Rock Road traffic chaos

thebaz

anyone see the caos on the rock road today, beside blackrock college, i had to turn around and forget my trip to town . Aparently this is ongoing for 12 months. Where are the councillors that allowed this insanity ? One lane at rush hour at this main link into city centre and port . unbelievable . Cant believe it was so badly advertised, and that it is taking so long. Pity all the poor motorists on there way out of town now:mad:

Tipsy Mac

What are the plans for the road? I remember seeing a nice animated sign there for the past month, however they had it positioned in a place where nobody could read it due to the traffic moving. I think I will have to be considering an N11/M50 route in the future.

Possibly something insane like a buslane is going to be built permanently limiting an already busy two lane road to one. A better option would have been a new bus/cycle lane down along the coast which wouldn't bother anyone, it could link up at East Wall somewhere and then onto Pearse Street.

BrianD

No excuses on this one. It was well advertised in the national press and local/national radio. I had heard/read all about it even though I don't use it or live in the area. You need to inform yourself better!!

What's wrong with a bus lane? The Stillorgan QBC has demonstrated that the addition of a bus lane actually increases the commuter capacity of the road.

Anan1

BrianD wrote:

No excuses on this one. It was well advertised in the national press and local/national radio. I had heard/read all about it even though I don't use it or live in the area. You need to inform yourself better!!

What's wrong with a bus lane? The Stillorgan QBC has demonstrated that the addition of a bus lane actually increases the commuter capacity of the road.

Whining is a very Irish thing.

mike65

Moved to Commuting/Transport.

Mike.

MarkoP11

Its a rebuild to replace the water main and to sort out the flooding problem

I find it very strange passing by the Rock Rd each day to see a queue of traffic, get the train contrary to popular belief there are seats in the rush hour on the DART particularly in the evening. I see plenty of buses with seats as well. Plently of people could use public transport making life easier

Far to many SUVs with lazy kids heading to Blackrock College are one of the real problems

NUTLEY BOY

MarkoP11 wrote:

Far to many SUVs with lazy kids heading to Blackrock College are one of the real problems

Yeh dhats rite. Whenever it rains like an oi don't want to cycle like and ruin my hur sort of thing goin to 'Rock oi take dhe folks SUV to skool like. Were not allowed to drive in the skool like so we pork our folks cars all over the place like.....

Passed by the Tara Towers around lunchtime and it was alright.

Passed by again around 17:00 and it was mayhem. Between Tara Towers and the DART station they have closed off the seaward side of the road. There is only one half of the road width now available. There is now only one lane each way between these points.

There were two motorcycle Gardai controlling traffic, one at Tara Towers and one at the DART station. There are no right turns every bloody where.

This involves waterworks, cable works, road widening and straightening and so on. The work is only starting here and will be heading towards Blackrock.

Probably best seriously avoided at peak times.

thebaz

love to miss it, but unfortunatly at times need to use this stretch for work at peak times. My cynicism wonders is the upgrade connected to Elm Park development , upgrading the undergrounf infrastructure !

John R

Tipsy Mac wrote:

What are the plans for the road? I remember seeing a nice animated sign there for the past month, however they had it positioned in a place where nobody could read it due to the traffic moving. I think I will have to be considering an N11/M50 route in the future.

Possibly something insane like a buslane is going to be built permanently limiting an already busy two lane road to one. A better option would have been a new bus/cycle lane down along the coast which wouldn't bother anyone, it could link up at East Wall somewhere and then onto Pearse Street.

A bus lane on the rock road is an excellent idea, after a year of single lane from the roadworks car users will be used to the lower capacity anyway.

It has been a horiffic bottleneck for years, all the bus routes using are desperately slow in the peaks.

thebaz

Please no bus lane - on this 2 lane road into city centre, the merrion gates cause eneogh chaos !

paulm17781

bax wrote:

Please no bus lane - on this 2 lane road into city centre, the merrion gates cause eneogh chaos !

Get the bus instead.

monument

bax wrote:

Please no bus lane - on this 2 lane road into city centre, the merrion gates cause eneogh chaos !

Why? It's not like they are going to make the road bus-only.

By the way, are you in the PDs? Might think if joining if not...
http://www.progressivedemocrats.ie/council_news/27/

paulm17781

monument wrote:

By the way, are you in the PDs? Might think if joining if not...
http://www.progressivedemocrats.ie/council_news/27/

He does make the excellent point of it being next to the DART. I generally use the 7/45 (saves me a five minute walk) while I like those buses they could easily be re-routed to serve people who aren't served by Ireland's highest capacity mass transit system.

Wibbler

Anyone hear the news this evening where a council official was being interviewed about the changes over the phone? He was interrupted, what sounded like mid interview, by an angry visiting commuter who just spent 3 hours stuck in the traffic and dropped by to complain. Classic!

drdre

marko stop slagging blackrock college students.i was one of them and it was a great school.anyway we will leave that aside.

the rock road roadworks was well advertised everywhere but it will cause alot of problems.but its nothing new, most of our roads are like that.

Victor

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Bunsen_and_beaker.jpg

http://www.progressivedemocrats.ie/council_news/27/

loyatemu

paulm17781 wrote:

He does make the excellent point of it being next to the DART. I generally use the 7/45 (saves me a five minute walk) while I like those buses they could easily be re-routed to serve people who aren't served by Ireland's highest capacity mass transit system.

re-route them where?? - if they're going into town they have to take either the rock road or the stillorgan road and the latter is already very well served by buses.

I've always thought that the rock\merrion rd would be a good candidate for being a "tidal" road - ie in the morning it could be 3 lanes in and 1 out with the reverse in the evening.

paulm17781

loyatemu wrote:

re-route them where??

Anywhere that isn't served by DART or Luas. There are more than two roads in Dublin.

kiss103

Live in booterstown and this is not welcome , it's great for all those to say use the bus / dart , for some this is not an option anyway public transport is dire , i have now lost my parking space , from a 20 mins commute last week to a 2 hr commute on monday night, there is no way these asses should be allowed to do this interruption that is not at all neccessary ,

Also

paulm17781

kiss103 wrote:

Live in booterstown and this is not welcome , it's great for all those to say use the bus / dart , for some this is not an option anyway public transport is dire

Not an option or not a desireable option? Very different things.

Victor

kiss103 wrote:

for some this is not an option anyway public transport is dire

So why do 55%+ of the people on that corridor use public transport?

MarkoP11

Its possibly one of the best served corridors in the city, there are 9 trains serving Blackrock northbound between 8 and 9am, 8 from Booterstown.

The 5, 7, 7a, 7x, 8 and 45 buses serve the Rock Road

Strangely as I passed by at 8:40 this morning there was little traffic, people got the hint, the DART coach I was in had no more than 15 people standing, space for 100 more if pushed. The buses are not terribly busy, the option is open sure some can't use public transport but its a give and take those who can will reduce the traffic on those who can't

paulm17781

MarkoP11 wrote:

Strangely as I passed by at 8:40 this morning there was little traffic, people got the hint, the DART coach I was in had no more than 15 people standing, space for 100 more if pushed. The buses are not terribly busy,

The 7/45 is busy at that time (going away from town). There is very little traffic but serious delays in Booterstown. The bus I get to work every day is now making me late. I think time to shift to the DART, I saw two pass me while I was stuck in traffic today.

MarkoP11

Wednesday morning not a car to be seen from Willow Park entrance the whole way to the lights at Booterstown, very very spooky

Thursday the queue was the whole way back to Blackrock, something very strange.

Once again train on time, not more than 15 people standing in my coach, those who can should use public transport it makes a difference for everyone, there is a high quailty public transport system in place and people still sit in their cars even in horrible traffic

paulm17781

MarkoP11 wrote:

Wednesday morning not a car to be seen from Willow Park entrance the whole way to the lights at Booterstown, very very spooky

Thursday the queue was the whole way back to Blackrock, something very strange.

I havn't been looking at that direction. Since Tuesday there has been a tailback to the Merrion gates. Little traffic before then, I suspect it is cars comming off the Strand road are causing it. Either way seeing two DARTs pass my bus has made me realise I should just get the DART.

Scottish

The DART seems to be everyones solution to this problem. Its not always practical for people.

Horrendous delay for me this morning. It appears that DARTs don't work properly when its raining.

As someone who regularly has to drive for work purposes, this Rock Road development is awful. As for getting to the airport if I need to fly anywhere, I shudder to think how long that would now take from Sandycove, either in a taxi or in my own car. 12 months of this, and I'll be looking for another job or another country.

monument

Scottish wrote:

Horrendous delay for me this morning. It appears that DARTs don't work properly when its raining.

It’s even worse when it rains and there are leafs on the tracks.

Victor

http://www.dlrcoco.ie/Roads/RockRoadSpeedLimit.htm

http://www.dlrcoco.ie/Roads/RockRoad.pdf

GusherING

I live along the Rock Road, so anytime I exit my road, I have to go left. What once was a 5 min journey into Blackrock takes 20 to complete. I can't wait to see what they do when they dig up the side of the road where my estate is!

WICKL0W

Why do they not make it one lane way further back. The delays are due to cars going from 2 to 1 lane. If everyone was in a single lane, this would not be an issue. I suppose no matter how far you went back there would always be one who will keep going as far as possible and then suddenly pull in - usually in front of another car.

Bee

Ttime and time again the traffic engineers are using the infrastructure of this city as a weapon against its citizens.

As demoed by the chaos created on the Rock Rd The QBC is a traffic disaster waiting to happen. It is deeply flawed and will worsen the congestion on Dublin's southside rather than improve it.

People need to use cars on this road

Roll on the election to sort out the idiots who sanctioned a QBC along Rock Rd

Bee

monument

Bee wrote:

Ttime and time again the traffic engineers are using the infrastructure of this city as a weapon against its citizens.

That reminds me of this... Labour to tackle issue of deprivation in Dublin 4

SickCert

Two hours this evening - City to Oldcourt, its depressing and im driving it!
On another note they have started similar works in Cabinteely village so we might as well chuck the timetable in the fire.:eek:

John R

Bee wrote:

People need to use cars on this road

No. People need to stop using cars on this road.

paulm17781

John R wrote:

No. People need to stop using cars on this road.

I have to agree. I got the bus today for the first time in two weeks and it flew in. No schools. If more people used the DART and walked for 15 - 20 minutes it would be much nicer. Hopefully the QBC will reduce car usage.

D'Peoples Voice

paulm17781 wrote:

He does make the excellent point of it being next to the DART. I generally use the 7/45 (saves me a five minute walk) while I like those buses they could easily be re-routed to serve people who aren't served by Ireland's highest capacity mass transit system.

As a supporter of the PD's, I'm ashamed of this lad.
He says we don't need a bus lane right next to the DART, so what's his rationale for next two lanes for cars right next to the DART.
Clearly the DART is more restricted for people to access, buses can be more flexible by going into housing estates.But no-one will get a bus all the way into town if it takes as long as a car. You need to be saving on time if you are willing to give up the luxury of driving in your own car. Feeder buses to DART stations are not good enough, they are irregular at best.
Hence this bus lane is long over-due, and fiar play to local government for taking this decision, if it were left to central government, it would never happen!
The only sad thing is, because of the unions in CIE, Minister cullen will not allow private bus companies on this route, so it may end up being a white elephant!

NUTLEY BOY

Any idea who is doing the works on the Rock Road ?

I cannot see a contractors sign so do we take in a deep breath and assume that DLRCC are actually doing it themselves ? It might explain a lot.

Beware folks that there is a 30 KPH speed limit in force between Trimleston and Mount Merrion Avenue whilst this masterpeice is in progress.

If you are on a bicycle then you have to get off and walk between Booterstown Avenue and Trimleston. Honestly, it says so on the big orange sign that keeps moving around the Rock Road.

I have not seen one blow of work done on this project over the weekends. Would you not think that a bit of weekend work would be justified for this road given the traffic mayhem being caused on roads feeding into the N11 alternative ?

Also, why not some nightime work when the project moves on towards the DART station where there are relatively few residents to be disturbed ?

The only good thought is that this will probably run so late that it might keep general election canvassers away.

Victor

NUTLEY BOY wrote:

I have not seen one blow of work done on this project over the weekends. ...

Also, why not some nightime work when the project moves on towards the DART station where there are relatively few residents to be disturbed ?

Money.

NUTLEY BOY

Has anyone seen any workmen on the Rock Road or have they migrated for the autumn ?

SickCert

They were there causing chaos on friday.

matressmonkey

All,

Anyone recall what was said on the road signs that 1st went up when the roadworks on the rock road started before the summer?

I recall they said something like: "work scheduled to be completed by September '06."

or was that September '07 ???

Anyway, now, that we're into October, the roadworks are still going on, but lo and behold, the signs are gone, so I and every other friggin motorist can't see if they are ahead [lol !!] or behind in their schedule.

Anyone know what the hell is taking them so long and for why?

MM

Pines

Here's the DLR CoCo outline of the timescale. Looks like a target finish date of Feb/March 07.

Zascar

THis morning I left a litle later than usual - 8am instead of 7.30-7.40. It took me almost an hour to get from Maxwell Motors in Blackrock, to the Merrion Gates - this is a 5 minute journey when there is no traffic.

Its an absolute disgrace how badly this road works is being managed. The traffic is slowed when 2 lanes are forces into one, but what do they do but let the traffoc go back into two lanes a few hundred yards later, onlt to converge AGAIN slowing everyhting more. Why not just take one lane out completely alll the way, that way the traffic has more chance of flowing at least.

John R

Zascar wrote:

THis morning I left a litle later than usual - 8am instead of 7.30-7.40. It took me almost an hour to get from Maxwell Motors in Blackrock, to the Merrion Gates - this is a 5 minute journey when there is no traffic.

Its an absolute disgrace how badly this road works is being managed. The traffic is slowed when 2 lanes are forces into one, but what do they do but let the traffoc go back into two lanes a few hundred yards later, onlt to converge AGAIN slowing everyhting more. Why not just take one lane out completely alll the way, that way the traffic has more chance of flowing at least.

Because the people who organise these things are morons, simple as.

MUCH worse is the way they are marking out the road for the future.

There will be one car and one bus lane inbound from Mount Merrion ave except for a small section from Carroll&Kinsella to Booterstown ave where there will be two driving lanes and a bus lane which will then have to jostle into one driving lane and bus lane the other side of Booterstown ave.

That is just stupid, it will lead to exactly the scenario that is happening now with too many cars entering the section from the Mount Merrion ave junction and then huge delays getting past Booterstown Ave junction, and no doubt given the narrowness of the bus lane busses will get caught up there too.

There are a lot of supposedly well educated people in the planning departments of our authorities who are retarded idiots.

AlekSmart

"There are a lot of supposedly well educated people in the planning departments of our authorities who are retarded idiots.[/QUOTE]"

Elequently put John R.
This observation is,however all to true as can be seen all over Dublin City particularly.
The current flurry of Civil Engineering being carried out on behalf of DCC`s Water Works Dept at Dorset St/Blessington St must take the award for the most mismanaged and potentially dangerous set of works in Dublin.

DCC issue a list to interested parties each week detailing the threatened work for the week ahead which usually has the responsible engineers name and contact number appended.

Perhaps some kind poster could find this and enlighten us as to who is responsible for the sorry pathetic mess which typifies all that is bad in Irish Civil Engineering.

And yet it need not be so.
Presently the contractors simply set up shop to excavate holes along the centre line of Dorset St without making the slightest effort to restrict or otherwise discourage car parking parallell to the site.
The simple expedient of removing ALL car parking on the approaches and departures from the work would make a huge difference,IF somebody in charge could rustle upenough interest in what they were doing.

It is blatently obvious that whilst DCC`s Civil Engineering Professionals may be highly qualfied in the theory and practive of excavating large openings,the same "Professionals" have shag-all knowledge of what constututes safe or even half-best practice in terms of Traffic Management and Control in the area of road works.
Time and again we see simply laziness and haphazard attitudes to the prepriatory work which SHOULD be put in place BEFORE a JCB or RockBreaker is unleashed upon an unsuspecting public....

Does anybody in DCC give a damn..? I very much doubt it.... :eek:

RobAMerc

Ok, these guys have seen the utter chaos on the Rock road for the last X months as it has been reduced to one lane, and they still go an paint a BUS lane on it which leads me to believe they are gonna use it !

Is this not nuts !
Do these idiots go out of their way to annoy already demented commuters ?

Enduro

That sounds like excellent news for all the thousands of Bus and cycle commuters on that route. You could even try taking the bus yourself.

DerekP11

The buslane/QBC concept is good in principle. However, introducing them without any additional services/routes etc is purely cosmetic and offers nothing to those who genuinely have no choice but to drive.

Unfortunetly the commuting set up in Dublin is based on people driving because they have no choice. Thats a majority scenario and the main reason why congestion is so bad. Forcing buslanes down the throats of car dependent routes is merely a beauracratic solution to a misunderstood problem.

RobAMerc

Enduro wrote:

You could even try taking the bus yourself.

Thats not very helpfull
What makes you think I would not if I could, I spend long enough in work each day without the 2 hr commute each way public transport would take.

Drax

RobAMerc wrote:

Thats very helpfull, idiot.
What makes you think I would not if I could, I spend long enough in work each day without the 2 hr commute each way public transport would take.

Careful there Ted. You never what mods are lurking around here. He does have a point - how long does it take you to drive into town? I've also noticed that outbound near booterstown the bus lane is partially a cycle lane - too narrow for a bus to overtake a bicycle - thats the story with that... Obviously the bus will have to indicate it is overtaking the bicycle and move into the other lane. Silly!

Hobart

RobAMerc wrote:

Thats very helpfull, idiot.
What makes you think I would not if I could, I spend long enough in work each day without the 2 hr commute each way public transport would take.

Anymore abuse like that RobAMerc, and you can have a wee break from this board. Less of the personal abuse.