Mahon Point Shopping Centre

phatmanwc

ofcork wrote: »

They need a park and ride on the other approaches to the city as well,im sure they would do well.

I think there is definitely a case for the Northside, and maybe Dunkettle area (although post-upgrade I wouldn't really think so, for the reasons outlined below), but the current one covers the South of the city pretty well; I think it would be hard to beat the South Link in terms of its connectivity and quick turn-around times (shuttle bus-wise), and considering how accessible Black Ash is from most points on the South Ring, I couldn't see one working as well in the Ballincollig area, for instance.

Apologies for hijacking the MP thread, but that's just my opinion

cork_south

http://www.eveningecho.ie/cork-news/revamped-roads-will-end-mahon-point-jams/2256396/

fmcato

Good news indeed!

mire

These works will have few positive benefits, but local councillors love a bit of oul road works. Jesus wept, cork is fairly backward.

Induced demand is a well known, but regularly ignored, factor in transportation planning and design.

Basically, it proves that continually adding capacity to roads actually makes traffic worse, not better. Extra lanes, widening etc has the effect of attracting additional traffic. The net result is more congestion. Engineers (in Cork) know this, but they don't know what to do other than build capacity.

Then again, Cork is about 15 years behind in this regard.

kub

mire wrote: »

These works will have few positive benefits, but local councillors love a bit of oul road works. Jesus wept, cork is fairly backward.

Induced demand is a well known, but regularly ignored, factor in transportation planning and design.

Basically, it proves that continually adding capacity to roads actually makes traffic worse, not better. Extra lanes, widening etc has the effect of attracting additional traffic. The net result is more congestion. Engineers (in Cork) know this, but they don't know what to do other than build capacity.

Then again, Cork is about 15 years behind in this regard.

What do they do in the utopia ?

pwurple

Another lane? That's it?

That will shorten the traffic jam by about ten cars.

What foresight, what vision!

AugustusMinimus

pwurple wrote: »

Another lane? That's it?

That will shorten the traffic jam by about ten cars.

What foresight, what vision!

It's putting lipstick on a gorilla. How the echo can paint this as a major advance is a complete joke.

TheChizler

I can see it helping a little, at the moment the two lanes of cars are buffered up as far as PM, when the light goes green this short buffer empties quickly and then vehicles are supplied from a single lane, so the rate is half as much as during the first few seconds. If this buffer is extended back to the Mater it will make that set of lights much more efficient.

My worry is this will just move the problem down to the next set of lights at the flyover or the tunnel.

12Phase

S Barrett wrote: »

I wonder were brown envelopes handed out like confetti at a wedding when the planning permission for Mahon Point was been sought.

One has to ask the question because, if there was a fire there, the emergency services would have serious problems getting into the place.

Given the scale of it, there should be at the very least a gated emergency vehicle access into the N40 hard shoulder.

12Phase

kub wrote: »

What do they do in the utopia ?

Teleportation perhaps?

This isn't a grid city with tons of alternative routes. A lot of Cork's issues around jams are lack of capacity.

It should have been blatantly obvious that MP and the business that have all gone in there would mean more traffic than the junctions can cope with.


There are two issues on the N40

1. The northbound traffic jams into the Dinette Roundabout causing a queue for several km through the tunnel and right back.

2. The Bloomfield exit seems to clog badly.

The first one is easier to fix as you just need a non blocking junction.

The Bloomfield issue is that traffic has no where to go as Douglas has a massive population and access is all via one narrow exit onto the Rochestown Road.

They're probably should be another exit planned into Douglas. That could be done by upgrading the existing exit and wrapping a distributor road around the back of Douglas on the carrigaline side, basically parallel to the N40 but with lots of exits into various parts of Douglas and Rochestown, Frankford etc

More a 4 lane boulevard than a DC. It could be made to look like a nice wide avenue with potential for opening up a new aspect of Douglas rather than imposing an ugly DC.

titan18

Perfect solution would be a proper public transport system serving Mahon Point linking it to city centre. Hell, find a way to link the train tracks to it and that would help a lot.

namloc1980

titan18 wrote: »

Perfect solution would be a proper public transport system serving Mahon Point linking it to city centre. Hell, find a way to link the train tracks to it and that would help a lot.

Plan is for a BRT from the city using the old Blackrock rail line. Not funded however and unlikely to be in the next decade or more (if ever).

kub

cork_south wrote: »

http://www.eveningecho.ie/cork-news/revamped-roads-will-end-mahon-point-jams/2256396/

And here we are Aug 3rd and it still has not started.
I suppose they will wait off until Sept when normal grid lock will resume there

clerk

kub wrote: »

I suppose they will wait off until Sept when normal grid lock will resume there

Sounds like a plan.

P.lane78

clerk wrote: »

Sounds like a plan.

or maybe christmas

pwurple

kub wrote: »

And here we are Aug 3rd and it still has not started.
I suppose they will wait off until Sept when normal grid lock will resume there

The article says 2017... It's a while off yet to be fair.

TheChizler

pwurple wrote: »

kub wrote: »

And here we are Aug 3rd and it still has not started.
I suppose they will wait off until Sept when normal grid lock will resume there

The article says 2017... It's a while off yet to be fair.

That's the access from the walkway. The road works were meant to start last month.

kub

pwurple wrote: »

The article says 2017... It's a while off yet to be fair.

Friday, June 03, 2016
MORE than a decade of traffic woes may finally be at an end after a major revamp of the road network around Mahon Point was confirmed.
Motorists queing in traffic between the CSO office and Mahon Point Shopping Centre. Pic: David Keane.

Work is due to begin in a matter of weeks on a multi-million euro series of upgrades that aim to end the traffic bottleneck that has caused a headache for commuters in recent years.
An extra lane will be added to the Mahon Link Road from the Mater Hospital junction to the shopping centre entrance. The result of This is likely to see vastly improved traffic for the 3,000 or so workers currently commuting daily to the City Gate business park.
It will come as a welcome boost to the many who have faced long waits in heavy traffic in recent months and years in the area.
Fine Gael councillor for the South East Ward, Des Cahill, welcomed the revelation, adding that the changes will “transform the entire area.”
Mr Cahill, who is set to assume the position of Lord Mayor of Cork in the coming weeks, said: “It is a huge thing for the area. I am delighted.
“This is something that all seven councillors in the south-east ward wanted to see for a very long time and will be delighted to see come to fruition.”
Mr Cahill said the situation has been worsening in recent months as the expansion of several companies in City Gate has resulted in an employment boost, drawing even more traffic to the area.
The multi-million euro project will also see works commence in the coming weeks to the long-mooted realignment and renewal of the Skehard Road.
The plan will include a new road surface, footpaths, streetlights, a new outbound bus lane, inbound cycle lane, new traffic lights, turning lanes and the removal and replanting of some trees.
It is the latest development to take place on the South East Strategic Transport Corridor and follows the removal of the Skehard Road roundabout in 2013.
The works will begin in July and will be carried out in conjunction with the works along the Mahon Link road.
July is the quietest month of the year for road traffic in the area and has been chosen to minimise the disruption to motorists.
Public representatives have The works will be welcomed by elected members, who have persistently urged the City Council to progress with work along the Link Road in conjunction with the Skehard Road works to maximise the benefit for road users in the area.
Mr Cahill said, “It is the solution that we have been looking for, so we are thrilled that it is finally happening.”
Additional works will see the installation of easy-access to the Mater Hospital from the public walkway, which will be of benefit to cyclists and pedestrians. Lighting and security cameras will be added, with the National Transport Authority set to upgrade the entire walkway in the coming years.
It is expected that this element of the revamp will go for planning permission in the coming weeks, with work commencing in 2017.


Just thought i would post the article up to avoid confusion.

Balmed Out

The lane opened yesterday though I was so late hard to tell if an improvement. Anyone at peak hours notice?

SkySter

Left work at the normal time yesterday and traffic seemed to be moving a bit better. However it's early days. Christmas will be the true test.

Bacchus

Where exactly is the new lane (I was long time City Gate traffic sufferer but I moved job last year so I'm out of the loop)? Is it just an extension of the left turn lane by DFS to turn into Mahon S.C.?

Surely whatever they do in Mahon though just kicks the can down the road to the next bottleneck... the tunnel.

TheChizler

It did seem a lot quieter coming out of the City Gate area at 6 yesterday, there were only a few cars backed up. One thing I've noticed though was that every car turning left out of St. Michael's drive waited for the right hand lane to be clear, went straight into that and ignored the new lane. It's like they're afraid of looking like they're trying to skip the traffic in the old lane. This was always a problem when it was just a slip road, instead of all the St. Michael's drive traffic taking the slip and merging every second car, half the cars block the road to wait to go straight into the right lane and only every 1 in 7 or 8 cars merge.

xabi

Going on yesterday evening there was a remarkable difference, traffic was moving very well on the Mahon Link Road and there was no queue for cars coming from City Gate and joining the Mahon Link, that was at 17:20 when there is always a queue to get on by City Gate. I came past City Gate again at 18:30 and had no trouble getting out, going by yesterday its resolved most of the problem.

xabi

Bacchus wrote: »

Where exactly is the new lane (I was long time City Gate traffic sufferer but I moved job last year so I'm out of the loop)? Is it just an extension of the left turn lane by DFS to turn into Mahon S.C.?

Surely whatever they do in Mahon though just kicks the can down the road to the next bottleneck... the tunnel.

Its an extension of the old filter lane by City Gate right down to MP.

cork_south

Though it probably does not need mentioning as this was always going to have a knock on effect on one of Ireland's busiest junctions (dunkettle) traffic east bound on the South Ring road was heavier than normal tailing back between Douglas and Kinsale road RA at a time when it typically word not start building up until yiu hit Rochestown Park hotel.

grogi

TheChizler wrote: »

It did seem a lot quieter coming out of the City Gate area at 6 yesterday, there were only a few cars backed up. One thing I've noticed though was that every car turning left out of St. Michael's drive waited for the right hand lane to be clear, went straight into that and ignored the new lane. It's like they're afraid of looking like they're trying to skip the traffic in the old lane. This was always a problem when it was just a slip road, instead of all the St. Michael's drive traffic taking the slip and merging every second car, half the cars block the road to wait to go straight into the right lane and only every 1 in 7 or 8 cars merge.

There should be mild barriers, such as raised lines, put on that junction.

I can see the traffic lights are reprogrammed right now. With two long feeder lanes, the junction will have much higher throughput for south-going traffic. The cycle could be shortened a bit in that direction, so throughput in other directions can be improved as well.

Another thing that is really really needed there is the revamp of south N40 ramps. Traffic turning East should be free-flowing there...

Cape Clear

Was this work done by the council or City gate/JCD? Just wondering as I thought the original plan talked about a number of year sago was to have 4 lanes (2 in both direction) from the CSO to St Michael's Drive.

TheChizler

grogi wrote: »

There should be mild barriers, such as raised lines, put on that junction.

I can see the traffic lights are reprogrammed right now. With two long feeder lanes, the junction will have much higher throughput for south-going traffic. The cycle could be shortened a bit in that direction, so throughput in other directions can be improved as well.

Another thing that is really really needed there is the revamp of south N40 ramps. Traffic turning East should be free-flowing there...

Just saw that the two lanes coming out of St. Michael's drive both have turn left arrows painted today (one on right can go either direction), that should sort out the people I was worried about.

xabi

TheChizler wrote: »

Just saw that the two lanes coming out of St. Michael's drive both have turn left arrows painted today (one on right can go either direction), that should sort out the people I was worried about.

Sounds like they will be putting lights in, was that in the plan?

TheChizler

xabi wrote: »

Sounds like they will be putting lights in, was that in the plan?

Got I hope not!

Ignore what I said about the second left turn fixing anything; today people were still driving straight from the left in St. Michael's drive to the right going towards MP, ignoring the completely empty lane on the left. Infuriating madness.