterA5145]

The report is quite wrong to say "Motorists will be allowed to decide what speed to use when driving on narrow country lanes from today," though.

And the commenters don't seem to have got the point either. Had to laugh that two comments in someone starts ranting about "Blueshirts"

[Fahad]

This will create situations where an NSL sign can reduce the speed limit!

[Mark Hewitt]

The report is quite wrong to say "Motorists will be allowed to decide what speed to use when driving on narrow country lanes from today," though.

But that seems to be a typical attitude. It's signed as 50mph? But that's crazy I wouldn't do 50mph down there!!!!!111

[Cian]

The report is quite wrong to say "Motorists will be allowed to decide what speed to use when driving on narrow country lanes from today," though.

There's a certain cohort that see the limit as the speed they have to drive at, doing dot on 120km/h indicated (in their old car with changed wheels, so they're doing about 105km/h) on a motorway and then 50km/h straight down the main street of a busy village when off the motorway... at least they're better than the "80km/h always" drivers you get on the N4 - seems to only happen to me on the N4 - that you overtake on the 100km/h sections then get passed by them in a village!

And the commenters don't seem to have got the point either. Had to laugh that two comments in someone starts ranting about "Blueshirts"

That site has amongst the more rational commenters at that... I avoided The Journal as a link for that reason!

[Ritchie333]

I thought one of the nice things about driving in the ROI is the speed limit is explicitly marked. Putting it back to NSL, which is different on N and R roads will cause problems to drivers unfamiliar with the area - you cannot drive faster on the winding N71 over the Cork / Kerry border than the R710 dual carriageway Waterford Ring Road, even though NSL is 100km/h for the former and 80km/h for the latter

[Mark Hewitt]

Same with driving in Spain, everything is signed with numbers, nice and easy. I'm sure many foreigners arriving in the UK would struggle with our system, especially in unfamiliar MPH. Yes; they should know beforehand but how many do?

[IrlRon]

This will create situations where an NSL sign can reduce the speed limit!

That was possible when it was used in Ireland before if you hit it coming off a motorway. To avoid that it was more usual to sign an explicit 60 coming off a motorway, which had the exact same effect as NSL (unlike in the UK where it can mean 60 or 70 depending on the road type).

The new sign isn't exactly the same as the old NSL sign. It is of slightly different design (four thin stripes instead of one thick one) and is to be accompanied by a "Slow" plate. It can also only be used on L-roads. The other big change is a now 20km/h limit which will be brought in but I don't think is actually legislated for yet.

New speed limit guidelines are apparently also being introduced which from what was said on Morning Ireland this morning should result in the R-road limit going back to 100km/h but I haven't seen a copy to confirm this.

[Owain]

I have always liked the fact that the RoI tells you exactly what the limit is, rather than using NSL signs.

It's enigmatic in Italy. You hardly ever see an NSL sign ... in fact, I'm not sure they have it at all. Until today I thought the Italian NSL was 100kph, but I looked it up after seeing this thread and it turns out to be 90kph on S2 and 110kph on D2.

However, I am told that in Sardinia it is 90kph on both S2 and D2 roads. I've seen 110kph signposted on high-quality D2s in Sardinia, which suggests that it is indeed 90kph on the less good D2s. This is different from mainland Italy, but nowhere do I recall ever seeing any warning of the fact that the rules are different in Sardinia from mainland Italy (you might expect to see signs at the exit from Sardinian ferry ports and airports).

EDIT - NOT THAT IT REALLY MATTERS .... SPEED LIMITS ARE ALMOST IRRELEVANT IN ITALY, WHICH IS WHY I LOVE DRIVING THERE SO MUCH

[odlum]

New "slow zone" sign for housing estates

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CAdHdkvWsAEZFxW.jpg

[nirs]

Does NSL in RoI mean different things for different classes of vehicle, like it does in the UK? Eg I can drive at 60 in my car on an NSL road, but as soon as I hitch up my trailer I can only go at 50.

[FosseWay]

Same with driving in Spain, everything is signed with numbers, nice and easy. I'm sure many foreigners arriving in the UK would struggle with our system, especially in unfamiliar MPH. Yes; they should know beforehand but how many do?

You probably have a point about mph but otherwise is the concept of NSL and the way it's signed so different from elsewhere? For cars, Britain has default speed limits for urban areas, rural single carriageways and rural dual carriageways, just as most countries do. The assumption that the default applies in rural areas unless signed otherwise is also fairly standard.

What is perhaps less obvious is the link between the 30 limit and streetlight frequency, but that's got nothing to do with signed numerical limits vs. NSL signs.

[IrlRon]

Does NSL in RoI mean different things for different classes of vehicle, like it does in the UK? Eg I can drive at 60 in my car on an NSL road, but as soon as I hitch up my trailer I can only go at 50.

Yes, in that if there a specific speed limit for a vehicle class (such as in your example, the 80 km/h limit for a vehicle towing) and it is lower than the signposted limit, then the lower limit applies obviously.

However while the sign is being re-introduced, the concept of the national speed limit (or as strictly speaking it was called in ROI, the "general speed limit") is not. The default for regional and local roads will (for the moment) remain 80km/h. However, hopefully the new guidance notes should (in theory) mean regional roads going back up to 100km/h. The problem is that councils are reluctant to be seen to increase the speed limit on any road whatsoever.

Also worth noting is that when NSL did exist in Ireland, it always meant 60mph (except in the 1980s, when it meant 55mph). In those days dual carriageways could not get a 70mph limit and motorways only got the 70mph limit generally in 1994 and it had to be explicitly signed a la Scotland.

Here's the new guidelines BTW:
http://www.dttas.ie/sites/default/files ... r_2015.pdf

[ajuk]

A 20kpm speed limit You can't just set increasingly slower and slower speed limit and expect it to make the roads safer.
The worse thing about it is they already know that to be the case, it's just to satisfy NIMBYs who don't know any better even though it could end up getting people killed.

[Mark Hewitt]

Same with driving in Spain, everything is signed with numbers, nice and easy. I'm sure many foreigners arriving in the UK would struggle with our system, especially in unfamiliar MPH. Yes; they should know beforehand but how many do?

You probably have a point about mph but otherwise is the concept of NSL and the way it's signed so different from elsewhere? For cars, Britain has default speed limits for urban areas, rural single carriageways and rural dual carriageways, just as most countries do. The assumption that the default applies in rural areas unless signed otherwise is also fairly standard.

What is perhaps less obvious is the link between the 30 limit and streetlight frequency, but that's got nothing to do with signed numerical limits vs. NSL signs.

Is it obvious? Obvious to us perhaps? In Spain yes 50km/h for built up areas is common but you see 40km/h just as often and sometimes 30km/h, all signed.

[Vierwielen]

How would this border be demarcated? The reverse direction is here.

[IrlRon]

Don't think there'd be any change there?

[nirs]

How would this border be demarcated? The reverse direction is here.

Slightly off topic, but I love this junction! Even down to the change in the colour of the paint at the border itself. Certainly the only GSJ straddling the border between the UK and Ireland - there can't be too many of these in Europe as a whole.

There's a tiny triangle of the UK on the mainline itself here, but it looks as if it's been decided that it will be done in RoI style to avoid being too silly about it.

[PaulBelfastLimerick]

Yes - the fastest stretch of dual carriageway in the UK (75 mph) is at Jonesborough / Dromad. I presume that there is some sort of maintenance agreement in place there. If there ever is an RTC there, the administration will be complicated!

I wish they'd get rid of the Motorway font on the metric speed limit signs.

I know that the powers-that-were meant well as they had to make the new signs clearly distinguishable from the old imperial ones but as a frequent border crosser, the speed limit signs in N.I. are so much clearer to me at speed and the R.o.I. repeater ones (few and far between) are almost illegible.

Incidentally, for anyone heading towards Limerick on the M7, if you come off at Junction 18 (Portlaoise West) and join the old Limerick Road (R445) westbound, the speed limit sign on the off-slip says "80 km/h" and there is no "100 km/h" sign on the R445 until after the junction with the L5675, a distance of about 3 miles.

Yet if you come from the L5675 junction east, towards M7 J18, there is a "100 km/h" sign and no reduction until the motorway junction itself.

I reported this de-facto speed limit differential to Laois County Council but nothing appears to have been done yet.

[Vierwielen]

How would this border be demarcated? The reverse direction is here.

Slightly off topic, but I love this junction! Even down to the change in the colour of the paint at the border itself. Certainly the only GSJ straddling the border between the UK and Ireland - there can't be too many of these in Europe as a whole.

There's a tiny triangle of the UK on the mainline itself here, but it looks as if it's been decided that it will be done in RoI style to avoid being too silly about it.

If Google Earth is correct, then about 33 metres of the left-hand northbound lane crosses UK territory, while the left-hand southbound lane lies entirely within the RoI.