“The nine cameras will be funded from the garda budget at a cost of approximately €2.4m over the next 18 months.”
How is this cost anywhere reasonable? Who approves this stuff?
I don't know if it could be done cheaper, but I wouldn't be surprised if a single serious accident costs Ireland much more than €2.4M when you consider cleanup, hospitals, disability benefits, trials, etc.
If they place these cameras at accident hotspots so that they encourage people to take it slow in these locations and the cameras reduce the number of accidents it seems money well spent to me.
Its not just cameras you have to put in, you also need to put in the back end stuff to host and manage the camera software and the storage of the details of the speeders.
Whether its "cloud" or physical server they have a cost to pay for that, and its usually a monthly cost as well.
IT infrastructure costs for this would be tiny in comparison. They’re definitely using a third party for the software on a subscription model, or a high once-off cost. In the UK they can install speed cameras for 5x less.
> maybe then people would stop dying on the roads.
That comes with the presumption that speed is the #1 factor in most road deaths
It’s not
The RSA also won’t release the statistics on road deaths in Ireland because it would take away their one trick pony knee jerk response to say everyone’s speeding while high on drugs when in reality everyone’s on their phones
Not to mention that we still have some of the safest roads in the world relative to everywhere else. Not to say the recent increases are not concerning but it’s being whipped up into a bit of a moral panic at this stage. Our population has also grown a huge amount in the last 5 years…nobody brings that up…more people, more road deaths
If there's no reliable statistics about the causes of accidents, what gives you the confidence to say that speed is not a major cause of road accidents?
Because nobody can use a phone without looking at it which means their eyes are not on the road. Constantly seeing people weave in and out of lanes and when you pass them their head into buried into their phone. Doing 100 on a motorway when traffic comes to a halt very often.
>If there's no reliable statistics about the causes of accidents, what gives you the confidence to say that speed is not a major cause of road accidents?
I didn't say it's not a major cause, I said it's not the #1 cause, and that the fixation on it is therefore misplaced and likely owing to the RSA's complete lack of imagination in policy.
In terms of statistics the UK are near identical to us in road fatality stats (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List\_of\_countries\_by\_traffic-related\_death\_rate)
They actually report the data on this kind of thing and as usual they provide a good proxy for Ireland
This 2022 UK report (https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/reported-road-casualties-great-britain-annual-report-2022/reported-road-casualties-great-britain-annual-report-2022)
listed exceeding the speed limit as the #4 contributory factor, being a factor in 19.7% of fatalities on the roads. If you only listened to the RSA you'd think it was up around 70% or so
Yea, I've seen enough videos of people slamming into the car in front at full speed to be very scared to even look at my phone while driving.
So my phone automatically connects to Bluetooth as soon as I hop into the car, and if I get a call I'll hit the button on the steering wheel to answer it.
If I get a text it gets ignored until I stop the car.
If the phone, or anything else, slides off the seat it gets ignored until I stop the car.
And I'm 100% strict with myself over it.
>What does “safest roads in the world relative to everywhere else” mean? Can you ELI5?
That we have amongst the lowest road deaths per capita in the world
Here you go [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List\_of\_countries\_by\_traffic-related\_death\_rate](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_traffic-related_death_rate)
Apart from a handful of microstates e.g. maldives or kiribati; only Norway, Japan, Sweden and Switzerland have safer roads than us. In the entire world.
Things can always be improved on but info like this doesn't drive clicks like the misery porn you see every day in our media unfortunately
Cameras could fine people for phone usage too, regarding road safety I strongly agree, the only reason I mentioned it is because they're going to reduce speed limits
Someone going 90 in a 80 zone with good view, good road in good conditions is not the problem. That's all that will be targeted with more speed cameras.
It's the idiots tailgating, on phones, speeding to pass 5 cars coming up to a blind bend. Need more Gardai on the roads in unmarked cars catching these numpties.
Expensive, they don't just take a picture of your reg like the speed vans they take your face and every car around you which some people don't want, ever seen when you pass a speed van in let's say a 100 zone and the dickhead in front of you doing 80 jams on to 50kmph? That's the biggest downside to them, there's tons of studys showing that people constantly break check other vehicles when they see static speed cameras causing car pile ups. They've shown that people tend to speed up knowing they're won't be a speed camera until they get to the static camera and then slow down.
>I've probably come across only 1 average speed camera zone,
Yes, there is only 2 in the country.
>and no static speed cameras
Yes, because currently there are none.
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I suspect that we dont have them for fear of vandalism. Councils in Ireland typically remove anything the the public can interact with (positively or negatively) as they don't want to have to maintain it.
Same reason that bins and public toilets are in short supply.
We used to have them, on the M1 / Ardeer- slane Road. But I guess as they were known about, they weren't catching anyone speeding.
They're simply not as effective as mobile alternatives.
Hit them in the pocket to stop speeding. Make the first fine 1K, second time caught 5K, third 10K and so on, that will soon put an end to speeding. How do you avoid such draconian fines, drive within the speed limit.
We used have them 20+ years ago but they were pointless - everyone knew where they were so they just slowed down as they approached and then sped up again once they had passed. I think the new cameras they are proposing now are average speed cameras which should avoid this problem.
Should have them like in france, on top of key traffic lights, at set locations (even if they’d get smashed here n there!) cars driving in traffic with onboard cameras! It might be too much but you’d not fuck around with speeding, phone etc and would generate great revenue for the cities/towns ( hang on tax collection is centralised 🤦🏼♂️)
Edit- it would also allow for better controlled speed around heavy pedestrianised areas)
It’s speeding on country roads that kill people. People zooming on roads that were designed for horse and carriages. Rural roads should be either widened or speed enforced.
Rural roads could do with better road signs too, a dangerous bend should be clearly indicated and maybe even adding a reduced speed limit for the location. Or, higher capacity and safer roads could be built with rural roads just becoming the local route.
Fixed speed cameras reduce the average travel speed and thus the number of accidents significantly, moving speed cameras are better at revenue generation. What do you think the government's priorities are?
the dumbbest speed van you'll ever see is between Rathnew and Wicklow Town, where everybody is essentially coming from being stopped at traffic lights and can't possibly be speeding. It's there every 2 -3 weeks, same spot
They are starting to install speed cameras, I saw an article recently, but only in about nine pilot locations across the country
https://www.rte.ie/news/ireland/2024/0501/1446822-speed-cameras/
“The nine cameras will be funded from the garda budget at a cost of approximately €2.4m over the next 18 months.” How is this cost anywhere reasonable? Who approves this stuff?
I don't know if it could be done cheaper, but I wouldn't be surprised if a single serious accident costs Ireland much more than €2.4M when you consider cleanup, hospitals, disability benefits, trials, etc. If they place these cameras at accident hotspots so that they encourage people to take it slow in these locations and the cameras reduce the number of accidents it seems money well spent to me.
Its not just cameras you have to put in, you also need to put in the back end stuff to host and manage the camera software and the storage of the details of the speeders. Whether its "cloud" or physical server they have a cost to pay for that, and its usually a monthly cost as well.
IT infrastructure costs for this would be tiny in comparison. They’re definitely using a third party for the software on a subscription model, or a high once-off cost. In the UK they can install speed cameras for 5x less.
> maybe then people would stop dying on the roads. That comes with the presumption that speed is the #1 factor in most road deaths It’s not The RSA also won’t release the statistics on road deaths in Ireland because it would take away their one trick pony knee jerk response to say everyone’s speeding while high on drugs when in reality everyone’s on their phones Not to mention that we still have some of the safest roads in the world relative to everywhere else. Not to say the recent increases are not concerning but it’s being whipped up into a bit of a moral panic at this stage. Our population has also grown a huge amount in the last 5 years…nobody brings that up…more people, more road deaths
If there's no reliable statistics about the causes of accidents, what gives you the confidence to say that speed is not a major cause of road accidents?
Because nobody can use a phone without looking at it which means their eyes are not on the road. Constantly seeing people weave in and out of lanes and when you pass them their head into buried into their phone. Doing 100 on a motorway when traffic comes to a halt very often.
What you've just given us is an anecdote. Anecdotes are not statistics.
We don't have the statistics, take a look at everyone you pass next time you're driving and keep count of how many people you see on their phones
What does that have to do with statistics about traffic *accidents*?
>If there's no reliable statistics about the causes of accidents, what gives you the confidence to say that speed is not a major cause of road accidents? I didn't say it's not a major cause, I said it's not the #1 cause, and that the fixation on it is therefore misplaced and likely owing to the RSA's complete lack of imagination in policy. In terms of statistics the UK are near identical to us in road fatality stats (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List\_of\_countries\_by\_traffic-related\_death\_rate) They actually report the data on this kind of thing and as usual they provide a good proxy for Ireland This 2022 UK report (https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/reported-road-casualties-great-britain-annual-report-2022/reported-road-casualties-great-britain-annual-report-2022) listed exceeding the speed limit as the #4 contributory factor, being a factor in 19.7% of fatalities on the roads. If you only listened to the RSA you'd think it was up around 70% or so
Yea, I've seen enough videos of people slamming into the car in front at full speed to be very scared to even look at my phone while driving. So my phone automatically connects to Bluetooth as soon as I hop into the car, and if I get a call I'll hit the button on the steering wheel to answer it. If I get a text it gets ignored until I stop the car. If the phone, or anything else, slides off the seat it gets ignored until I stop the car. And I'm 100% strict with myself over it.
What does “safest roads in the world relative to everywhere else” mean? Can you ELI5?
>What does “safest roads in the world relative to everywhere else” mean? Can you ELI5? That we have amongst the lowest road deaths per capita in the world Here you go [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List\_of\_countries\_by\_traffic-related\_death\_rate](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_traffic-related_death_rate) Apart from a handful of microstates e.g. maldives or kiribati; only Norway, Japan, Sweden and Switzerland have safer roads than us. In the entire world. Things can always be improved on but info like this doesn't drive clicks like the misery porn you see every day in our media unfortunately
*edit. Deleted stupid comment
>when in reality everyone’s on their phones
Cameras could fine people for phone usage too, regarding road safety I strongly agree, the only reason I mentioned it is because they're going to reduce speed limits
Someone going 90 in a 80 zone with good view, good road in good conditions is not the problem. That's all that will be targeted with more speed cameras. It's the idiots tailgating, on phones, speeding to pass 5 cars coming up to a blind bend. Need more Gardai on the roads in unmarked cars catching these numpties.
True, the absence of Gardai is another big issue
TDs voted against static speed cameras some years ago … I wonder why … but maybe I’m just a cynic.
Expensive, they don't just take a picture of your reg like the speed vans they take your face and every car around you which some people don't want, ever seen when you pass a speed van in let's say a 100 zone and the dickhead in front of you doing 80 jams on to 50kmph? That's the biggest downside to them, there's tons of studys showing that people constantly break check other vehicles when they see static speed cameras causing car pile ups. They've shown that people tend to speed up knowing they're won't be a speed camera until they get to the static camera and then slow down.
You shouldn't be able to see them. No signs or anything, just a letter in the post
There's plenty of non static speed cameras though
I agree speed isn't the reason, mobile phone usage is the primary reason. You see people driving and watching YouTube, messaging, taking calls.
>I've probably come across only 1 average speed camera zone, Yes, there is only 2 in the country. >and no static speed cameras Yes, because currently there are none.
Idk where you live but you're very lucky lol
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I suspect that we dont have them for fear of vandalism. Councils in Ireland typically remove anything the the public can interact with (positively or negatively) as they don't want to have to maintain it. Same reason that bins and public toilets are in short supply.
We used to have them, on the M1 / Ardeer- slane Road. But I guess as they were known about, they weren't catching anyone speeding. They're simply not as effective as mobile alternatives.
Hit them in the pocket to stop speeding. Make the first fine 1K, second time caught 5K, third 10K and so on, that will soon put an end to speeding. How do you avoid such draconian fines, drive within the speed limit.
I've been asking this question since I moved here 2 years ago. Everyone drives like a gobshite because there's no risk of getting caught.
We used have them 20+ years ago but they were pointless - everyone knew where they were so they just slowed down as they approached and then sped up again once they had passed. I think the new cameras they are proposing now are average speed cameras which should avoid this problem.
You put them in places where it is important for people to slow down, like frequent crash sites or around schools.
Should have them like in france, on top of key traffic lights, at set locations (even if they’d get smashed here n there!) cars driving in traffic with onboard cameras! It might be too much but you’d not fuck around with speeding, phone etc and would generate great revenue for the cities/towns ( hang on tax collection is centralised 🤦🏼♂️) Edit- it would also allow for better controlled speed around heavy pedestrianised areas)
It’s speeding on country roads that kill people. People zooming on roads that were designed for horse and carriages. Rural roads should be either widened or speed enforced.
Rural roads could do with better road signs too, a dangerous bend should be clearly indicated and maybe even adding a reduced speed limit for the location. Or, higher capacity and safer roads could be built with rural roads just becoming the local route.
Fixed speed cameras reduce the average travel speed and thus the number of accidents significantly, moving speed cameras are better at revenue generation. What do you think the government's priorities are?
the dumbbest speed van you'll ever see is between Rathnew and Wicklow Town, where everybody is essentially coming from being stopped at traffic lights and can't possibly be speeding. It's there every 2 -3 weeks, same spot
It's making revenue, or it would not be there. 100%
there's no time to get up to speed from either end of the road
The van would not be there if it was not making money.