Traffic in Lucan!

DoozerT6

Hi All,

Does anybody know why the rush-hour traffic through Lucan, towards the village, has become so appallingly heavy over the past few weeks? Traffic for the village is backed up over the flyover at Woodies, heading back up towards the Penny Hill every evening lately. In fact this evening I eventually took the slip road to Leixlip and went home that way, after being stuck, unmoving, at three rotations of the lights there!

It seems to have started suddenly a few weeks ago, traffic is practically gridlocked until the bridge at Laraghcon and then eases out. It seems to be much heavier than ever before.

Heroditas

I hadn't noticed this but it is now very bad going in that direction in the mornings.
I head through Strawberry Beds to the Phoenix Park each morning and nip down through the village from the Woodies direction. Before the summer, you'd head down the hill and get to the roundabout with zero traffic before 8 in the morning.
the last few mornings it's taken me 20mins to get down the hill. One of the lads I work with was saying the traffic is backed up from the village in the other direction to the Maxol station. Crazy stuff.

They appear to have altered the lights sequence on the bridge and now northbound traffic gets much less green time so it backs up more.
I fail to see why this was done because the traffic heading southbound still gets caught up in delays heading towards the N4 so giving it more green time is pointless. All they've done is manage to make Lucan a disaster zone in the morning (as if it wasn't bad enough already)

unkel

Schools are back. Everywhere in Lucan near any school is very bad particularly between 8:20 and 9:10 or so

Also recession seems to be over. Traffic in the greater Dublin area is back to 2008 levels

And the M50 has never been as busy as it is now

Heroditas

unkel wrote: »

Schools are back. Everywhere in Lucan near any school is very bad particularly between 8:20 and 9:10 or so

Also recession seems to be over. Traffic in the greater Dublin area is back to 2008 levels

And the M50 has never been as busy as it is now

I have never seen it like that heading from Woodies direction down into the village at 7.30 in the morning. The lights have definitely been altered.
I was at the roundabout at the bridge this morning and the lights turned green. They only stayed green long enough for the traffic between the lights and the roundabout to cross northbound. They used to stay green for longer than that.

DoozerT6

unkel wrote: »

Schools are back. Everywhere in Lucan near any school is very bad particularly between 8:20 and 9:10 or so

Also recession seems to be over. Traffic in the greater Dublin area is back to 2008 levels

And the M50 has never been as busy as it is now

The current issue started quite suddenly, several weeks before any schools started back. It's incredibly frustrating. You'd grow a beard quicker than you'd get from Woodies, down Chapel Hill and into the village now I haven't noticed any difference in the sequence of the lights, except that the queues at them are much longer

I can only imagine what the village and the Laraghcon hill is going to be like when Rokeby Park is all sold, too.

Heroditas

DoozerT6 wrote: »

The current issue started quite suddenly, several weeks before any schools started back. It's incredibly frustrating. You'd grow a beard quicker than you'd get from Woodies, down Chapel Hill and into the village now I haven't noticed any difference in the sequence of the lights, except that the queues at them are much longer

I can only imagine what the village and the Laraghcon hill is going to be like when Rokeby Park is all sold, too.

It'll be a long while before Rokeby Park is full at those prices!! Crazy altogether

unkel

DoozerT6 wrote: »

The current issue started quite suddenly, several weeks before any schools started back.

Lads now the two of you mention it like that, I too have noticed that since several weeks ago (well before the schools started) the green light northbound at the north side of the bridge is far shorter than it used to be. It used to let all traffic northbound through in the one go (which obviously works well for traffic flow on the main through road at the cost of traffic from west of the river (near zero traffic anyway) and traffic southbound from Laraghcon)

I'd love if we could go to the bottom of this. Lights sequence altered purely for the benefit of Laraghcon residents at the cost of everyone else? That smells.

sapper

I saw a guy working on those lights around 7am on Wed I think. I assumed it had fed through to the council there was an issue with new sequence - he was watching the traffic - like he was tweaking the sequence. But seems just as bad since

I would guess perhaps they were changing the sequence due to the new development at Rokeby (with all of 5 houses sold).

I wonder too if it's a fingal coco decision and they don't care about the effect on South Dublin

Keep meaning to drop an email to fingal coco

MaxPower131

Well if Rokeby is successfully sold thats Nama/government/banks off the hook for an idiotic land purchase. Wonder will the light sequence change back when they are sold;)

wolfyboy555

They have definetly changed the light sequence heading across the bridge towards Clonee. I saw that guy working on the sequence that time too and expected them to go back to normal but nothing has changed. It has added on an extra 15mins onto my journey now.

sapper

Confirmation of a "new traffic management plan at the weir" in this puff piece in the Indo

http://www.independent.ie/life/home-garden/homes/the-new-home-view-constant-gardeners-in-heaven-at-rokeby-park-31535671.html

Its absolutely ridiculous I live North of lucan village and am a supposed "beneficiary" of this - but I have to queue for much longer now coming home then I ever did going down the hill.

Have emailed roads@fingalcoco.ie but got no response.

William Lavelle had this on his Facebook page,

The last two weeks have, not unexpectedly, resulted in an overwhelming level of complaint and concern regarding Lucan’s chronic traffic - all of which is absolutely justified!
Outer Ring Road, Willsbrook Road, Griffeen Avenue, Newcastle Road and Lucan Village have all been highlighted as facing worse traffic problems than ever.
Tonight, the Council’s Transport & Planning Policy Committee, which I chair, visited the SDCC Traffic Management Centre. I was greatly impressed by both the extent of cameras in place covering a vast number of junctions and HD quality of the camera footage. I was also impressed by the ability to monitor newly-installed UTC traffic light systems where they have been installed, including at Outer Ring Road. The data being collated by the Traffic Management Centre is proving very useful in identifying the worst traffic bottlenecks and the measures needed to improve traffic flow in these areas.
Over the next two weeks, I will be posting updates on efforts and plans to address some of Lucan’s worst traffic blackspots.

EIREX

Sadly this is the legacy of the bad planning in the greater Lucan area in the late 90's early 2000's.

Recession took the edge off but as people return to work as things improve the 1970's road network can't cope.

unkel

I disagree. A lot of the bad traffic is caused by bad management of existing infrastructure. Mainly bad sequencing of traffic lights (i.e. Liffey bridge in the village, Griffeen ave / ORR junction, Willsbrook / ORR junction). Easily solved by measuring traffic and applying some mathematic models. Nobody in the country seems to be competent at this though...

average_runner

unkel wrote: »

I disagree. A lot of the bad traffic is caused by bad management of existing infrastructure. Mainly bad sequencing of traffic lights (i.e. Liffey bridge in the village, Griffeen ave / ORR junction, Willsbrook / ORR junction). Easily solved by measuring traffic and applying some mathematic models. Nobody in the country seems to be competent at this though...

Griffeen ave would be ok if people just walked their kids to school instead of driving for a kilometre

alias no.9

unkel wrote: »

I disagree. A lot of the bad traffic is caused by bad management of existing infrastructure. Mainly bad sequencing of traffic lights (i.e. Liffey bridge in the village, Griffeen ave / ORR junction, Willsbrook / ORR junction). Easily solved by measuring traffic and applying some mathematic models. Nobody in the country seems to be competent at this though...

Something as simple as swapping the right turn filters on the ORR at the Willsbrook road junction could make a big difference. Currently the north bound traffic has green and right filter just before switching to the two side roads. This often leaves traffic backed up from the bridge so that few cars can turn towards the N4 from the side roads during their green.
If the right filter for the northbound came at the start of the straight ahead green, rather than the end, the right filter for southbound could be at the end of the straight ahead sequence, during which some of the traffic backed up from the bridge could clear.

Alternatively, just swapping the order of the side roads in the sequence could allow a left filter from Willsbrook road after the main green while the south bound ORR had its right filter.

unkel

unkel wrote: »

Easily solved by measuring traffic and applying some mathematic models. Nobody in the country seems to be competent at this though...

The traffic management systems are sophisticated already, the problem if you alter one you have to alter them all. It's a pain when you are caught in traffic but that's the joy of not using public transport. It's like when I did Operation Freeflow. People would give out that I didn't over ride traffic lights, but if I did that I'd create a problem somewhere else.

I think the main problem in the south Lucan area with traffic is there is only two roads leading to the N4 so everybody is forced into the same area.

JimsAlterEgo

arent they going to re-open the slip road on Esker Lane?

Heroditas

JimsAlterEgo wrote: »

arent they going to re-open the slip road on Esker Lane?

They said that was going to be examined at some point.
The road from Esker Meadow View now runs down to Esker Lane as a drop-off for the school so they could make it a junction there and cars could get out onto the N4. It would also offer some relief to traffic at the lights at Willsbrook.

average_runner

Heroditas wrote: »

They said that was going to be examined at some point.
The road from Esker Meadow View now runs down to Esker Lane as a drop-off for the school so they could make it a junction there and cars could get out onto the N4. It would also offer some relief to traffic at the lights at Willsbrook.

Will have to reduce the speed on n4 so, as an exit there be too dangerous

Heroditas

average_runner wrote: »

Will have to reduce the speed on n4 so, as an exit there be too dangerous

Use a separated laneway similar to the exit for Ballyowen Lane/Foxhunter perhaps?

unkel

foreign wrote: »

The traffic management systems are sophisticated already

Obviously not. One example (the only one I am very familiar with so the only one I can comment on with details): eastbound facing traffic at the traffic lights on the junction of Griffeen Avenue and ORR between 8 and 9:30AM. If this green light is made a bit longer, it will solve most of these queues while not leading to build up of traffic from the other 3 directions at that junction

Anyone familiar with these traffic lights will tell you that and someone with the statistics and the mathematical model can prove this

average_runner wrote: »

Griffeen ave would be ok if people just walked their kids to school instead of driving for a kilometre

Not at all. The overwhelming majority of the kids in the two (ET) schools north and south of Griffeen Avenue (near ORR) who live in nearby estates already walk / cycle to school and the ones that don't just get a lift with their mummy / daddy who is taking the car to work anyway (so not adding to the congestion)

And the ones who do only drive to drop of their kids are smart enough to do counter traffic loops through the nearby estates to drop their children off. I've been all of those persons

hmmm

While we're talking about school runs - would it kill people to let the buses get out at the roundabouts? Everyone on that bus means one less car, so it's in everyone's interest if you tried to make the bus a little less slower to get around Lucan.

unkel

unkel wrote: »

Obviously not. One example (the only one I am very familiar with so the only one I can comment on with details): eastbound facing traffic at the traffic lights on the junction of Griffeen Avenue and ORR between 8 and 9:30AM. If this green light is made a bit longer, it will solve most of these queues while not leading to build up of traffic from the other 3 directions at that junction

Anyone familiar with these traffic lights will tell you that and someone with the statistics and the mathematical model can prove this

Maybe that junction needs to be completely redesigned? There is the space to expand it.

average_runner

Heroditas wrote: »

Use a separated laneway similar to the exit for Ballyowen Lane/Foxhunter perhaps?

Too close to the other exits and entrances on the n4.

average_runner

unkel wrote: »

Obviously not. One example (the only one I am very familiar with so the only one I can comment on with details): eastbound facing traffic at the traffic lights on the junction of Griffeen Avenue and ORR between 8 and 9:30AM. If this green light is made a bit longer, it will solve most of these queues while not leading to build up of traffic from the other 3 directions at that junction

Anyone familiar with these traffic lights will tell you that and someone with the statistics and the mathematical model can prove this



Not at all. The overwhelming majority of the kids in the two (ET) schools north and south of Griffeen Avenue (near ORR) who live in nearby estates already walk / cycle to school and the ones that don't just get a lift with their mummy / daddy who is taking the car to work anyway (so not adding to the congestion)

And the ones who do only drive to drop of their kids are smart enough to do counter traffic loops through the nearby estates to drop their children off. I've been all of those persons

Plenty of mummies there today, think I might start a course on how to use an indicator

alias no.9

average_runner wrote: »

Too close to the other exits and entrances on the n4.

Liffey Valley - Ballyowen lane - Ballyowen Road vs Ballyowen Road - Esker Lane - Newcastle Road, there's little or nothing in the difference

Edit here goes

1.1km from the point the Liffey Valley traffic joins the N4 to where the Lucan/ORR traffic leaves with Ballyowen lane, Texaco and the Foxhunter(when the road was designed/built) accessed from the service lane in between, not to mention St.Lomans accessed direct from the N4 in between.

1.1km from Lucan/ORR traffic joining the N4 to where the Lucan/Newcastle Road traffic leaves. How would a similar service lane allowing traffic go from the N4 to Esker Lane and from Esker Lane to the N4 via the Newcastle Road Junction be any different?

All that said, the N4 is an NRA gig so it doesn't matter what the politicians say, they have no say, especially the councillors.

average_runner

alias no.9 wrote: »

Liffey Valley - Ballyowen lane - Ballyowen Road vs Ballyowen Road - Esker Lane - Newcastle Road, there's little or nothing in the difference

Force the Esker up the adamstown ramp and no entrance in to esker?

alias no.9

average_runner wrote: »

Force the Esker up the adamstown ramp and no entrance in to esker?

Sorry, I've edited the original, no possible way you could have Esker Lane join the N4 directly

Edit, you've got another example of a service lane for Dodsboro / Spa Hotel / Kew Park but a marginally longer spacing between the main junctions

average_runner

alias no.9 wrote: »

Sorry, I've edited the original, no possible way you could have Esker Lane join the N4 directly

Edit, you've got another example of a service lane for Dodsboro / Spa Hotel / Kew Park but a marginally longer spacing between the main junctions

Service lane could work, doubt much need for bus lane there?

alias no.9

average_runner wrote: »

Service lane could work, doubt much need for bus lane there?

It was useful for coaches pre the Newcastle Road lights being eliminated. The only Dublin Bus routes are the 66X/67X which are few and I'm thinking all come up the Newcastle Road slip to serve the stop on the slip back down to the N4 so should be indifferent to the service lane.