Traffic lights at Fairyhouse cross AAAHHHH!

wclarke20

I feel I must write and state the frustration I am feeling with the recent traffic lights at the Fairyhouse cross on the N2. Prior to these lights been switched on, the tailbacks were bad and at worst went back as far as the Skyrne junction. The evening time consisted of a slow pace until Kilmoon cross but the traffic kept moving.

I can’t recall the last time there was an accident at that junction. I would very much like to see the figures for the accidents at this junction which triggered putting up the lights.

A smarter solution would have been to widen the road and put in better slip roads merging onto the n2. There is never a major tailback on either road approaching the n2 and all cars get across safely which makes you wonder why it was necessary to spend money on them?

A lot of people are now taking the back roads which are not suitable for heavy traffic and a serious accident will happen if something is not done quick.

I don’t know who approved them but whoever did obviously does not spend much time on this road especially at peak times. I travel and hour to work and with these new lights I have to add another 30 minutes to the trip making it a 3 hour round trip.

They should turn these lights off as they are not needed.

washiskin

I had lost count of the times I had to take evasive action because some gobsh*te came booting off that Ratoath Road and either swerved out over the yellow line or actually pulled out directly in front of me. There was a stop sign at that cross which was completely ignored by the vast majority of drivers who thought it was their divine right to get onto the N2 asap.

Last week, I got blown out of it by some a-hole at Kilmoon Cross because I had stopped before turning left for Ashbourne - er...hello? STOP SIGN!!!! :mad:

I agree that the congestion is crazy and a round-a-bout would have been a better solution but in all fairness, if people had only obeyed the rules of the road, there would have been no need for the lights.

wclarke20

washiskin wrote: »

I had lost count of the times I had to take evasive action because some gobsh*te came booting off that Ratoath Road and either swerved out over the yellow line or actually pulled out directly in front of me. There was a stop sign at that cross which was completely ignored by the vast majority of drivers who thought it was their divine right to get onto the N2 asap.

Last week, I got blown out of it by some a-hole at Kilmoon Cross because I had stopped before turning left for Ashbourne - er...hello? STOP SIGN!!!! :mad:

I agree that the congestion is crazy and a round-a-bout would have been a better solution but in all fairness, if people had only obeyed the rules of the road, there would have been no need for the lights.

better road markings, lanes to merge safely onto the N2 with appropriate signage would be the sensible solution for Kilmoon. Fairyhouse didnt need traffic lights. Improved road markings and signage would have sufficed.

The council obviously have no clue what the situation is like on a daily basis. they obviously didnt survey the traffic prior to putting these lights up.

RazorT

The traffic this morning was back to Balrath Cross that's 5 miles back. It took over an hour to get through. :mad: I've emailed the MCC and a few local politicans to see what can be done. Took me 2 hours and 15 minutes to get into work when it normally takes 50 minutes.

coolhandluke

The asshole who agreed to and sanctioned the use of taxpayers money for these lights, should be ****in sacked,talk about creating a problem where none existed previously.

NufcNavan

Lights at Fairyhouse? Thank God I use the Ashbourne bypass instead.

ibarelycare

There's a Fairyhouse Cross on the N2 as well? I got a bit confused thinking this was about the Fairyhouse Cross on the N3!

Might as well complain about the one on the N3 while I'm here anyway; yesterday morning traffic was backed from the roundabout back to before the County Club (about 2 miles), this morning it was backed to nearly the Workhouse just outside Dunshaughlin! (maybe 4-5 miles). Crazy. Usually there's a tailback of maybe 10 cars coming up to the roundabout, on a bad day you might be at the back of a queue of 30 cars...never seen it like this.

I don't understand how the place is at such a standstill when there's a bit of ice on the roads, it's not like the main roads are that icy anyway. It's going to be even more of a nightmare on Thursday when the schools start back. I turned back this morning and went the backroads to Batterstown and came out at the Fairyhouse roundabout that way and was much quicker. Yseterday it took me 1 hour 40 mins to get from Dunshaughlin to Blanch village! Today it took me about 1 hour 20. Ridiculous!

Sorry I'm highjacking a thread with a different topic but someone else might come in here thinking the same as me!

mcwhirter

The traffic lights at the n2 ratoath/fairyhouse turnoff are a bit of a joke, typically setup by someone who does not use the road that often. If they were turned off at off-peak times as in other countries it would help the traffic flow.
They have forced a lot of drivers to use the back roads more often which does not make any sense.
The N2 is a main road, comparable in road traffic to any other of the main N roads, yet it is being treated as a back road.

It was obviously the cheapest option the council had as making the road wider at the junction point would have been an expensive project.
But they have not looked to the future at all, traffic is increasing consistently and this is going to be a very very congested road if not sorted soon.

asomeday

like a previous poster was laso confused by this being called fairyhouse cross, this never was called fairyhouse cross before now.

having travelled that stretch of road on hundreds of occasions before the lights were activated i think it was the best action to take,there are enough roundabouts on the m2/n2 that most motorists already have a problem driving on.and the junction was improved to add a stop sign on the Curragha side a number of months back, but the problem of lunatic drivers still continued.

Sorry to hear anyone has to sit in traffic for this long before work in the mornings but it was the only safe action.

wclarke20

asomeday wrote: »

like a previous poster was laso confused by this being called fairyhouse cross, this never was called fairyhouse cross before now.

having travelled that stretch of road on hundreds of occasions before the lights were activated i think it was the best action to take,there are enough roundabouts on the m2/n2 that most motorists already have a problem driving on.and the junction was improved to add a stop sign on the Curragha side a number of months back, but the problem of lunatic drivers still continued.

Sorry to hear anyone has to sit in traffic for this long before work in the mornings but it was the only safe action.

Easy knowing you don't travel to Dublin every day.
There is a roundabout at the Marriott at Ashbourne which isn't "a problem", I mean you drive around them. How hard is that? If you find roundabouts a problem, you shouldn't be allowed even drive a car..

The next roundabout is at Finglas and they are turning that into a free flow onto the m50.

The lights are up because of local politicians looking to keep their constituents happy. No thought was put into the knock on effect for the rest of the country. "Keep my people happy and I'll continue with this handsome salary".

Rebelheart

ibarelycare wrote: »

There's a Fairyhouse Cross on the N2 as well? I got a bit confused thinking this was about the Fairyhouse Cross on the N3!

Me too. Never heard of that N2 Fairyhouse Cross turn.

I'm still waiting for the NRA to take the 'e' off the end of the Irish version of Dún Seachlainn - not Dún Seachlainne - which they decided to put up at Fairyhouse Cross (the N3 one) two years ago. Compare with the sign entering Dunshaughlin to see what I'm on about.

wclarke20

its actually called Primatestown junction but i always knew it as the road over to fairyhose market on a sunday, hence fairyhouse cross!!

strange logic, i know!

Hammer Archer

Rebelheart wrote: »

Me too. Never heard of that N2 Fairyhouse Cross turn.

I'm still waiting for the NRA to take the 'e' off the end of the Irish version of Dún Seachlainn - not Dún Seachlainne - which they decided to put up at Fairyhouse Cross (the N3 one) two years ago. Compare with the sign entering Dunshaughlin to see what I'm on about.

You'll probably be waiting a while.
They still have Skryne spelt as Skreen os Screen on most road signs.

asomeday

w clarke

I do travel to Dublin everyday but not from past the Primatestown cross.

There are a number of roundabouts on the n2/m2:
Roundabout at Marriott
Roundabout at 9 mile stone
Roundabout just past the white house pub

all of which seem to cause a problem for other road users {not myself} mainly driving in the wrong lanes!

Rebelheart

Hammer Archer wrote: »

You'll probably be waiting a while.
They still have Skryne spelt as Skreen os Screen on most road signs.

Yeah, to digress further Screen is definitely wrong. However, Skreen is the official spelling in English according to Logainm.ie, which is the Irish Placenames Commission website, and they have statutory responsibility for deciding the spellings of placenames in both English and the Irish:

http://www.logainm.ie/?text=skreen&placeID=182

Phonetically, Skreen sounds more accurate than Skryne as a transliteration of Scrín (with a fada).

LFCFan

As much as I detest roundabouts (way too many in this country), it would have been the much better option at this junction. The lights are a joke and have made the N2 even worse. The first thing they should have tried though would have been to square off the junction to stop cars flying through the junction thinking it's a freeflow merge lane. This is though, there is an extension of the Ashbourne bypass in the pipeline which if and when it's done will mean a major improvement to traffic all over this area.

http://www.nra.ie/RoadSchemeActivity/MeathCountyCouncil/N2AshbournetoArdee/SchemeName,16476,en.html

Also, they've recently started putting up street lights at Kilmoon Cross which are badly needed because of the bus stop and the fact it's a major junction. I just hope they don't go down the road of traffic lights here too :eek:

wclarke20

LFCFan wrote: »

As much as I detest roundabouts (way too many in this country), it would have been the much better option at this junction. The lights are a joke and have made the N2 even worse. The first thing they should have tried though would have been to square off the junction to stop cars flying through the junction thinking it's a freeflow merge lane. This is though, there is an extension of the Ashbourne bypass in the pipeline which if and when it's done will mean a major improvement to traffic all over this area.

http://www.nra.ie/RoadSchemeActivity/MeathCountyCouncil/N2AshbournetoArdee/SchemeName,16476,en.html

Also, they've recently started putting up street lights at Kilmoon Cross which are badly needed because of the bus stop and the fact it's a major junction. I just hope they don't go down the road of traffic lights here too :eek:

I heard a whisper that one ofthe local councillers in that area is lobbying for traffic lights at Kilmoon too. No thought put into it. He got them up to keep his locals happy without any consideration for the commuters

LFCFan

wclarke20 wrote: »

I heard a whisper that one ofthe local councillers in that area is lobbying for traffic lights at Kilmoon too. No thought put into it. He got them up to keep his locals happy without any consideration for the commuters

How would traffic lights be beneficial to the locals? All traffic lights would do here is back up the traffic all over the place and result in the locals being as frustrated as everyone else. I'm fairly local (2 miles from Kilmoon) and have witnessed on plenty of occassions how bad Kilmoon Cross is. There are no lights, no proper bus stop and there have been many fatal car crashes. A roundabout would be a lot better here than traffic lights as it would keep the traffic moving and there would be no need for side traffic to halt the main N2 traffic as much as lights would.

I came from Ashbourne earlier and hit the new lights at Primastown cross and they went through 3 cycles before I managed to get past and this was at 14:00 on a Friday afternoon. Before the lights were there there was no delays whatsoever except for rush hour. Now there are delays all the time and massive tailbacks at rush hour. Whoever sactioned these lights should be fired for incompetance :mad:

gipi

Rebelheart wrote: »

Me too. Never heard of that N2 Fairyhouse Cross turn.

I'm still waiting for the NRA to take the 'e' off the end of the Irish version of Dún Seachlainn - not Dún Seachlainne - which they decided to put up at Fairyhouse Cross (the N3 one) two years ago. Compare with the sign entering Dunshaughlin to see what I'm on about.

Why they decided to change the Irish name to Dún Seachlainn(e) from the older Domhnach Seachnaill (which is what I knew it as, as a youngster) is another question......!!

and now...back to the topic!

wclarke20

LFCFan wrote: »

How would traffic lights be beneficial to the locals? All traffic lights would do here is back up the traffic all over the place and result in the locals being as frustrated as everyone else. I'm fairly local (2 miles from Kilmoon) and have witnessed on plenty of occassions how bad Kilmoon Cross is. There are no lights, no proper bus stop and there have been many fatal car crashes. A roundabout would be a lot better here than traffic lights as it would keep the traffic moving and there would be no need for side traffic to halt the main N2 traffic as much as lights would.

I came from Ashbourne earlier and hit the new lights at Primastown cross and they went through 3 cycles before I managed to get past and this was at 14:00 on a Friday afternoon. Before the lights were there there was no delays whatsoever except for rush hour. Now there are delays all the time and massive tailbacks at rush hour. Whoever sactioned these lights should be fired for incompetance :mad:

You can thank local councillor, Mr. Killian. The response I got off him was that he considers waiting in traffic for hours better than a dangerous junction.
However, he didnt respond when I questioned why they didnt use raised islands, road markings and merge lanes.

I have never seen more than 2 cars in the queue on the road from Curragha in the evenings.
Grrrr

gene hackmann

First point: Loss in Economic Productivity due to said Traffic Lights

okay there are approximately 23,000 cars that go past there every day going by:
http://www.nra.ie/NetworkManagement/TrafficCounts/TrafficCounterData/html/N02-23B.htm

If each person loses 10 mins on average due to these ridiculous traffic lights, that is a total of 23,000 X 10 = 230,000 minutes of productivity lost!!

230,000 minutes = 3833 hours lost per day!

There are approximately 8 hrs per "man day".

That means 3833/8 = 479 'man days' of producitivity are lost every day!!!!

It would be economically viable to have 100 traffic wardens if that solved the problem.

Second Point: Safety
The councillor raises the point of road safety. Safety is paramount, but it MUST always be done in balance with other factors.. that is life.
If safety was the only factor, speed limits on motorways would be 30 miles per hour.
Why is that not the case?
Because as important as safety is, it is imperative to only take undertake actions that are REASONABLE. This traffic lights are far from reasonable.