Community speed watch is helping combat speeding in residential areas in Britain and Galway should lead the way by introducing such a scheme in Ireland.
This is the view of Labour’s Galway City West candidate Niall McNelis. Community Speed Watch is a scheme to get drivers to reduce speeding traffic through their community involving community volunteers, the Galway City Council, and the Garda traffic unit.
Speeding checks often reveal that many drivers exceeding the speed limit are local to their surrounding area and do not realise the danger they can cause.
The scheme has run successfully in Britain and if introduced in Galway, it would be the first such scheme in Ireland.
In Leicester the community speed watch incorporates poster campaigns and a pledge system linked to direct action using radar speed guns and vehicle activated signs, all under the supervision of the local council.
Mr McNelis said a similar scheme for Galway would be especially useful outside Boleybeg national school.
“While the school does its best to introduce a ‘green bus’ - where parents walk to school as a group - there is too much of a risk with speed,” said Mr McNelis. “There is an urgent need to introduce more signage and also put down more road markings to highlight the need to reduce speed for the school ahead.”
