M50 thread

marno21

New signs being erected on the M50 between J7 and J6 at the location of the toll:

BoatMad

jeepers you have to dial a premium rate mobile number to pay the toll !!!!

L1011

1890 isn't premium rate. 01 4610011 also works.

BoatMad

L1011 wrote: »

1890 isn't premium rate.

it is if you have free calls and texts mobile plan, which most people have on their mobiles this days , it can costs multiples of a euro to make these calls, compared to " free" on my STD calls.

there should always be a non 1890 option

L1011

BoatMad wrote: »

it is if you have free calls and texts mobile plan, which most people have on their mobiles this days , it can costs multiples of a euro to make these calls, compared to " free" on my STD calls.

there should always be a non 1890 option

That's not what "premium rate" means.

They even have an international freephone number on their website, if you want it.

BoatMad

L1011 wrote: »

That's not what "premium rate" means.

They even have an international freephone number on their website, if you want it.

http://www.saynoto1890.com

Stark

BoatMad wrote: »

it is if you have free calls and texts mobile plan, which most people have on their mobiles this days , it can costs multiples of a euro to make these calls, compared to " free" on my STD calls.

there should always be a non 1890 option

1890 isn't premium rate, it's local rate. 15xx is premium rate. The 1890 number is there so people with landlines can ring from anywhere in Ireland and pay the local call rate rather than the national rate. There's a 01 number if you want to use your mobile free calls plan.

L1011

BoatMad wrote: »

http://www.saynoto1890.com

Did you notice the huge text saying that they aren't premium rate numbers on that page?

Eflow have 01 and 00800 numbers on their website.

Sam Russell

The basics of call charges varies on the phone package you are on. If you are on no special call package then the following applies from a landline - mobiles vary. I assume numbers not quoted below are either local or national.

1 800 xxxxxx - freephone number - call is free.
1 850 xxxxxx - callsave number - call is a fixed fee with no time charge.
1890 xxxxxx - locall number - call is charged at the prevailing local call charge and timed.
1818 xxxxxx - national number - call is charged at prevailing national rate and is timed.
15xx xxxxxx - premium rate number - charged at a substantial premium rate - maybe up to €8 / min.
076 xxxxxx - VOIP calls - these are calls to VOIP numbers and are non geographic numbers and are not included in most call plans. Not sure how they are charged for the landline user - but are timed. Probably charged as a national call.

Most companies/organisations tend to give above numbers plus [If calling from abroad - call 00 353 1 - xxx xxxxx] so just call the number dropping the international bit.

All the above apart from the freephone are charged as non-geographic on most call plans.

Mod: This is now off topic on the M50 thread.

If I am wrong on any of the above, PM me and I will correct it. Do not comment on thread.

marno21

Before the 2nd Westlink was constructed, what was the layout on the original single Westlink bridge? The last time I drove it it was barely wide enough for 4 lanes let alone a full D2M with central median across it

Carawaystick

It was D2. There was a stop sign at the bottom of the slip from the N4. I kid you not!

yannakis

I guess this belongs here:

This morning sun in our face between M50 J5 and J4, a female driver was going with the flow on the fast lane 2 cars ahead of me, puts her sun visor down, and starts slowing down down down. We're becoming an accordion behind her, the guy in front of me eventually honks and she switches lanes. Looked at her when overtaking, and she's putting on make-up while driving on the M50!!

Vojera

YanisK wrote: »

I guess this belongs here:

This morning sun in our face between M50 J5 and J4, a female driver was going with the flow on the fast lane 2 cars ahead of me, puts her sun visor down, and starts slowing down down down. We're becoming an accordion behind her, the guy in front of me eventually honks and she switches lanes. Looked at her when overtaking, and she's putting on make-up while driving on the M50!!

Regular occurrence, unfortunately. I was overtaken by a woman doing her eyeliner once

In fact, yesterday on the Tallaght off ramp waiting at the lights, I saw this:


I have to say, that's a first for me.

Middle Man

Vojera wrote: »

Regular occurrence, unfortunately. I was overtaken by a woman doing her eyeliner once

In fact, yesterday on the Tallaght off ramp waiting at the lights, I saw this...
<snip>

Where are the Guards?

We seriously need a dedicated traffic police division.

Mc Love

Middle Man wrote: »

Where are the Guards?

We seriously need a dedicated traffic police division.

We have one - but they are few and far between

First Up

Mc Love wrote: »

We have one - but they are few and far between

They are much to busy collecting easy picking like nabbing people doing 70k on the Stillorgan Dual Carriageway to have time for any real traffic policing.

First Up

Deedsie wrote:

And people continue to do 70 km/h and much higher speeds on the Stillorgan dual carriageway. Maybe if people stopped speeding AGS would stop shooting speeding fish in a barrel.

The M50 is blocked every single day by accidents caused by bad driving, especially bad lane discipline.

Can you tell me the last time there was an accident on the Stillorgan DC?

BoatMad

Speed and driving while intoxicated are the chief cause of deaths on our roads.

any accident can be laid at the door of speeding , its poor use of statistics , generally a car is moving when it has an accident

Most accidents are caused by poor driver attention , excessive speed tends to result in single car incidents ( i.e. cards go off the road or loose control ) . Speeding in ireland has massively reduced in my experience driving extensively on our roads

Davy

Some line marking changes at J5 to merge to auxiliary lane rather than lane 1 which should be welcome once people are aware of the changes. Some already done.

This would be helpfull for J7 SB

bmay529

I am sure it may have been mentioned here already but two of my pet hates are...
1) Why, when there is both a long and short merge lane onto the M50, do so many slow moving vechicles (cars,lorries and even buses) insist on using the outside shorter merge lane (where there are two) to enter the M50 at a slow speed where cars/lorries can be travelling at 100+ mph. I have seen so many accidents narrowly avoided because of this. Do I remember someone killed in this way. Maybe the SFA should consider some TV education.
2) Why can the traffic police not do their thing quickly so as to move any accident on the M50 to the side and allow traffic to flow with minimal disruption instead of the increasingly frequent lengthy delays accidents currently cause. Imagine the cost of these delays in lost time to industry.

marno21

While Transport Infrastructure Ireland is undertaking an important measure to help improve traffic flows, variable speed limits will not be introduced until 2019.

http://www.independent.ie/opinion/analysis/paul-melia-politicians-are-failing-to-keep-the-capital-moving-35155503.html

If true, can anyone explain how it takes 4 years to implement VSLs when the gantries to faciliate them are already installed??

Bray Head

marno21 wrote: »

While Transport Infrastructure Ireland is undertaking an important measure to help improve traffic flows, variable speed limits will not be introduced until 2019.

http://www.independent.ie/opinion/analysis/paul-melia-politicians-are-failing-to-keep-the-capital-moving-35155503.html

If true, can anyone explain how it takes 4 years to implement VSLs when the gantries to faciliate them are already installed??

I heard someone from TII on the radio a year back and he said that public procurement takes a year once the decision in principle has been taken and funding is in place.

That was 2015, and now they are talking about 2019.

Very large wars have been started, fought and finished in the space of time it takes to install this well-tested technology.

marno21

http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/m50-motorway-or-carpark-how-irelands-busiest-route-is-at-breakdown-point-35155501.html

This is in both the Independent and the Herald today.

It seems ~158k vehicles a day between J7 and J9 is the saturation point. It hit 166k there around the end of August but dropped back, people must have been trying to find alternative routes.

Davy

marno21 wrote: »

http://www.independent.ie/opinion/analysis/paul-melia-politicians-are-failing-to-keep-the-capital-moving-35155503.html

If true, can anyone explain how it takes 4 years to implement VSLs when the gantries to faciliate them are already installed??

As much as I agree with you, and would like to see it installed, I don't think it will make any difference on the M50 at peak times. Drivers pay more attention to the car changing a wheel on the opposite side than the car in front of them never mind following a VSS.

The ones at red cow dont make any difference.

lovelyhurler

You can have all the VSL's you want. If it's not enforced, it ain't going to make a blind bit of difference.

munchkin_utd

lovelyhurler wrote: »

You can have all the VSL's you want. If it's not enforced, it ain't going to make a blind bit of difference.

is there not also provision to allow for cameras on those there gantrys which would be your enforcement catered for ?

marno21

Discussion with Sean O'Neill of TII on the M50 congestion

http://www.todayfm.com/player/listen_back/7/32994/24th_October_2016_-_The_Last_Word_with_Matt_Cooper_Part_2

BoatMad

lovelyhurler wrote: »

You can have all the VSL's you want. If it's not enforced, it ain't going to make a blind bit of difference.

VSLs will be introduced in tandem with distance to travel speed enforcements and ANLPR systems

marno21

M50 Major Incident Management being implemented

Transport Infrastructure Ireland wrote:

In parallel with the growth of the city it surrounds, the M50 has been constantly changing over its life from 1987 when construction began on the Western Parkway from the N3 (J6) to N81 (J11). Since then the M50 has been extended, widened, tolled and upgraded at various times to accommodate the unrelenting increase in traffic demand. However, options for increasing capacity are not endless and eventually there comes a point when adding lanes and upgrading junctions is no longer feasible. According to Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII) who is responsible for the operation of the M50, that day has arrived.


“The Greater Dublin Area has grown so much since the M50 was first constructed that it is no longer a motorway around Dublin – it is now within the city suburbs” said TII. “This means that our response to increasing traffic demand must shift from construction solutions to motorway operations”.

Copyright www.dulraphotography.com
Heavy congestion resulting from traffic volumes of up to 6400 vehicles per hour in each direction and further exasperated by collisions is an almost daily occurrence on the M50 – so what can be done to address this problem? According to TII, incidents are a major contributor to commuter delays with about 120 incidents occurring in a typical month on the M50, over half of them during rush hour traffic. Incidents can include anything from simple breakdowns, or debris on the motorway right up to major collisions involving multiple vehicles.

TII’s road operator contractors respond to these incidents in order to minimise resulting traffic disruption. “The incident response service is on call 24/7/365 and arrives at incidents within our target response time of 15 minutes in over 97% of cases which we think is quite good.”

In addition to dealing with these incidents, TII’s contractors also provide assistance to more than 500 broken down vehicles per month on the M50.

Copyright www.dulraphotography.com
More serious incidents generally require the involvement of many different agencies including An Garda Síochána, Dublin Fire Brigade, the four Dublin Local Authorities, TII and the Motorway Traffic Control Centre. The interface between so many different agencies each with different roles and priorities is quite complex and ensuring a smooth interface is essential. That’s why the various agencies involved came together in 2015 to form the Interagency Incident Coordination Group (IICG). This group provides a forum for communication between all parties and has developed various initiatives in relation to co-ordination of resources, incident management and identification of potential diversion routes. In addition, the IICG can be convened in the event of a major incident so that the decision makers from each agency can coordinate a combined multiagency response.

One of the first initiatives by the IICG was the development of emergency diversion routes to provide an alternative to traffic in the case of a M50 closure. Signs are in place on all available routes between the M1 (J3) and the Red Cow (J9) and remaining routes are being finalised with the relevant Local Authorities with a view to completing these in the coming months.


Variable Message Signs (VMS) on the M50 will be used to inform drivers when diversions are in place and each diversion route will be indicated by a specific symbol which drivers will be directed to follow. “But the capacity of these diversions is far less than that of the M50 so these are only a measure to assist in the dispersal of traffic congestion following motorway closures.” warns TII.

In relation to the normal operation of the M50, TII has also been working to identify and address any capacity bottlenecks such as at the merge points where traffic joins the motorway at junctions. These merges were designed and constructed when traffic volumes were much lower but the most efficient lane layout at these locations depends on the traffic volume and with growing traffic levels, a new layout is warranted. Not all junctions are suitable for this treatment but TII has already changed the lane layout at all junctions between Ballymun (J4) and the N3 (J6). While performance of the revised layouts is still being monitored, initial indications are that longer merging layouts result in smoother flows on the mainline.

A further simple measure recently introduced was the provision of a new turnaround facility at the Westlink Bridge which will permit emergency services vehicles better access to incident locations on both carriageways.

With a view to the longer term, TII is currently developing a scheme for the implementation of mandatory variable speed limits on the M50. This is a system where the speed limit is varied to suit traffic and weather conditions in order to reduce collisions and improve journey time reliability. Typically in congestion or adverse weather conditions the speed limit would be reduced from 100 km/h to 80 km/h or 60 km/h and would contribute to the reduction of the ‘stop-start’ nature of traffic which often results in rear end collisions. This scheme requires significant collaboration with An Garda Síochána and changes in legislation and consequently it is envisaged that this scheme could be operational in 2019.


Drivers themselves also have a role to play. Rear end collisions are more common than any other type and simple measures such as drivers maintaining a safe stopping distance could help reduce this number.

In addition, motorists are advised to never stop on the hard shoulder unless your vehicle is disabled. In these cases, you should exit the vehicle carefully, and wait behind the barrier or on the grass verge and phone the Motorway Traffic Control Centre (phone 0818 715 100) or use an emergency roadside telephones if one is nearby.

TII confirmed that in some cases, motorists involved in minor collisions insist on waiting in a live motorway lane until An Garda Síochána arrives at the scene. “This type of behaviour poses a serious risk to the driver in question as well as to other motorists. Where drivers are involved in a minor incident and are uninjured, they should drive to the hard shoulder as soon as it is safe to do so.” TII’s incident response staff will provide assistance to drivers when in attendance.

The current protocol for the management of major incidents on motorways is available for download at the link below.

In full: http://www.tii.ie/news/press-releases/m50-major-incident-manage-1/

marno21

Port Tunnel is €3 at all times until the 27th. Handy for the next 2 days.