30km/h speed limit for Galway city centre is ‘at least a year away’

From this week’s Galway City Tribune – A motion passed by councillors this week to put in place a 30km/h (18.6mph) speed limit in the inner-city zone is expected to take at least a year to come into force.

The new speed limit zone which will apply to major inner-city routes such as Bohermore, the Headford Road, College Road, University Road and Dominick Street was passed on an 8-6 vote by councillors at their meeting on Monday.

Council officials, however, cautioned that the new speed limit proposal had not been included in their programme of works for 2022 and pointed out that it would mean the exclusion of some projects which had been scheduled for this year.

Brendan McGrath, City Council Chief Executive, told councillors that he would first have to come back with a report to members as to what areas of the 2022 works programme would have to be left out to allow for the inclusion of the speed limit changes.

Council Senior Engineer, Uinsinn Finn, said that local authorities carried out a full review of all speed limits within their area, rather than making decisions on any particular location.

The Council, he said, had carried out this review in July 2020, with recommendations for the lower speed limit in the city centre area as well as increasing the speed limits on roads such as Bóthar na dTreabh, and a section of the Tuam Road out as far as Roadstone.

“When this comprehensive review of the city speed limits was put before the City Council in 2020, the new bylaws were not adopted.

“This means that all of the city is now in a 50km/h zone including the Coast Road [Rosshill] which we had proposed to be an 80km/h road.

“We had proposed the 30km/h inner-city speed limit, but as part of an overall review of speed limits in the city. As of now, we do not have the resources to put in place this new speed limit – it is not in our annual delivery plan,” said Mr Finn.

The motion to introduce the 30km/h inner-city speed limit was proposed by Cllr Owen Hanley (Social Democrats) and seconded by Green Party councillor, Niall Murphy.

This is a shortened preview version of this article. To read the rest of the story, including map of the new speed limit zone, how councillors voted and their reactions, see this week’s Galway City Tribune. You can buy a digital edition HERE.