Traffic lights in Drogheda are a joke!

Dingatron

Great stuff kormak good to see they listen in any case.

andrew1977

kormak wrote: »

Response fom the Drogheda Boro engineer this morning:

Dear

---

,
Indeed there was a fault with the Traffic Lights at Scotch Hall following their resurfacing of the entrance to the Shopping Centre’s car Park and as a result the Traffic lights were not responding to the Traffic flow pattern.

This was rectified within the last few days and Scotch Hall Traffic lights should only work when it detects traffic coming out from car park and as a result Dublin Road traffic congestion should be reduced at Shopping centre closing times.

Many thanks for your observations/feedback and apologies for delay in replying.

Well done with the result on this, those set of lights drove me insane with anger every morning on my commute out of Drogheda. !:D

kormak

driving through town this morning @ 07:45am and guess what traffic lights were red?? you guessed it... Scotch Hall!!!
I wonder are we "faulting" again or is there a more sinister reason for this... :eek:

mornington man

Yes, I was held up last night for 3-4 mins, no traffic from shopping centre and no pedestrians. Whats new!!!!:o:o

markc1184

Those lights at Scotch Hall have never been fixed. Many a time I've been stopped late at night long after the shops have closed or indeed early morning. I'm not sure if they are the kind of light that works on a sensor. Usually there are tell tale signs on the road but i can't say I've seen them at scotch hall. That's not to say they don't have sensors though.

Dingatron

kormak wrote: »

driving through town this morning @ 07:45am and guess what traffic lights were red?? you guessed it... Scotch Hall!!!
I wonder are we "faulting" again or is there a more sinister reason for this... :eek:

They were probably scarlet in sympathy with the Make Drogheda Toll Free thread. :pac:

kormak

Dingatron wrote: »

They were probably scarlet in sympathy with the Make Drogheda Toll Free thread. :pac:

well I'm glad you mentioned toll...
because the rumours I heard was that the powers that be, are happy for extra traffic lights and unnecessary red lights in the town to more or less force people to use the tolls!!
It's probably old news and possibly absolute bull****e... but I love a good conspiracy theory!! :cool:

Dingatron

Me too as I think it was the main reason why most trucks stopped going through Drogheda after the initial boycott of the tolls by them

OT It's interesting to note that on the odd day that the lights have failed/switched off traffic has flowed smoothly through the town. For example I've seen the lights turned off specifically for some of the GAA matches where there it was known there was going to be a lot of traffic through the town. Not great if your trying to make a right hand turn though.

ploki66

just thinking with regard to the messed up junction at dominics you could take the lights out on the fairgreen ,trinity street and west street and put a rectangular style roundabout in this area where traffic would flow alot easier you would have no traffic problems from any of these streets especially coming up from the garda station and fair street . and also the lights turning into the town across marys bridge need alot more time to relief the dublin rd and marys street

ploki66

and i almost forgot them blasted lights at the pheasant i live in millmount abbey and you may forget about trying to get out of here when schools are opening and closing and if you think its bad now just wait until they open the new school on the bryanstown crossroute ?

Dingatron

and also the lights turning into the town across marys bridge need alot more time to relief the dublin rd and marys street

Frustratingly the filter light for traffic turning right onto St Mary's bridge from the Dublin Rd is green longer than main traffic light's which is also attributing to the clog up of traffic along the Dublin Road and Mary's Street.

ploki66

sitting here thinking about that and your spot on about the lights going straight on

Speaking of traffic lights, what's up with the loveheart at the bottom of the grove hill, as you're coming off the Bridge of Peace?





Not a great photo of it, but personally, I think it's brilliant. Not sure who done it, but it's genius.

borderlinemeath

kormak wrote: »

Response fom the Drogheda Boro engineer this morning:

Dear

---

,
Indeed there was a fault with the Traffic Lights at Scotch Hall following their resurfacing of the entrance to the Shopping Centre’s car Park and as a result the Traffic lights were not responding to the Traffic flow pattern.

This was rectified within the last few days and Scotch Hall Traffic lights should only work when it detects traffic coming out from car park and as a result Dublin Road traffic congestion should be reduced at Shopping centre closing times.

Many thanks for your observations/feedback and apologies for delay in replying.

Bumping this as it's "on the blink" again.

Scotch hall traffic lights were red for the Dublin Road and green for the traffic coming out of the shopping centre... at 12.45 am on the 26th of December.

Myself a taxi and another car broke the lights, it was ludicrous sitting waiting for traffic to come out of a closed car park..

Dingatron

You reminded me to chase up the sequencing of the lights at the Dublin Road/Bull Ring area. Just sent a mail to the Drogheda Borough engineer. Let you know if I hear anything back.

MugMugs

Sitting at the bus station waiting on the Xtra vision lights to change with no cars waiting. Sat waiting to turn onto the donore road for 4 minutes which would be cool if there was any traffic.

borderlinemeath

Dingatron wrote: »

You reminded me to chase up the sequencing of the lights at the Dublin Road/Bull Ring area. Just sent a mail to the Drogheda Borough engineer. Let you know if I hear anything back.

Was sitting on Mary St in backed up traffic last week thinking about just that. Cars that can't get into the lane turning onto the bridge completely block up Mary St traffic too, they just sit there and refuse to turn onto the Dublin Rd, restricting traffic who want to go straight through the Bullring. :mad:

kormak

I've sent the engineer I was dealing with a mail again to highlight this.
It is ridiculous... had to break a red light yesterday morning @ 06:50am

EI8GHB

One of the major problems with Drogheda's traffic is due to the nature of the layout of the town, straddling the river on two hills. Inevitably a large proportion of journeys around the town will bring you to the dreaded "Dual Carriageway" and all its associated bottlenecks, such as the junctions at the Bull Ring, the Haymarket, and Trinity Street/West Street to name but three.

The proliferation of traffic lights has not helped the situation. I think someone on this board identified 16? sets of traffic lights on the old Dublin-Belfast Road between the Rosehall roundabout to the north and the Grange Rath shopping centre to the south. Ridiculous. I think we need more of those "painted on" white circular roundabouts. Engineers in this town like traffic lights. They seem to want to put traffic lights everywhere. Ironically, the only place that doesn't have them is the junction at the Tholsel.

Drogheda needs two more bridges over the Boyne - one to the west of the Bridge of Peace, and one to the east of Scotch Hall, to help ease the congestion at all the dual carriegeway junctions. Think, for instance, of how much the situation at the Bull Ring would be relieved by a right turn off Dublin Road before Scotch Hall, say for instance opposite the entrance to St. Mary's Hospital. A bridge to the north quay would take a heap of traffic off that filter lane outside St. Mary's Church trying to turn right onto St. Mary's Bridge, thus alleviating also Mary Street traffic.

On the west side of town, we already have a bridge - the M1 Boyne Cable Bridge - but it is tolled. Removing that toll would help massively. (See separate threads on removing the toll campaign). Yes, I am suggesting locals could use the motorway to get from one side of the town to the other. Why not? There are people in Dublin getting onto the M50 at junction 1 and getting off at junction 2, for example, and not being penalised for it.

Anyway, just some thoughts.

lucernarian

I really don't think it's appropriate to treat the route between Dublin and Belfast as a western relief road of Drogheda. Better to build a bridge for traffic from Mell to the Rathmullen Road (and keep the M1 as a PPP rather than spending tens of millions in compensation for taking the tolls off the Donore road junction) - but that's a separate issue.

I think the lights at the bottom of Patrick St. were never necessary, there's not a huge amount of traffic that must use it purely to access nearby residences and I've never seen a massive buildup of traffic there. Also, the yellow box almost acted as a relief for traffic to get out whenever the lights outside Fusion nightclub/Dominic's were red.

southlouth type

To_be_confirmed wrote: »

I really don't think it's appropriate to treat the route between Dublin and Belfast as a western relief road of Drogheda. Better to build a bridge for traffic from Mell to the Rathmullen Road (and keep the M1 as a PPP rather than spending tens of millions in compensation for taking the tolls off the Donore road junction) - but that's a separate issue.

I think the lights at the bottom of Patrick St. were never necessary, there's not a huge amount of traffic that must use it purely to access nearby residences and I've never seen a massive buildup of traffic there. Also, the yellow box almost acted as a relief for traffic to get out whenever the lights outside Fusion nightclub/Dominic's were red.

Why is it not appropriate ? What harm would it do ? As the op has stated its done in dublin all the time time and dosent seem to have any adverse effect . I would love to be able to pop over the boyne cable bridge to get to the other side of town and not be charged for the privilege like lots of other people in towns and cities across the country .

CMpunked

EI8GHB wrote: »

Think, for instance, of how much the situation at the Bull Ring would be relieved by a right turn off Dublin Road before Scotch Hall, say for instance opposite the entrance to St. Mary's Hospital. A bridge to the north quay would take a heap of traffic off that filter lane outside St. Mary's Church trying to turn right onto St. Mary's Bridge, thus alleviating also Mary Street traffic.

Great idea.
However, how do you tackle the 20 foot drop down on the right approaching the town on the dub road?
Or how do you decide to tell the people your demilishing their houses who live there?
I do believe there should be a bridge there to the east of scotch hall. Wasn't there supposed to be on the other side of the surface car park? Whatever came of that?

EI8GHB

However, how do you tackle the 20 foot drop down on the right approaching the town on the dub road?
Or how do you decide to tell the people your demilishing their houses who live there?

There is a plan for a bridge there already. I believe modern engineering can overcome 20-foot drops and in addition I think the plan (which was part of Scotch Hall phase 2, to include the infamous 27-storey tower) envisaged a bridge spanning the river from Dublin Road to North Quay which did not necessitate the destruction of anyone's home as far as I can recall . . .

However, this proposal is a PPP project and without the private funding, and indeed with council funding in short supply, it looks unlikely that such a bridge will be built anytime soon.

kormak

CMpunked wrote: »

Great idea.
However, how do you tackle the 20 foot drop down on the right approaching the town on the dub road?
Or how do you decide to tell the people your demilishing their houses who live there?
I do believe there should be a bridge there to the east of scotch hall. Wasn't there supposed to be on the other side of the surface car park? Whatever came of that?

and to top that off... the town's view of the Viaduct would be ruined forever!

EI8GHB

and to top that off... the town's view of the Viaduct would be ruined forever!

But think of the view of the Viaduct you would get from the new bridge!!

CMpunked

EI8GHB wrote: »

There is a plan for a bridge there already. I believe modern engineering can overcome 20-foot drops and in addition I think the plan (which was part of Scotch Hall phase 2, to include the infamous 27-storey tower)

First off i was very tired when i wrote my initial post there so i apologise if i come across as a condescending d!ck.
But i thought you meant a bridge should be erected coming off the dublin road.

But there really should be a bridge put here going across the river:
http://g.co/maps/x5zum

lucernarian

southlouth type wrote: »

Why is it not appropriate ? What harm would it do ? As the op has stated its done in dublin all the time time and dosent seem to have any adverse effect . I would love to be able to pop over the boyne cable bridge to get to the other side of town and not be charged for the privilege like lots of other people in towns and cities across the country .

It's a motorway because it's interlinking two major cities, not just because drogheda "needed a bypass". Look at Athlone, the bypass is still a dual carriageway despite the rest of the route from Dub - Gal being a motorway. It's a road that's got lots of oncoming traffic which then leaves at the next exit, sometimes with tractors using it and learner drivers and so on. That sort of traffic cannot legally use a motorway.

The M50 was envisaged rather like the M25 in London which is primarily still surrounded by countryside and used to link traffic going from one motorway coming out of London, to another. The M50 was almost swallowed up by surrounding communities quickly so that's precisely why there's the likes of that outer orbital route (the R136 road going from Tallaght to Lucan) to deal with the local traffic. Not just shove it onto a road built for a totally different purpose.

This topic is better discussed in the Infrastructure/Roads forum, there are far better experts than I who could explain this in detail.

And I certainly disagree with removing an effective way to pay for the borrowings on building our country's road network. I think the plans for a bridge at Rathmullen/Mell should have been prioritised though.

furiousox

Anyone else notice the traffic heading out of town is now tailing back from the Southgate lights to Stameen since Monday (around 8.45am)?
It looks like they've done something to the lights sequence at Southgate.
You can see the lights changing to red every 2-3 mins even though there is no-one waiting to enter or exit the Southgate car park! :mad:
I'm gonna send in an email to the council for what it's worth.....

delly

furiousox wrote: »

Anyone else notice the traffic heading out of town is now tailing back from the Southgate lights to Stameen since Monday (around 8.45am)?
It looks like they've done something to the lights sequence at Southgate.
You can see the lights changing to red every 2-3 mins even though there is no-one waiting to enter or exit the Southgate car park! :mad:
I'm gonna send in an email to the council for what it's worth.....

You probably already know, but in case not, that would be to Meath county council.

furiousox

Spoke to the offices in Duleek, the engineer wasn't available but they took some details and promised to look into it.