M50 thread

omicron

Possibly a new record?

152537 cars between Junction 7 and 9 yesterday.

https://www.nratrafficdata.ie/c2/tfdaysreport.asp?sgid=ZvyVmXU8jBt9PJE$c7UXt6&spid=NRA_000000001503&reportdate=2014-12-15&enddate=2014-12-20

pad199207

Yesterday morning and this morning are simply the worst mornings I've ever seen for Traffic Jams on the M50.
Red Cow was completely choked and N7 was backed to Kingswood as a result.
Boom times are certainly back!

rameire

pad199207 wrote: »

Yesterday morning and this morning are simply the worst mornings I've ever seen for Traffic Jams on the M50.
Red Cow was completely choked and N7 was backed to Kingswood as a result.
Boom times are certainly back!

Sunnier times.

About 1hr45 mins from the M1 merge to J13 two days in a row. Looks like this is going to be the new normal. It's great that the economy has picked up and a lot of people are back to work but the M50 is no longer able to cope.

paulbok

T'was fine this morning, (for me) ~20 mins from N2 to N7. around 8 - 8:30. No sun though.
Using Omicrons link above for the traffic data, the volumes are not majorly different over the last few weeks.
must have been a combination of low sun, crashes/breakdowns and general muppetry on Tuesday & Wednesday.

celticbest

As has been said on numerous occasions before the M50 needS to be properly policed, too many people seem to thinks it’s okay to cross hatch markings, jump from lane to lane etc.

If lane discipline was enforced and Junctions where used properly the traffic might still be heavy but it would keep moving.

paulbok

paulbok wrote: »

T'was fine this morning, (for me) ~20 mins from N2 to N7. around 8 - 8:30. No sun though.
Using Omicrons link above for the traffic data, the volumes are not majorly different over the last few weeks.
must have been a combination of low sun, crashes/breakdowns and general muppetry on Tuesday & Wednesday.

Yes, it seems the rising sun is having disastrous affect, if only drivers knew how to user their sun visor and have good windscreen wash it should be causing such problems. I don't think I've ever been so blinded i couldn't see the road.

First Up

celticbest wrote: »

As has been said on numerous occasions before the M50 needS to be properly policed, too many people seem to thinks it’s okay to cross hatch markings, jump from lane to lane etc.

If lane discipline was enforced and Junctions where used properly the traffic might still be heavy but it would keep moving.

The M50 (and the M7 between Newlands and Naas) is where all that is bad and wrong about Irish driving is on permanent display.

paulbok

cisk wrote: »

Yes, it seems the rising sun is having disastrous affect, if only drivers knew how to user their sun visor and have good windscreen wash it should be causing such problems. I don't think I've ever been so blinded i couldn't see the road.

Yep, same as a puppy is not just for Christmas,
Sun-glasses are not just for Summer.

Carawaystick

That m50 traffic link is deadly

There were more cars on the m50 this morning than the last two days between 8-9am

https://www.nratrafficdata.ie/c2/tfdaysreport.asp?sgid=ZvyVmXU8jBt9PJE$c7UXt6&spid=NRA_000000001503&reportdate=2015-03-03&enddate=2015-03-05

Chris_5339762

cisk wrote: »

Yes, it seems the rising sun is having disastrous affect, if only drivers knew how to user their sun visor and have good windscreen wash it should be causing such problems. I don't think I've ever been so blinded i couldn't see the road.

This is an annual event... even before the two current triggers (M1 widening to J4 and Newlands) dumped their stalled traffic onto the M50, the morning sun caused slowdowns.

garancafan

paulbok wrote: »

Yep, same as a puppy is not just for Christmas,
Sun-glasses are not just for Summer.

Not just sun-glasses - polaroids can make all the difference!

veryangryman

Just wondering. Kind of fanciful but...

I'd the eastern bypass got built and thus the M50 full circle, would this result in a removal/lowering of the toll for cars to use tunnel. Would make more sense so that as many people as possible avoid the city.

Sheldons Brain

veryangryman wrote: »

Just wondering. Kind of fanciful but...

I'd the eastern bypass got built and thus the M50 full circle, would this result in a removal/lowering of the toll for cars to use tunnel. Would make more sense so that as many people as possible avoid the city.

They'd need some sort of toll that didn't allow you exit at the city centre, where would you draw the line?

veryangryman

Sheldons Brain wrote: »

They'd need some sort of toll that didn't allow you exit at the city centre, where would you draw the line?

Video tagging or reuse of existing tenner charge at 3arena I guess would do it

Panda_Turtle

If you want to avoid the m50 traffic just be on it by 630 am.

Next year that will be 6am, etc.:cool:

Someday

http://www.irishmotorwayinfo.com/inex/roads/m45/m45.html

It got shelved with the bust, it now needs to be put Top of the list to Help ease the M50 traffic situation

loyatemu

Someday wrote: »

http://www.irishmotorwayinfo.com/inex/roads/m45/m45.html

It got shelved with the bust, it now needs to be put Top of the list to Help ease the M50 traffic situation

the M50 is congested at peak hours - this would suggest it's virtually all commuter and other local traffic, removing the long distance traffic wouldn't have that much effect. (also if they do build the ORR they should just call it the M9)

Carawaystick

Someday wrote: »

http://www.irishmotorwayinfo.com/inex/roads/m45/m45.html

It got shelved with the bust, it now needs to be put Top of the list to Help ease the M50 traffic situation

Or improved public transport and cycling infrastructure put in place to provide alternatives to people travelling on the route, such as a high level Liffey crossing between Lucan Bridge and Chapelizod bridge.

Larbre34

Might as well get used to the M50 folks, there is no money for the outer bypass or the Eastern Bypass or anything of significant impact. Ive emailed the NRA before about putting hollow bollards on the hatch markings to reduce early or late merging. Thats about all that available to them. They could put in interim tolls, but that would only disadvantage other routes.

M50 users fail to realise they are their own traffic, why should it be for all others to find an alternative?

Middle Man

Larbre34 wrote: »

Might as well get used to the M50 folks, there is no money for the outer bypass or the Eastern Bypass or anything of significant impact. Ive emailed the NRA before about putting hollow bollards on the hatch markings to reduce early or late merging. Thats about all that available to them. They could put in interim tolls, but that would only disadvantage other routes.

M50 users fail to realise they are their own traffic, why should it be for all others to find an alternative?

PPP with hard tolls? Development levies to pay for CPOs?

Whatever happened to the variable speed limit signs that were supposed to be installed in those empty gantries?
They would go a long way to reducing the "bunching" effect that the congested traffic has.

AugustusMinimus

Must say I agree on one thing. LOOR should simply be a continuation of the M9. A good idea as it would involve a significant upgrade of the M7 M9 junction which presently doesn't support all movements.

porsche959

Larbre34 wrote: »

Might as well get used to the M50 folks, there is no money for the outer bypass or the Eastern Bypass or anything of significant impact. Ive emailed the NRA before about putting hollow bollards on the hatch markings to reduce early or late merging. Thats about all that available to them. They could put in interim tolls, but that would only disadvantage other routes.

M50 users fail to realise they are their own traffic, why should it be for all others to find an alternative?

Yep, agreed.

Look on the bright side, the M50 is a lot newer and better maintained than London's M25!

Commuters should lobby for more Luas lines rather than outer bypass/Eastern Bypass pie-in-the-sky stuff!

Caliden

Deleted User wrote: »

Whatever happened to the variable speed limit signs that were supposed to be installed in those empty gantries?
They would go a long way to reducing the "bunching" effect that the congested traffic has.

No enforcement and besides there's so much traffic on it now between J3 to J10 that 30kmh would even be too much.

ardmacha

Caliden wrote: »

No enforcement and besides there's so much traffic on it now between J3 to J10 that 30kmh would even be too much.

The enforecement end of things could be easily addressed by placing average speed cameras on the gantries for the variable limit.

Carawaystick

ardmacha wrote: »

The enforecement end of things could be easily addressed by placing average speed cameras on the gantries for the variable limit.

That'd be great to calculate the average speed it took me over the hour travelling from J3-J4 last Thursday....

Davy

3 crashes between J6 and J4 at the same time today northbound must nealry be a record

celticbest

Davy wrote: »

3 crashes between J6 and J4 at the same time today northbound must nealry be a record

Final score was 4 crashes Between J6 and J3......

sdanseo

I know it's been done to absolute death but although a lot of delays seem to be caused by exceptionally poor driving leading to collisions, there's is still the old foe that is poor lane discipline. And even in heavy traffic, it's still absolutely rampant.

In the course of putting together a thesis on road safety I asked the NRAs man in charge of intelligent traffic systems about the possibility of including messages encouraging drivers to keep left on the VMS boards - unfortunately it seems all such messages have to be agreed by the RSA and Gardaí and thus the NRA themselves seem to be a bit constrained.

People who drive badly and cause accidents are always the ones who get the blame (and rightly so) - but like it or not, accidents are more often than not caused by impatience or inattention. Impatience in turn is caused by people driving badly in ways that never seem to be punished - too slow, wrong lane, no indication, and so on. And I'm convinced that a lot of these things are down to lack of education. Older drivers in Ireland never had motorways like we've had in the last 10-20 years. They are set in their ways with no idea how to correctly use them.

Example for you, and I'd like opinions as to whether this is a more dangerous excercise than it is constructive (I'm always worried that flashing the headlights will cause an accident rather than prevent one even when I'm in the right) - I was on the M1 a while back with the road almost empty, in daylight. I'm in lane 1 and I come upon a car hogging lane 2. I make the effort to move out to 3, back in to 1 (safely) but while passing, I gave a very polite flash of the lights and when pulling back in front, motioned my arm in the mirror pointing left. When I got back to lane 1, lo and behold the driver had pulled into the correct lane. I'd like to think that this particular middle aged lady got the message and now realises what lanes are for, but then maybe I'm being naive.