Revolt by Tipperary councillors stops policy ban on speed ramps

A revolt by councillors forced Tipperary County Council to scrap a proposal to ban speed bumps, ramps and cushions as traffic calming measures in communities around the county.

The controversial proposal was contained in the Council’s new Traffic Management Guidance on Vertical Deflections policy document that was presented to Tipperary County Council’s February meeting for approval last week.

The reason cited for banning their use was to protect vehicles, emergency service vehicles and cyclists from damage and injury. Senior Roads Engineer Liam Brett explained how speed bumps, ramps and cushions can throw cyclists and motorcyclists off their vehicles if they hit them at the wrong angle.

The council’s new policy instead supported the installation of raised tables and raised pedestrian crossings as alternative “vertical deflection” traffic calming measures. Mr Brett pointed out that these measures have less impact on vehicles and were of more benefit to pedestrians.

But the proposal to exclude the use of speed ramps, bumps and cushions was greeted with outright opposition from many councillors.

First to voice their objections were Independent Cllrs Máirín McGrath from Newcastle and Jim Ryan from Thurles.

Cllr McGrath argued that traffic calming measures to reduce motorists’ speed in communities was one of the main issues they dealt with as councillors and she disagreed with a policy that specifically ruled out the use of speed ramps, bumps and cushions.

“I have so many places where people are looking for speed bumps in towns and villages,” she said.

Clonmel Cllr Siobhán Ambrose said she was “actually beyond shocked” at this proposal. She considered speed ramps to be the only solution to slow down traffic in housing estates.

“The raised platform is fine if you are going through a village or through a street in the middle of the town where it can be backed up by pedestrian crossings. You can’t have raised platforms all over housing estates. It’s illogical,” she declared.

The Fianna Fáil councillor added that she couldn’t understand why there was such negativity on the council towards speed ramps as it didn’t seem to be an issue in other counties that used them for traffic calming.

From the south of the county, Cllrs Annemarie Ryan (SF), John Crosse (FG), Pat English (WUAG), Kieran Bourke (FF), Roger Kennedy (FF), David Dunne (SF) and Cllr Richie Molloy (Ind) also spoke out against the exclusion of speed ramps, bumps and cushions from the new policy.

In view of the level of opposition to the proposal, Cllr Jim Ryan requested that the policy be amended to allow speed ramps in cases where all other measures don’t work

The Council’s Director of Roads Services Marcus O’Connor agreed as a compromise to omit this clause from the policy due to the fact it was a major stumbling block to its approval.

He suggested the Council’s Roads Strategic Policy Committee (SPC) look in more detail at the use of traffic calming measures in housing estates.

There was recrimination at the end of the debate when the Roads SPC Chairman Cllr Michael O'Meara criticised Cllr Jim Ryan, who is also member of the Roads SPC, for not raising his concerns with him before the guidelines were put to the council meeting for approval.

“If you had an issue with it you should have rang me. I am very disappointed that you didn't ring me in the interim. I am sure we would have been able to trash it out.”

Cllr Ryan at the start of the debate explained he wasn’t at the SPC meeting where the draft guidelines were finalised due to a medical appointment. He responded that he was very disappointed that after a long and productive debate that it should end on a “negative personal note and attack on myself”.