Lane changes on North Main Street

dulpit

Was driving down North Main Street, heading for South Main Street when I noticed that they have changed the lanes at the junction with Washington Street. Previously the left hand lane was for straight on and left, and the right hand lane was for straight on and right. They have now changed this so that the right hand lane is right only.

The problem with this is that most people would previously have taken the left lane for left and the right lane for straight on or right. This meant that people going straight on were not held up by cars turning left (as the traffic is regularly backed up all the way to the junction or beyond. It's now become a nightmare to get down north main street, and it's not helped by the lights staying green for all of maybe 20 seconds a go. Today whilst going through there I watched only 1 car get through first light change, and only 2 the next time. Madness.

Where/what is the thinking here???

Faith

Noticed that last night actually, but it was quiet at that point. I always used the right lane for going straight on because cars park all along the left of South Main Street, not to mention trucks unloading, so you have to move over to the right anyway. Odd logic; you'd think they'd have made the left lane left only, and the right lane straight on and right.

evilivor

dulpit wrote: »

Was driving down North Main Street, heading for South Main Street when I noticed that they have changed the lanes at the junction with Washington Street. Previously the left hand lane was for straight on and left, and the right hand lane was for straight on and right. They have now changed this so that the right hand lane is right only.

The problem with this is that most people would previously have taken the left lane for left and the right lane for straight on or right. This meant that people going straight on were not held up by cars turning left (as the traffic is regularly backed up all the way to the junction or beyond. It's now become a nightmare to get down north main street, and it's not helped by the lights staying green for all of maybe 20 seconds a go. Today whilst going through there I watched only 1 car get through first light change, and only 2 the next time. Madness.

Where/what is the thinking here???

Probably links in with the other changes there - the two car lanes heading west from Grand Parade will be reduced to one lane as they are putting in two cycle lanes — one inbound and one outbound - and a contra-flow cycle lane on South Main St.

TheChizler

evilivor wrote: »

Probably links in with the other changes there - the two car lanes heading west from Grand Parade will be reduced to one lane as they are putting in two cycle lanes — one inbound and one outbound - and a contra-flow cycle lane on South Main St.

Can't imagine that ever being used. I used to cycle quite a bit (until both my bikes were robbed) and I was never comfortable with the idea of contra-flow lanes. Even the ones on Anglesea street seem dodgy.

Oafley Jones

Good to know OP. Btw North Main St. ends at Castle St. I'd say 99% of the population of Cork think it ends as Washington St. It's probably easier to describe as posted.

ofcork

Always thought having the two lanes straight on led to problems with cars merging into one on sth main street,as above right lane straight on or right and left lane left only would be better.

scudo2

ofcork wrote: »

Always thought having the two lanes straight on led to problems with cars merging into one on sth main street,as above right lane straight on or right and left lane left only would be better.

I wish the corpo. traffic Dept. listened to us on these common sence posts. Keep them comeing and they might get message. Ta to ye all.

rovoagho

Just what we need, more cycle lanes cyclists won't actually use.

evilivor

rovoagho wrote: »

Just what we need, more cycle lanes cyclists won't actually use.

Maybe if they the Authorities stop morons from driving/parking/killing people in them, some cyclists will.

Hogzy

I use that junction every day at the peak of rush hours and I havnt once experienced a problem.

Probably because most people still go straight on in the right lane.

hoodwinked

rovoagho wrote: »

Just what we need, more cycle lanes cyclists won't actually use.

actually they will be used, cork is getting the cycle scheme that dublin has!

Evening Echo article on bike scheme

Pitcairn

It probably has something to do with the new cycle lane they are putting on Washington Street.
The two lanes of traffic heading out of the city from Grand Parade are to be converted into one cycle lane and one traffic lane, so maybe they changed the junctions from South Main Street to accommodate this.

Pitcairn

And just to be annoying, North Main Street becomes South Main Street at Castle Street by Fast Als.
Most think North Main Street and South Main Street are divided by Washington Street.

rovoagho

hoodwinked wrote: »

actually they will be used, cork is getting the cycle scheme that dublin has!

Go to the cycling forum and read any discussion about lanes,. They refuse to use them. They're a waste of money and good road.

kcb

Pitcairn wrote: »

And just to be annoying, North Main Street becomes South Main Street at Castle Street by Fast Als.
Most think North Main Street and South Main Street are divided by Washington Street.

In fairness most people in Cork can't seem to get their head around the different between the South Ring and South Link so best of luck with this one!

Good bit of info though. Hadn't been aware of that to be honest.

who_me

rovoagho wrote: »

Just what we need, more cycle lanes cyclists won't actually use.

On the way out to Douglas, those lanes are a bit chaotic, cutting across traffic, through bus stops, sometimes inside parked cars sometimes outside.

I can't really see how it's much safer, to be honest. They either need to be separate from the traffic (not really possible in Cork) or they're not much use.

rovoagho

I reckon I see a bicycle in the lanes up and down to Mahon Point about once a month.

evilivor

who_me wrote: »

On the way out to Douglas, those lanes are a bit chaotic, cutting across traffic, through bus stops, sometimes inside parked cars sometimes outside.

I can't really see how it's much safer, to be honest. They either need to be separate from the traffic (not really possible in Cork) or they're not much use.

They aren't a lot of the time which is why most cyclists don't use them - and thankfully they are under no legal obligation to use them anymore.

There are an ill-thought out afterthought mostly.

Flesh Gorden

The cycle lanes will either end up be used for parking by people stopping off at the likes of choices,
or they'll disintegrate like the ones on the way to Mahon Point from a lack of use and the standing water
freezing over in the winter ending up cracking and lifting the new coloured tarmac.

And as for the changing the right hand lane to right only is pretty pointless.
There's often so much traffic on that road that you can't see the road markings.
Even as it is, using the left hand lane to go straight leads straight into parked trucks.
Works fine as it was, and if anything they should have done the opposite withtraffic moving straight on using the right hand lane only to prevent traffic backing up