Irish Motorways Qs

DMC

Not now, its still in discussion. Something Famous Seamus has yet to annouce publically. When the new kph signs come in, it'll happen.

Morpheus

ok this concerns the new motorway on the stretch from balbriggan to dublin.

What gives bloody northern drivers the right to blast by me at 80+ mph when everyone else is doing 70?? to flash me when im overtaking someone whos doing under 70 simply because i wont speed up and match their superfast speed? All that makes me do is slow down and match the cars speed on the slow lane to piss em off more.

The majority of the are a bunch of ignorant wa*kers, a few do obey the republics speed limits but most dont give a f*ck.

Why are there a lot of garda sideings along the road and not one Garda car has been seen on them yet?

Where are the speed cameras???

Where the HELL are the median ammco barriers?? the sides are barriered but not the middle? wheres the sense in that??

Ive seen skidmarks into the middle of the motorway already and its only in place about a month ffs.

a_ominous

from jmm

I've only noticed it on the northbound side, late evening times, of course it has to be a fairly windy day, but that section is extremely exposed. Just a thought on a possible thinking someone had when sticking a 60mph limit on that section.

Perhaps they should have taken the climatic conditions into account when designing the road in the first place. Why bother spending huge amounts on building a road to motorway specification if it cannot be used at motorway speeds? So basically we've got a bloody expensive horsetrack.

AFAIK, for a road to be graded as motorway, there is a different road surface. It has to reach a higher spec. I remembed some news item last year about low grade asphalt suitable for 30mph speeds used on 40mph bypasses just opened. So now, the roads have to be dug up and relaid! WTF.

Chimaera

Going back to the original topic of this thread, another good reason for having hedges in the median on motorways and dual carriageways is to shield drivers from the headlights of cars going the other way.

Travelling at 70mph or more really requires the use of full headlights, which could make life difficult for drivers coming against you, even if they are on the other side of the median.

And in case you're wondering where this came from, it occurred to me last night while travelling along the dual carriageway from Adare to Limerick.

Silent Bob

Originally posted by Chimaera
Travelling at 70mph or more really requires the use of full headlights, which could make life difficult for drivers coming against you, even if they are on the other side of the median.

If you insist on driving at 70 down unlit roads perhaps.

On a well-lit motorway you cause an annoyance to everybody in front of you and anyone who can see you coming from the other direction for zero increase in visibility.

Gerry

Originally posted by Chimaera
Going back to the original topic of this thread, another good reason for having hedges in the median on motorways and dual carriageways is to shield drivers from the headlights of cars going the other way.

Blocking headlights is a good idea, but as someone else said earlier, the trees won't stop a car coming across. Best thing would be something which absorbs the energy from the impact of the car, which doesn't bounce the car across the road. This is what our stupidly high vrt and road tax should be spent on.

Originally posted by Chimaera
Travelling at 70mph or more really requires the use of full headlights, which could make life difficult for drivers coming against you, even if they are on the other side of the median.
[/B]

As Silent Bob said, if someone comes the other way at 70 with fullbeams, and you are doing 70 also, how does this help anything? On a normal national road with 1 lane each way, how do you manage when a car comes towards you? Keep the full beams on?

Victor

Originally posted by spuddy
the 60 limit is unnessary, 70 can easily be achieved safely. motorways are the safest roads to drive on & given a 70mph limit because of that (infact 74.5mph/130kph when the new limits come into force)

Will you also insist on doing 70 in the Port Access Tunnel and on junction 3 of the M50 (where it meets the M1)?

Silent Bob

Originally posted by Victor
Will you also insist on doing 70 in the Port Access Tunnel and on junction 3 of the M50 (where it meets the M1)?

To be fair to the guy he did say that 70 could be achieved safely (with reference to the only 60 zone of the M50).

And you really do have to get up to speed to join the M1 from the M50 if traffic is moving on the M1.

Victor

Originally posted by Silent Bob
And you really do have to get up to speed to join the M1 from the M50 if traffic is moving on the M1.

What if the lights are red on the roundabout?

Capt'n Midnight

40mph is aparrently the speed at which you can get most traffic on a road - when you get faster the gaps increase so the overall throughput drops...

Still upset at the toll bridge - you go from speeding up to keep up with the traffic to jamming on when you get near it - can't keep a gap 'cos some muppet will cut in in front - especially if traffic in thier lane slows...

the bit when heading northbound and leaving on to the Lucan road - one minute you are doing 70mph on a two lane road - the next 40mph on a four lane one.... - rumble strips or a 50mph fade in could be handy... (oh yeah it's dangerous to do 40mph on the Lucan road - loads of undertakers - don't they know it is illegal?)

Heard somewhere that in the original spec for the toll bridge contract that the were supposed to let cars through if the queue got to 70 yards !

Also anyone know when the new bridge will no longer be tolled - are they getting an extension on the original contract ?

Gerry

Oh they'll keep tolling it forever. Can't remember which one of the bridges is being doubled up, but I'm sure they'll claim that they need to keep tolling the other bridges to pay for it. Typical Irish rip-off.

Victor

Crash barriers on way for full length of longest motorway after 'chicken wire' safety concerns
From:The Irish Independent
Thursday, 7th August, 2003
Elaine Keogh

CRASH barriers are to be installed on the full length of the country's longest motorway - the M1 from Dublin to the border.

The National Roads Authority will start installing the barriers on the central reservation by the end of the year.

NRA policy is to instal barriers anywhere where the central median is less than 15 metres wide.

Where it is more than 15 metres wide, the central reservation is divided by hedging and shrubs.

When first planted these are supported by wire - giving rise to criticism that the only barrier to stop a car careering across the motorway is "chicken wire".

Yesterday the NRA denied that it had changed its policy in respect of the M1.

The roads authority said it had intended to instal barriers on the M1 as part of the contract for the new Dundalk western by-pass. But that development has been delayed.

The successful bidder for the contract - a public/private partnership - will not now be announced until the end of the year.

According to the NRA's head of corporate affairs, Michael Egan, the delays in getting the motorway scheme off the ground "concerned the authority" and it was decided to "uncouple" the crash barriers from the rest of the contract.

Money earmarked to be spent on the Drogheda western by-pass this year will now instead be put towards the new safety measure.

"This is not a U-turn by the NRA," said Mr Egan. "We were genuinely concerned about the time factor involved." The roads authority is always reviewing road safety, he added.

Garda Inspector Gerry O'Brien of Louth/Meath traffic corps, who previously criticised use of "chicken-wire" in the central reservation, welcomed the news.

"Any central reservation barrier will not save you but in the event of you losing control it will prevent you entering the other carriageway," he commented.

The best safety measure remains "a person driving with proper care and attention," the roads authority chief said.

parsi

Originally posted by kbannon

Actually while I am on, what dumb f*ck came up with the idea of placing bright flashing safety warnings on the side of the M50? Driving past the other night I noticed myself spending more time reading the feckin thing than concentrating on the road - not the safest if you are driving at 70mph.

When Cork got City of Culture 2005 they changed all those flashing signs to give speed wantings and then "Welcome to Cork City of CUlture 2005" - this takes up 2 screens.

The signs I have seen are at the Commons Road & Airport Hill - both places where trying to read the signs will distract you from the speedtraps...

mike65

On Liveline yesterday a woman related her horror story on the M50 as she lost control and went right across the median and into the oncomming traffic she was lucky as was the guy she hit as the road was quiet and she got just far enough across to avoid a direct frontal smash, only side-on-side scraping damage down the passenger sides...

Mike.

Lennoxschips

If only they had invested all that motorway money in public transport, Dublin would be the investment capital of Europe and we wouldn't have all these new traffic jams. I guess pissing money away on pointless roads is fun when you are a minister and assures votes in the short term.

Seth Brundle

Public transport is not a full solution!
It may ease pressures off the roads to a certain extent but will not always be an option

skipn_easy

Morphéus said
What gives bloody northern drivers the right to blast by me at 80+ mph when everyone else is doing 70?? to flash me when im overtaking someone whos doing under 70 simply because i wont speed up and match their superfast speed? All that makes me do is slow down and match the cars speed on the slow lane to piss em off more.

Everyone else is doing 70? Come off it! The republic drivers are hardly saints when it comes to speeding, I wouldn't say that northern drivers were any worse to be fair. I do agree that its annoying when you're overtaking some one and somebody comes up doing 10 or 20 over the limit, flashing his lights and trying to get you to move out of the way. Its no good pissing them off though as it doesn't help and might lead to an accident. Just hope they caught by the speed cameras sometime.

spuddy

Originally posted by Silent Bob
To be fair to the guy he did say that 70 could be achieved safely (with reference to the only 60 zone of the M50).

thanks Silent Bob

of course i'm not advocating speeding, the point i was making only refered to that one stretch of motorway. i'm not the only one either who has problems with certain limits, seamus himself has publically admitted that he thinks the 40 limit on the stillorgan dual carrageway is too low as well. hopefully when the km limits come in we'll get consistency (thou' this is ireland so i wont hold my breath!).

i am vehemently opposed to speeding in conditions where it is dangerous to do so. i live on a rural road, narrow & with many blind bends. you would not believe the number of people who race around, doing anything up to 50/60. these people seem to have no clue that if they met somebody walking & had to swerve to avoid them, they could plough right into on coming traffic. i cannot count the number of near misses i've had with people flying out in the middle of the road after taking a corner too fast.

anyway rant over, hope i've made clear i do not condone speed, while i dont like the fact that it is largely blamed for the number of road deaths in this country (instead of addressing the problem at source, ie poor driver training & the terrible state of some of our roads) nonetheless, certain speed limits are set too low, they should always be set in accordance to the type of road they limit.

Praetorian

Originally posted by Wyvern
Everyone else is doing 70? Come off it! The republic drivers are hardly saints when it comes to speeding, I wouldn't say that northern drivers were any worse to be fair. I do agree that its annoying when you're overtaking some one and somebody comes up doing 10 or 20 over the limit, flashing his lights and trying to get you to move out of the way. Its no good pissing them off though as it doesn't help and might lead to an accident. Just hope they caught by the speed cameras sometime.

I drive on the N1 twice a day. The northern drivers on average drive quicker than the southern drivers. There is no doubt in my mind about that. I think they know they are more likely to get away with it because the Garda tend to ignore them. Maybe there is too much paper work involved. I've certainly never seen a northern car pulled over in the 3 years I've worked in Dublin.

I've noticed that the average speed in the slow lane in the evening is about 70mph, and about 80mph in the fast lane. It's safe and should be legal.

What should be illegal is the ridiculous 60 mph speed limit on the Naul road. It's a death trap. The road is in a shambles, and the recent attempt to repair it by the Co Co is laughable.

Mr. Fancypants

Originally posted by Praetorian
I drive on the N1 twice a day. The northern drivers on average drive quicker than the southern drivers. There is no doubt in my mind about that. I think they know they are more likely to get away with it because the Garda tend to ignore them. Maybe there is too much paper work involved. I've certainly never seen a northern car pulled over in the 3 years I've worked in Dublin.

I've noticed that the average speed in the slow lane in the evening is about 70mph, and about 80mph in the fast lane. It's safe and should be legal.

I agree with you about the Northern Reg cars. Im a field engineer so i see a lot of it on the roads. However, just to pick you up on one point. There are no fast lanes on our mototways, only overtaking lanes. You should only be in the overtaking lane when you are overtaking somebody.

Praetorian

Ok I knew that, and I do actually follow that rule. Don't you just hate when a person just sits in the outside lane for miles and miles at 60mph?

Mr. Fancypants

Originally posted by Praetorian
Ok I knew that, and I do actually follow that rule. Don't you just hate when a person just sits in the outside lane for miles and miles at 60mph?

Does my head in. It is just ignorance of the rules of the road though which is what most of the problems on our roads boil down to.

Praetorian

The state of a lot of the regional roads is disgraceful. Also I believe the speed limits in Ireland are ridiculous. Sorry about going off topic.

skipn_easy

Yea, the speed limits on good roads are often ridiculously low and on bad regional roads they're too high. I know loads of country roads where you couldn't be doing 60 miles an hour safely, and yet they have 60 mile speed limit and no warning signs.

Victor

Originally posted by Wyvern
Yea, the speed limits on good roads are often ridiculously low and on bad regional roads they're too high. I know loads of country roads where you couldn't be doing 60 miles an hour safely, and yet they have 60 mile speed limit and no warning signs.

And when I suggest a 40mph limit on rural roads, i get my head eaten off :rolleyes:

sceptre

Originally posted by Victor
And when I suggest a 40mph limit on rural roads, i get my head eaten off :rolleyes:

I'm sure you do. Not by the likes of me though.

My girlfriend's family are living in a small country place along the R619 (the old L40) between Mallow and Coachford. The village got its own 30mph zone last year[1] at the insistance of the locals - they'd been campaigning for it for a good while. Thing is, very few of the locals actually seem to obey the limit - they happily breeze through the village at 60+. I asked her last night if the cops ever did speed checks there, she said they they did for a while but the locals didn't like it:rolleyes: & the cops stopped doing them there as they were getting too much hassle. That's the kind of attitude that leads to your head getting bitten off when you suggest anything sane.



[1]Easily enough info for anyone who travels the road to know where I'm talking about.