The speed limit in parts of Kilkenny city could be dramatically reduced under recommendations put to the County Council.
A new study on how to make the area more cyclist-friendly has suggested that the limit on some of the city’s busiest routes should be capped at 30km/hr.
The measure, if implemented, would affect a sizable chunk of the city centre- with traffic hotspots like the Dublin Road, Hebron Road and the Ring Road all in line to be affected.
The plans were revealed at yesterday’s meeting of Kilkenny City Municipal District, and received strong support from local councillors.
Cathaoirleach Andrew Mc Guinness believes the policy, if adopted, would make vulnerable road users feel much safer;
“The biggest concerns among many of the cyclists I’ve spoken to are, first of all, people parking on cycle tracks. It’s very dangerous” he told KCLR News. “The other one is speeding traffic, where motorists ignore or forget about cyclists. So I do think that before we implement anything, safety has to come first. Part of that will be looking at the speed limits in our city centre.”
However, he cautions that the speed limit revision should be assessed individually for each road;
“Obviously we’ll have to break that down and look at each individual area to see the merits of reducing the speed limit. But if we’re going to invest money into improving our cycling infrastructure and cycle experience in the city, then we have to put safety first. We have to ensure that pedestrians, cyclists and motorists are all safe with whatever changes we implement.”
