Traffic Lights

manna452121

The new lights at the Greenhills Hotel have been turned on.

stefanovich

Great, one more delay on the way to work!

Comhrá

Just moving the traffic jam along the road a bit. The Ennis Road has way too many traffic lights/pedestrian lights anyway.

Jofspring

Hopefully the lights on the Caherdavin Lawn and Greenhills side are on sensors so only change when cars are there. By right those lights should nearly always be green for the main Ennis Rd barr pedestrians and cars present from the two minor roads.

Comhrá

Jofspring wrote: »

Hopefully the lights on the Caherdavin Lawn and Greenhills side are on sensors so only change when cars are there. By right those lights should nearly always be green for the main Ennis Rd barr pedestrians and cars present from the two minor roads.

+1 but are the ones outside LIDL/Jetland on sensors? Many time late at night driving out from town, I have sat fuming in my car, while these lights are red, for about thirty seconds, and not a single vehicle coming onto the Ennis Rd. from either side road. Just seems stupid having to slow down, stop, wait, engage gear and drive on again for absolutely no reason other than obeying a mindless piece of (at that time of night) useless infrastructure.

thesimpsons

not sure about daytime but I've always felt at night and early morning they are on sensors and very reactive, the ones on Condel Rd at Salesians seem fine at night and early morning too.

Jofspring

I used the new ones last night and guess what, I was sitting at the lights coming in the Ennis road with no cars coming out of the green hills or caherdavin lawn. Like the jetland situation mentioned above it was pointless us sitting there for no reason.

I find at night the Jetland ones aren't too bad but can change almost two fast when busy.

Tefral

The cynic in me just says its a way to force ya to use the tunnel.

It is an awkward spot to get out of though if you have come out from the greenhills and want to get across the road.

Touch Fuzzy Get Dizzy

is it something to do with the postman getting killed a few years ago?
http://www.irishtimes.com/news/limerick-postman-dies-in-traffic-collision-1.582849

Jofspring

Sera wrote: »

is it something to do with the postman getting killed a few years ago?
http://www.irishtimes.com/news/limerick-postman-dies-in-traffic-collision-1.582849

No that was a bit of a freak accident which could have happened even with traffic lights.

It is dangerous to pull out from the greenhills side alright as cars come flying in from the coonagh roundabout. There is nearly always a gard there catching for speeding as well.

jbkenn

Jofspring wrote: »

No that was a bit of a freak accident which could have happened even with traffic lights.

It is dangerous to pull out from the greenhills side alright as cars come flying in from the coonagh roundabout. There is nearly always a gard there catching for speeding as well.

These lights were put in to please somebody, I don't know who, but you can be sure it was'nt the motoring public, and, at least it will get rid of Garda O'Gobshyte and his speed trap.

source

jbkenn wrote: »

These lights were put in to please somebody, I don't know who, but you can be sure it was'nt the motoring public, and, at least it will get rid of Garda O'Gobshyte and his speed trap.

Do you not think Gardai should be catching people doing up to 80kph on what is in essence a residential road with a limit of 50kph?

Personally I think it's a perfect use of traffic corps resources.

jbkenn

source wrote: »

Do you not think Gardai should be catching people doing up to 80kph on what is in essence a residential road with a limit of 50kph?

Personally I think it's a perfect use of traffic corps resources.

Have you ever observed anyone doing 80Kph on that stretch of road?, in 35 years I have not, all I have ever seen is Garda O'Gob****e pulling some citizen coming from Tesco or going to the cinema, probably doing a speed between 55Kph and 60Kph, but hey, let's be seen to be doing something, it's always better than maximising our limited police resources.

Insect Overlord

jbkenn wrote: »

Have you ever observed anyone doing 80Kph on that stretch of road?, in 35 years I have not, all I have ever seen is Garda O'Gob****e pulling some citizen coming from Tesco or going to the cinema, probably doing a speed between 55Kph and 60Kph, but hey, let's be seen to be doing something, it's always better than maximising our limited police resources.

I've grown up in the Lawn, played home soccer matches with Caherdavin at the Greenhills for about 12 years, and I can tell you it happens quite often. Crossing that road on foot isn't easy, and trying to make a right hand turn in the car can take forever at certain times of the day.

Trouwe Ier

The traffic lights at Union Cross drive me up the wall every time I come down the (Upper) Shelbourne Road. There used to be a two-way staggered green phase allowing a few cars to turn right from either the Shelbourne Road or Lower Shelbourne Road but now there is green for one road only and there are tailbacks nearly all day on the Shelbourne Road. I've never seen more than two or three cars get through legally from (Upper) Shelbourne Road. In most other countries, some resources would have been expended by now on purchasing some land to create filter lanes, or at least to bevel the corners on this junction.

The City Council did a fine job at the Greenhills lights but I think that the money would have been better diverted to Union Cross.

ALSO - the lights at the Maternity Hospital break my heart as well, especially at night-time as there always seems to be a green phase for the exit road from the hotel regardless of whether or not there is any vehicle waiting there. Time and time again, I have had to stop for no apparent reason and wait about thirty seconds for electronic sanity to be restored.

Finally, I was in Cork yesterday and found myself crossing the road outside the Cork University Hospital. There is a busy junction here on a dual carriageway with filtered lights. I COULD NOT GET OVER THE LACK OF PEDESTRIAN RAILINGS IN THE CENTRAL REFUGE AREA. THERE IS A GREEN PEDESTRIAN PHASE FOR ONE CARRIAGEWAY AT A TIME SO PEDESTRIANS HAVE TO WAIT IN THE CENTRAL REFUGE BUT IT IS FRIGHTENING, ESPECIALLY ON A RAINY WINTER'S DUSK.

Berty

Have you spotted the new security camera on the traffic lights there at the greenhills? It's an operator camera as in it can be turned around and zoomed in and out. Very odd that.

source

Beer Baron wrote: »

Have you spotted the new security camera on the traffic lights there at the greenhills? It's an operator camera as in it can be turned around and zoomed in and out. Very odd that.

You need to look up more often, there's a lot of cameras out that side and in the city centre.

Berty

source wrote: »

You need to look up more often, there's a lot of cameras out that side and in the city centre.

It's one of these not a Garda looking Camera.

source

Beer Baron wrote: »

It's one of these not a Garda looking Camera.

They're dual controlled by the council and Gardai.

Insect Overlord

Pardon my ignorance, but what are they used for?

Trouwe Ier

I presume for traffic monitoring. After all, you can view Dublin's ones on the web and presumably they help with the Roadwatch reports.

source

Insect Overlord wrote: »

Pardon my ignorance, but what are they used for?

Eye in the sky, they let council keep an eye on traffic and Gardai can use them for detecting and investigating crimes.

Mc Love

Best thing to do is write an email or call the council and complain, I did so with the lights in Annacotty (should have used a roundabout) and got a response and they do seem to have changed slightly

thesimpsons

the lights at Ivan's cross should really be adjusted too. turning right at Ivans from the Ennis road to head towards the tunnel you get a green arrow for about 2 cars and then it goes solid red. far better if when the arrow extinguished, you could still turn with the normal green light (if safe to do so). often left sitting there for ages when there wouldn't be a car coming out from town direction.

I spoke to some "light engineers" there one day but they couldn't understand the logic at all - might try a letter to council.

Berty

The council don't care about the lights. I complained 3 times about the lights on the Ballysimon flyover coming onto it from the Dublin(Southbound) lanes. When the lights go green it allows either 2 cars or 1 car(when moving off slowly) and half a truck to get through. It's a disaster. If you pass over the sensor last it goes amber then red and you're barely over the line.

4-5 seconds is all it allows. There's often guys on the bridge meddling with the lights but all they have done is make them worse.

Now if you are on the bridge turning right to go onto the Motorway(towards Ennis) the lights go red, no filter so you're trapped in limbo in front of the yellow box and between a red light with no mans land. It was working grand on that turn until the white van men turned up. :mad: Any heavy user of the turn will know that at least 2/3 cars jump the red now because of the lack of filter. :rolleyes:

OldGuysRule

I reckon the main point of these lights is to further frustrate traffic within the urban area in an attempt to divert more and more to the tunnel. From an overall traffic flow view, a new roundabout at Ivans would seem preferable. The junction area is large enough to accommodate a decent sized one and there is a a dominant flow pattern that would make it work. Couple that with roundabouts at Thomond Park junction and St Marys Church junction along with the reinstatement of the roundabout at the 'new bridge' on the Dublin Road, traffic on this route could move well again. I remember being involved in the design of this northern ring road in the 90s (as it was called then) from Ivans, past LIT, through Thomondgate and over to the Dublin Road, the number of new sets of lights that have been introduced since is amazing and has only conspired to stagnate traffic on the road.

Don't get me wrong, I use the tunnel on an almost daily basis and it is great, but I do not like the pushing of traffic from the northern route. It is a policy that has been adopted and there is little I or any one else can do at this stage

Mc Love

Same could be said for the lights at annacotty, a roundabout should have been used there in the first place! Imagine if they put lights at every junction coming off the M20 coming into Limerick! Oops maybe I shouldnt be giving them any idea's

Berty

The Annacotty lights affect me everyday by clogging the Newport road roundabout(whatever they call it this month). I come off the m7 this morning and there's no yellow box so they block the exit all trying to pile onto the Dublin road.

Mc Love

Tbh I dont think a yellow box would do anything with the current standard of motorists on the road

Poxyshamrock

I suppose a yellow box wouldn't do any harm at the same time!

Speaking of bad motorists, why can't some (an awful lot from what I see) people understand that these boxes are for bicyles? NOT cars. :mad:

Jofspring

The one that gets me is on Sarsfield Brige heading out the Ennis Road Direction there is a line about 10 yards back from the lights to ensure space for the buses coming up Clancys Strand to turn into town yet people continually ignore the line and drive up to the lights. I've seen buses unable to turn the bend meaning no cars get through from Clancys or O'Callaghan Strand.