M7 - Naas/Newbridge Bypass Upgrade [Junction 9a now open]

Mantis Toboggan

gilly2308 wrote: »

God it was horrendous this morning, over an hour from Junction 12 to the M50, and there wasn't even an incident of any sort. Sadly as we all know it's not going to get any better, yes the extra lane will help you heading home in the evening, but it will probably mean all of the M7/N7 traffic hitting the M50 a lot quicker in the morning.

It's still going to be just 3 lanes between naas and the m50 even after the "upgrade" so I'm not expecting it to improve much.

OldMrBrennan83

This post has been deleted.

GhostyMcGhost

Tyson Fury wrote: »

It's still going to be just 3 lanes between naas and the m50 even after the "upgrade" so I'm not expecting it to improve much.

M50 is 3 lanes anyway and that’s a car park. Plus it’ll very likely be reduced to 100km/h which will be balls

Adding an extra lane doesn’t suddenly take a heap of cars off the road

road_high

I'll say it again but the only things that are going to improve the M7 are alternatives with large capacity- widen the rail track to Kildare and large park and ride at strategic points- that can use both rail and bus options. Sadly, there's zero vision for infrastructure and transport, just a make do limp to next election effort.
There's huge untapped demand and potential going untapped in Leinster and the GDA because the infrastructure isn't up to scratch.

pad199207

It's been 11 years since the Naas to M50 was upgraded to 3 lanes.

It needs at least 5 lanes each side now at this stage

CeilingFly

pad199207 wrote: »

It's been 11 years since the Naas to M50 was upgraded to 3 lanes.

It needs at least 5 lanes each side now at this stage

Would make no difference to people working in Dublin - there's a finite amount of road space within the m50.

Similarly, trains are at capacity. Extra track is required to give a 3 track rail lime with third track used as the rush hour track in both directions.

As before, m7 upgrade will do very little for the commute into Dublin with only change being less congestion from m9 to Naas north, but it should make big difference to the home journey

Middle Man

pad199207 wrote: »

It's been 11 years since the Naas to M50 was upgraded to 3 lanes.

It needs at least 5 lanes each side now at this stage

That will solve nothing (3 lanes is the optimum width for motorways/major DCs IMO) - the only real solution for rush hour is the DART expansion programme including the inter-connector in full.

OldMrBrennan83

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fergus1001

How about a traffic light system on every on ramp to the motorway which allows a certain amount of traffic on the motorway at any one time, meaning that the motorway works at optimum speed to move the traffic along without causing traffic jams

It has been proven to work in other countries

If we upgraded the motorway to 5 lanes it will encourage more people to use the motorway which in turn will bring you back to square one

Another approach is to introduce a small toll charge which will dicourage people from using the motorway who don't exactly need to use it therefore freeing up the place

marno21

fergus1001 wrote: »

How about a traffic light system on every on ramp to the motorway which allows a certain amount of traffic on the motorway at any one time, meaning that the motorway works at optimum speed to move the traffic along without causing traffic jams

It has been proven to work in other countries

If we upgraded the motorway to 5 lanes it will encourage more people to use the motorway which in turn will bring you back to square one

Another approach is to introduce a small toll charge which will dicourage people from using the motorway who don't exactly need to use it therefore freeing up the place

I've said this quite often. Discourage people from commuting on the M7 by all means, but you have to provide a viable alternative first.

Finish the DART Expansion project and build the Metro(s).

Then there is a REAL alternative to driving on the M7, which you can peak time toll to reduce congestion (not that people will want to drive if we have a proper rail transit system).

SoupyNorman

Deedsie wrote: »

Priority bus measures could also help. One of the reasons people dont use buses is they have to share the same road space and congested junctions as private cars.

Considering motorists in Ireland dont bother using the left most lane on our 3 lane roads maybe it should be made a priority bus lane and for vehicles entering and exiting junctions.

Can you get out of my head please?

This is something I have been banging on about for years, the left lane could even be a carpool / bus lane. I think something like that along with strategic park and ride facilities would encourage both carpooling and bus use. I know I’d be far happier to drive to a P&R then bus the rest of the way if there was a dedicated bus lane into the city from the n7.

Obvious Otter

Deedsie wrote: »

People will still drive. Tax saver bus tickets are an option availabls to most people that would save commuters thousands of €'s per year but they continue driving all the same.

Yes, becuase the bus service is so poor from the commuter belt into the city. The reason people still drive is because the train and light rail services are poorly laid out in the city. Public transport isn't good enough in this country to dissentivse the use of cars and the new BXD line only connects an already slow light rail service together.

Our public transport network is so disconnected, slow and not frequent enough to really tackle the amount of cars attempting to enter the city everyday.

Until the government show the ambition to build a proper rail service into Stephen's Green every other project is just putting a band aid over the problem.

jmkennedyie

Sallins bypass route added to openstreetmap as under construction. Might take a few hours for caches to be updated. http://www.openstreetmap.org/#map=18/53.23461/-6.68352&layers=N

marno21

jmkennedyie wrote: »

Sallins bypass route added to openstreetmap as under construction. Might take a few hours for caches to be updated. http://www.openstreetmap.org/#map=18/53.23461/-6.68352&layers=N

With a quieter R407 out of Naas, perhaps there may be incentives to:

a. run shuttle busses to Sallins & Naas railway station
b. encourage cycling to the railway station now that traffic is much lighter on the road

Naas and Newbridge have chronic congestion issues despite being fully bypassed and in the case of Naas having a fairly complete relief/distributor road.

fergus1001

Which to my disbelief no body f ING uses !

It's like driving through a north Korean city on that road !

L1011

Outside of peak hours it can be slower due to the roundabouts; some of which have no extra exits.

Mantis Toboggan

fergus1001 wrote: »

Which to my disbelief no body f ING uses !

It's like driving through a north Korean city on that road !

Roundabouts on it are a disaster.

There needs to be a link road left off the ball roundabout linking up with the R410.

CeilingFly

L1011 wrote: »

Outside of peak hours it can be slower due to the roundabouts; some of which have no extra exits.

They are all there for future housing developments - one has just commenced.

marno21

fergus1001 wrote: »

Which to my disbelief no body f ING uses !

It's like driving through a north Korean city on that road !

When it's busy from J9-J11 on the M7 due to an event (GAA match etc.) it's much faster to exit at J9 (use the inside lane/aux lane), drive down the relief road and rejoin the motorway at J10. Most people from down the country don't know about the relief road.

marno21

Tyson Fury wrote: »

Roundabouts on it are a disaster.

There needs to be a link road left off the ball roundabout linking up with the R410.

This is in planning: http://www.leinsterleader.ie/news/home/244663/naas-ring-road-planning-process-set-to-start.html

Mantis Toboggan

marno21 wrote: »

This is in planning: http://www.leinsterleader.ie/news/home/244663/naas-ring-road-planning-process-set-to-start.html

Just getting spam on that link, free 500 euro Tesco voucher?

Anyway yeah that road is needed, hopefully it will Start soon.

gilly0512

Has anyone got any idea as to why all of the traffic now starts slowing down or in some cases grinds to a halt just before Junction 7 in the morning? I understood somewhat why it stopped between Junctions 11 and 9 northbound (or eastbound to be technically correct) but I'm at a loss now as to why the traffic is starting to back up before Junction 7?

rameire

gilly2308 wrote: »

Has anyone got any idea as to why all of the traffic now starts slowing down or in some cases grinds to a halt just before Junction 7 in the morning? I understood somewhat why it stopped between Junctions 11 and 9 northbound (or eastbound to be technically correct) but I'm at a loss now as to why the traffic is starting to back up before Junction 7?

two reasons I can think of,
Low sun,
Idiots.

sea12

rameire wrote: »

two reasons I can think of,
Low sun,
Idiots.

Part of it is people going cross country to avoid naas and new bridge and coming back onto the n7 at junction 7.
This m7 is just a nightmare commute now.

SoupyNorman

rameire wrote: »

Low sun,

Its like the insult to the injury, especially as we get closer to winter the low sun driving home is like a laser pen in your eyeball.

Causes many a crash at the Poitin Stil.

Mantis Toboggan

It's seems to have gotten a lot worse since the schools went back!

CeilingFly

Tyson Fury wrote: »

It's seems to have gotten a lot worse since the schools went back!

When schools are on holidays many workers take holidays too.

During the summer months approx 20% of the workforce are on holiday at any one time, so this lessens traffic. So its the general "holiday" time that lessens traffic rather than specifically school traffic.

OldMrBrennan83

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spacetweek

marno21 wrote: »

This is in planning: http://www.leinsterleader.ie/news/home/244663/naas-ring-road-planning-process-set-to-start.html

That's behind a paywall, can you summarise it for us?

hognef

spacetweek wrote: »

That's behind a paywall, can you summarise it for us?

It seems to be dated 12 Apr 2017, so unlikely to be newsworthy at this point.