At this month’s meeting of the Thurles Municipal District, Councillor Sean Ryan called for the trial in the hopes of changing driver behaviour.
He says he got the idea from the Nenagh MD, who used these signs to flag up speeding and found they were successful in keeping motorists within the speed limits.
The Fianna Fail councillor says it’s all in the name of road safety.
“I’m delighted with what our engineer, Thomas Duffy, came back with. He has asked that we name a couple of areas that we think this will work in so that the district would install sockets so that speed activation signs to be put in for a period of six to eight weeks. Hopefully that will be enough to change driver behaviour in the particular areas that we feel this needs to happen in.
“I’m also hopeful that this will be done over the next couple of weeks and that we’ll have the speed signs up and working. Basically, the whole idea is road safety and just showing drivers, “This is your speed, maybe you need to slow down,” or, if you’re going the correct speed, it’ll show that.”
Councillors from the Thurles Municipal District will now compile a list of areas in the district for the area engineer, Thomas Duffy, to install sockets for the signs.
Cllr. Ryan suggested a number of areas he feels could benefit from the trial.
“I asked that this be done in the Thurles district, particularly in the areas where we don’t have speed activation signs at the moment. Villages like Horse & Jockey, Littleton, and Two-Mile-Borris were the suggestions that I made. Basically they are to change driver behaviour, to try and make sure that drivers drive more safely. They flash up your speed and show you what speed you are doing. I got the idea from the Nenagh Municipal District where they had trialled it for a period of a couple of weeks and they found that they do change driver behaviour.”
