Tipperary ROAD SAFETY STRATEGY 2018-2020 Contents Foreword 5 1. Introduction 5 2. Mission Statement 6 3. Profile of County Tipperary 6 3.1 Transport and Vehicle Ownership in County Tipperary 6 3.2 The Economy of County Tipperary 7 3.3 Tipperary’s Road Network 8 3.4 Licensed Vehicles and Traffic Patterns 9 4. The National Context 9 4.1 Government Road Safety Strategy 2013-2020 13 4.2 Safe System’s Approach 14 5. Local Context 14 5.1 The Aims of Tipperary Road Safety Strategy 15 5.2 The Role of the Working Group 15 5.3 Factors Which Contribute to Collisions 15 5.4 Critical Interventions Needed to Sustain Progress 16 6. Road Safety Working Together Group 17 6.1 Stakeholders 17 7. The Four Pillars or the Four E’s of Road Safety 19 8. Action Plan 21 8.1 Education 21 8.2 Engineering 25 8.3 Enforcement 30 Tipperary Road Safety Strategy 2018-2020 Page 3 8.4 Evaluation 32 9. Summary 34 10. List of Acronyms 35 Tipperary Road Safety Strategy 2018-2020 Page 4 Foreword The challenge has been set to raise Ireland’s road safety performance to that of the best performing countries in the world. This joint strategy sets out the collaborative approach to improving road safety until 2020 and the targeted actions to be delivered throughout County Tipperary. Significant progress can be achieved through a solid strategy of enhanced co-operation on education, engineering, enforcement and evaluation. Building on former road safety interventions, there will be a co-ordinated approach to the delivery of services by the key stakeholders including An Garda Síochána, Tipperary County Council, Transport Infrastructure Ireland and the Road Safety Authority. The network of roads in County Tipperary must be designed and maintained to reduce the consequences of collisions and where possible identified road hazards should be eliminated or mitigated against. Safer behaviours can’t be brought about by enforcement alone. Education is central to influencing safer behaviours by all road users. Road safety is a shared responsibility and there is a developing culture of road safety amongst road users. Critical to success will be the level of interaction with all road users, so as to continue the marked change in personal behaviours and attitudes and bring about further responsible road user behaviours in order to achieve a safer road environment. 1. Introduction In addition to their statutory obligations under roads and traffic legislation, local authorities have an important role to play in promoting road safety. Tipperary County Council, in conjunction with its partners, An Garda Síochána (AGS), Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII), Road Safety Authority (RSA), Tipperary Fire and Rescue Services and Health Service Executive (HSE), through the National Ambulance Service, has devised a Road Safety Strategy to examine specific local issues relevant to Tipperary. This, the first Road Safety Strategy for all of Tipperary, covers the period 2018-2020. It offers a strategic direction for road safety in Tipperary in terms of Education, Engineering, Enforcement and Evaluation and reflects the Government Road Safety Strategy 2013-2020. It is designed to ensure a co-ordinated, collaborative and consistent approach to improving road safety for all road users in Tipperary. Its implementation will be dependent on the cooperation of the principal organisations charged with responsibility for road safety. With this in mind, a countywide Road Safety Working Together Group was established for Tipperary. This working group meets on a regular basis to jointly ensure the development and implementation of road safety initiatives and campaigns targeted at a local level. The Plan also encourages all members of the community to play an active part in reducing fatalities and injuries on Tipperary’s roads by taking responsibility for their own behaviour as road users. Tipperary Road Safety Strategy 2018-2020 Page 5 2. Mission Statement To create a greater awareness of road safety through all our stakeholders with the aim of reducing the number, severity and life-changing impact of road collisions, thereby making County Tipperary a safer place for all road users. 3. Profile of County Tipperary The ‘Premier County’ as Tipperary is known, is an inland, predominately rural county in the Province of Munster covering an area of 4,305 square kilometres and is bounded by Galway, Limerick, Offaly, Kilkenny, Cork, Clare, Laois and Waterford. It is the sixth largest county in Ireland based on size and the twelfth largest based on population. Tipperary is the third largest of Munster’s six counties by size and also the third largest by population. According to Census 2016 the population of Tipperary has risen from 158,754 in 2011 to 159,553 in 2016 (an actual increase of 799 or 0.5%) of which 79,668 were males and 79,885 were females. Tipperary County Council, which was established in 2014 under the Local Government Reform Act 2014, is the local government authority for the county. It reunified the county which was divided in two for administration purposes between 1898 and 2014. There are five Municipal Districts in Tipperary: Carrick-on-Suir; Cashel/Tipperary; Clonmel; Nenagh; and Templemore/Thurles. The largest towns in County Tipperary are Clonmel, Nenagh and Thurles. 3.1 Transport & Vehicle Ownership in County Tipperary Road transport dominates in County Tipperary. The M7 motorway crosses the north of the county through Roscrea and Nenagh. The M8 motorway bisects the county from north of Two-Mile-Borris to the County Limerick Border. Both roads are among the busiest roads in Ireland. Other National Roads which traverse the county are the N52 Dundalk to Limerick road which goes through the North-Western part of the county and the town of Nenagh and the N24 Limerick to Waterford road which crosses the southern half of the county. Tipperary Road Safety Strategy 2018-2020 Page 6 Tipperary has a number of railway stations situated on the Dublin-Cork line, Dublin to Limerick and Limerick-Waterford line. The railway lines connect places in Tipperary with Dublin, Cork, Limerick, and Galway. However, the Dublin-Limerick line which passes through Nenagh is sparsely used. 3.2 The Economy of County Tipperary Tipperary is one of the richest agricultural areas in Ireland. Dairy farming and cattle rearing are the main farming occupations. It is also famous for its horse breeding industry and is the home of Coolmore Stud, the largest thoroughbred breeding operation in the world. Tourism plays a significant role in County Tipperary and some of the primary tourist destinations in the country are located here; The Rock of Cashel, Lough Derg and Cahir Castle among them. Industry is situated around the main towns, in particular Clonmel. Map 2: The map below illustrates the main roads, towns, Municipal Districts and Garda Divisions in County Tipperary. Tipperary Road Safety Strategy 2018-2020 Page 7 Map 3: This map shows the population of each of Tipperary’s five Municipal Districts according to Census 2016. 3.3 Tipperary’s Road Network The total length of road in County Tipperary by category is as follows: Lengths in Municipal Areas (Kilometres) Municipal Nenagh Templemore/ Clonmel Cashel/ Carrick-on- Total Area Thurles Tipperary Suir Motorway 39 34 25 15 6 119 National 0 0 38 16 11 65 Primary National 52 52 6 21 14 145 Secondary Regional 289 147 146 171 150 903 Local 496 484 347 294 291 1,912 Primary Local 453 367 245 328 295 1,688 Secondary Local 261 232 210 167 120 990 Tertiary Including 1,590 1,316 1,017 1,012 887 5,822 Motorways Excluding 1,551 1,282 992 997 881 5,703 Motorways Percentage 27.2 22.5 17.4 17.5 15.4 Tipperary Road Safety Strategy 2018-2020 Page 8 3.4 Licensed Vehicles and Traffic Patterns There were 59,071 car owning households in 2016 compared to 58,275 in 2011 and the households owning two cars had risen from 20,529 in 2011 to 20,660 in 2016 an increase of 131. However, the households owning three cars had fallen from 4,096 in 2011 to 3,747 in 2016. The number of vehicles under current licence at 31st December 2016 in Tipperary was 100,722. The following table indicates the means of travel to work, school or college for people in Tipperary aged 5 years and over according to Census 2016 Means of Travel Work School or College Total On foot 5,081 5,886 10,967 Bicycle 517 229 746 Bus, minibus or coach 458 6,308 6,766 Train 311 193 504 Motorcycle or scooter 142 14 156 Car driver 40,908 1,959 42,867 Car passenger 2,678 19,888 22,566 Van 4,772 94 4,866 Other (incl. lorry) 586 11 597 Work mainly at or from home 5,013 42 5,055 Not stated 2,407 1,231 3,638 Total 62,873 35,855 98,728 4. National Context There has been a strategic approach to road safety in Ireland since the first Government Road Safety Strategy in 1998 and this approach has achieved considerable success under a number of key target areas such as speeding, driving under the influence of alcohol and seat-belt wearing. The result has been a significant reduction in the number of deaths and in 2016 Ireland was the seventh safest country in the EU for road collision fatalities per million population (40). This achievement may be set against an increase in the number of cars during this period of 66%. However, road deaths and serious injuries continue to have a severe impact on society. In the period January - December 2016 there were 174 fatal collisions resulting in 186 fatalities on Irish roads.