Driving in Maynooth

Nino Brown

Does anybody else find the standard of driving in Maynooth to be awful? I rarely drive into town during the day, its easier to just was walk, then run the gauntlet and look for parking. But today I had to drive, and in the space of one minute two cars were jostling for position in a yellow box, then right in front of the Garda Station a Punto decides to run a red light and drive across the junction cutting off 2 lanes of traffic, the about 20 meters up the road a car pulls out in front of me, then another car drives across 2 lanes of traffic another 20 meters up the road.
Then a truck driver gets out of his truck in the middle of traffic to ask a car for directions, holding up traffic in both directions.
I'm not posting a video of the truck driver because his face is clearly visible, he got out right in front of my car, but here's the other stuff.

Quality is better is you select 1080 in settings.

Joe Public

It looks like the usual kind of driving behaviour to me and not unique to Maynooth.

Moonbeam

It is terrible though a noticeable improvement from when I lived in Balbriggan.
Yellow box junctions appear to be decorations and I can not get out of my housing estate in the mornings due to people parking in them.
I think the main issue with Maynooth is that the traffic is exceptionally bad nearly all of the time.

Raminahobbin

Schools at every side of town don't help. It's bedlam several times a day.

I think it's also the lights being set really oddly- they only let a few cars through at a time.

The main light issues are turning right at the main T-Junction towards Tescos (although this has improved recently), and approaching the main crossroads at any angle other than going to/from the main street towards Dunnes.

L1011

Traffic in Maynooth is still better than it was in 1993 :pac:

The worst traffic is when the schools are open. The schools need to make a more concerted effort to encourage bus travel - there seems to be less of that than when I was in school - and the council need to ensure there actually is a cycle track from the main populated areas rather than it pathetically giving out short of the main street. This won't remove all of it - there's school traffic that can't be swapped to foot/bike and there's also a lot of work traffic that drops off when schools are closed due to people taking leave.

Some of the traffic lights need serious evaluation - for instance the entire town flows better when the lights at the Glenroyal fail, but some people find it very hard to turn out right when they're off.

And they need to finish the ringroad, if they can't justify the long section (Celbridge Road to Dublin Road), at least the half finished section (Celbridge Road to Straffan Road) would alleviate some issues.

n0brain3r

Some enforcement of parking regs around the town especially the schools and church would help enormously. I think there's a case for pay parking too to deter people parking all day and clogging up the town. Something like 30 minutes free on main street to a couple of hours elsewhere should serve the businesses and put an end to all day parking. Does anyone actually observe the traffic cameras or what is their function?

Raminahobbin

Pay parking is coming into effect this year I think- got a quick look at the plans yesterday in work. Here they are for anyone who's curious.

Nino Brown

MYOB wrote: »

Some of the traffic lights need serious evaluation - for instance the entire town flows better when the lights at the Glenroyal fail, but some people find it very hard to turn out right when they're off.

Thats very true. The backlog from the Glenroyal to the T junction at Supermacs gets way too long, they need to let the lights stay green longer for people turning right, only 4-5 cars get through at a time.

L1011

Raminahobbin wrote: »

Pay parking is coming into effect this year I think- got a quick look at the plans yesterday in work. Here they are for anyone who's curious.

Pay parking cannot be introduced until the new carpark off Doctors Lane opens - and its still current the works compound for the new units opposite. Christmas 2013 was the apparent date - which clearly its going to have missed by months if not another year.

People in O'Neill Park are going to have serious trouble as its excluded from the pay zone and within walking distance of the town. Suspect Tesco will have to start enforcing their limits too - a huge amount of cars park in the old centre carpark for the town currently and are mostly out of the way of Tesco's normal traffic but that will obviously have a marked increase.

Moonbeam

In the mornings the whole Straffan Road is a traffic jam and traffic moves at a snails pace,same in the evenings and for some of the day in between. I am not sure what could be done about it as it seems to be volume.
I love that the town has free parking but I have witnessed so many people parking in yellow boxes,blocking foot paths and blocking entrances that I can not get by with the buggy it is super annoying.
I went through a phase of taking pictures of every car that blocked my way due to illegal parking and well it was usually the same cars.

wirelessdude01

Friday afternoons are the worst with all the mammys and daddys picking up the kids from college.

Wordless

wirelessdude01 wrote: »

Friday afternoons are the worst with all the mammys and daddys picking up the kids from college.

Fridays? They used to be gone by Thursdays when I was there!

wirelessdude01

Wordless wrote: »

Fridays? They used to be gone by Thursdays when I was there!

Sure it is the main student night.

Wordless

wirelessdude01 wrote: »

Sure it is the main student night.

True, I was just joking. It was that they had checked out on ?Thursday serious point, the parking situation in the college was terrible ( I don't know if this has improved?) Has the removal of the bridge made the traffic worse?

donspeekinglesh

The Kilcock road is impassable at times due to buses and coaches collecting students. We'd normally cut through the college grounds, saves a huge amount of time.

brokenarms

Its not as much the driving as the road design. Getting across that junction at the lights near the hotel requires a bit of a brass neck when aiming for the side street opposite.

Lights give you a green into oncoming traffic. Silly design.

Redsoxfan

I guess it's the same everywhere in Ireland, but I tend to notice more in Maynooth as I tend to drive through the town everyday.

Something seriously needs to be done about illegal parking - the amount of congestion that is caused by vans/trucks that 'pull in' is considerable - I have sympathy with them as there aren't any (?) loading bays around the town.

Add to that, the takeaway delivery drivers etc that park haphazardly at the corner of Main St and Mill St

There's a general lack of respect for rules - yellow boxes, the taxi rank at Manor Mills, the one way street at Pound Lane (it's illegal to turn into Pound Lane from Mill Street) etc

Despite the HGV ban, I still see artics and other large vehicles driving through the town

Buses (Bus Eireann etc as opposed to Dublin Bus) cause problems when turning left on to Main Street and then right on to Mill Street

Folks who think it's fine to park on the footpath at the Church and this is prevalent at the schools on Moyglare Road as well, both at school starting and ending times, and frequently at night as well when there are events at the school. I don't have children, but I can imagine the issues for those with prams etc.

The pay parking issue has been discussed for as long as I can remember since moving to Maynooth. On balance, I think it's a good thing, as long as it is enforced and it's easy for people to pay.

Enforcement of rules would help, as would a degree of respect for other road users, but I don't see either of those things changing in Maynooth or anywhere else in the Country....

L1011

brokenarms wrote: »

Its not as much the driving as the road design. Getting across that junction at the lights near the hotel requires a bit of a brass neck when aiming for the side street opposite.

Lights give you a green into oncoming traffic. Silly design.

Only if you assume the left arrow is left + straight ahead - which its not.

brokenarms

Im fairly sure coming from the motorway.
Wanting to cross into the side street in front.

You have to take the left hand filter lane. Then stop in the middle of the junction , blocking everyone behind you while you wait in hope for the traffic from the right to let you cross the road. But they will not let you cross incase they get stuck behind the next red.

Correct me if im wrong. It could have changed. But I was in that position last year .

Nino Brown

brokenarms wrote: »

Im fairly sure coming from the motorway.
Wanting to cross into the side street in front.

You have to take the left hand filter lane. Then stop in the middle of the junction , blocking everyone behind you while you wait in hope for the traffic from the right to let you cross the road. But they will not let you cross incase they get stuck behind the next red.

Correct me if im wrong. It could have changed. But I was in that position last year .

What junction are you talking about, I'm confused?

L1011

You're going straight ahead, you shouldn't be in the left hand filter lane. When the main light goes you have clear road to cross the junction.

brokenarms

MYOB wrote: »

You're going straight ahead, you shouldn't be in the left hand filter lane. When the main light goes you have clear road to cross the junction.

Its seemed like the natural place to be. No road marking for straight on. At least not as I can remember.
I made a point of remembering it as I thought they should have made that side street one way where traffic could not enter it from the lights as there was also no facility to stop pedestrians. Giving the straight on motorist yet another hurdle as well as two lanes of oncoming traffic.

Here you can see it. No road marking and the left lane is the natural lane to be in as Fagans Lane is slightly to the left of the junction. To use the right hand lane would mean you would have to travel up the road to the lane on the wrong side of the road!
https://maps.google.ie/maps?q=nui+maynooth&ll=53.381429,-6.590796&spn=0.000936,0.002642&fb=1&gl=ie&hq=maynooth&cid=1081083435368919088&t=h&z=19&iwloc=A

Thats whole junction like many in Maynooth is very badly designed.

L1011

Road markings in Maynooth are like mythological beasts, we've heard of them and some people claim to have seen them, a long time ago...

Moonbeam

brokenarms wrote: »

Im fairly sure coming from the motorway.
Wanting to cross into the side street in front.

You have to take the left hand filter lane. Then stop in the middle of the junction , blocking everyone behind you while you wait in hope for the traffic from the right to let you cross the road. But they will not let you cross incase they get stuck behind the next red.

Correct me if im wrong. It could have changed. But I was in that position last year .

In to Barretts?

Raminahobbin

Moonbeam wrote: »

In to Barretts?

I think he means coming along the straffan road into Maynooth town, and trying to go down beside O'Neills pub from the traffic lights.

Moonbeam

ah:)

Wordless

Wordless wrote: »

True, I was just joking. It was that they had checked out on ?Thursday serious point, the parking situation in the college was terrible ( I don't know if this has improved?) Has the removal of the bridge made the traffic worse?

Anyone?

Redsoxfan

MYOB wrote: »

You're going straight ahead, you shouldn't be in the left hand filter lane. When the main light goes you have clear road to cross the junction.

To be pedantic, the access to Fagan's Lane from that junction isn't really straight ahead. I can see where the confusion would arise for an occasional user. Locals should of course know better and I agree in full with the second part of your reply.

SQ2

MYOB wrote: »

You're going straight ahead, you shouldn't be in the left hand filter lane. When the main light goes you have clear road to cross the junction.

<<< This!!


And if you do happen to use Pound Lane, please use the Mill Street exit as if it were 2 lanes, one turning left and one turning right... after all it is a "No Entry", so no cars will be coming in there in the right lane... right?


- Providing no one has parked in that lane already of course...

SQ2

Before the Lights came at the Garda Station it was fun wasn't it...

"He who dares" had the right of way!

L1011

SQ2 wrote: »

Before the Lights came at the Garda Station it was fun wasn't it...

"He who dares" had the right of way!

Plenty of people went and used the old turning lane for the Kilcock Road to loop around - hence making the issue worse for everyone else - to go straight from Parson Street.