KCC roads insanity

Raminahobbin

Well they've broken through the wall on the opposite side to the Rail park entrance on the Straffan road, to the road running parallel to Greenfield. Fingers crossed it helps the traffic!

Also started water works on the Dublin road, ripping up the path AGAIN for the 2nd or 3rd time in front of haven hire etc

Orion

I noticed they panels near the train station for the new pedestrian lights. They are on the footpath not the cycle lane this time. Looks like they'll be treating the cycle lane as a road lane. About bloody time. This is a good thing and hopefully shows a new understanding of cycling from KCC.

L1011

Raminahobbin wrote: »

Well they've broken through the wall on the opposite side to the Rail park entrance on the Straffan road, to the road running parallel to Greenfield. Fingers crossed it helps the traffic!

There's only about 8 "houses" (as in built and sites for further) on that road. It won't help traffic; hopefully it won't hurt it much either.

Raminahobbin

L1011 wrote: »

There's only about 8 "houses" (as in built and sites for further) on that road. It won't help traffic; hopefully it won't hurt it much either.

Is it not a bypass road to the road by the shops over at Newtown? Sorry, I don't go that side of Maynooth very much, no idea if it comes out the other side or not. I'm assuming it does.

L1011

Raminahobbin wrote: »

Is it not a bypass road to the road by the shops over at Newtown? Sorry, I don't go that side of Maynooth very much, no idea if it comes out the other side or not. I'm assuming it does.

No, it only goes about 200m. Its currently accessed down a laneway down the side of another house. The Google Maps aerial photography is quite recent

There's no space for a road through - the access laneways for the older houses in Old Greenfield abut the rear walls of some houses in Kingsbry.

Raminahobbin

Ah. I see. Well that's a pity!!

Doubt it'll add much to the traffic if there's only a few houses on it, much like the Kinder Crescent cul de sac, but then that has a turning lane.

L1011

Huge section with no streetlights due to the works now

Orion

L1011 wrote: »

Huge section with no streetlights due to the works now

Including the entrance to the train station where the pedestrian crossing is.

L1011

Raminahobbin wrote: »

Ah. I see. Well that's a pity!!

Doubt it'll add much to the traffic if there's only a few houses on it, much like the Kinder Crescent cul de sac, but then that has a turning lane.

Thought I'd quoted this at the time - that is The Crescent, the creche got the name from it rather than the other way around!

I would imagine the traffic out of there will be negligible - indeed there's a chance the houses already there will continue to exit via their laneways to Old Greenfield by habit a lot of the time.

Redsoxfan

Is it fair to say that when the works in Maynooth are finished, the flow of traffic through the town will be slowed further at peak times?

L1011

Redsoxfan wrote: »

Is it fair to say that when the works in Maynooth are finished, the flow of traffic through the town will be slowed further at peak times?

Probably. It would have been much, much worse with the original plan though.

Right turn lanes were retained after campaigning - the original plan was to remove them and we've seen from the works the hell that'd cause. Ridiculous that some councillors moaned about the volume of emails they got about it - should remember which ones to ensure they don't get that volume of votes to worry about.

Redsoxfan

The issue I see is that the overall carriageway will be narrower. People tend to be be lazy about using the correct alignment in right turning lanes (e.g. at Esso, nobody ever seems to position their car so that drivers heading towards Maynooth can get past them). So while in theory it's welcome that right tuning lanes will be retained, I wonder how it will work in practice.

L1011

There isn't actually a right turning lane at Esso so its a case of trying your best...

Orion

Redsoxfan wrote: »

Is it fair to say that when the works in Maynooth are finished, the flow of traffic through the town will be slowed further at peak times?

I spoke to one of the engineers about that. The road narrowing is a deliberate thing to slow down traffic.

L1011

Orion wrote: »

I spoke to one of the engineers about that. The road narrowing is a deliberate thing to slow down traffic.

Because, of course, it goes so incredibly fast currently...

Redsoxfan

Orion wrote:

I spoke to one of the engineers about that. The road narrowing is a deliberate thing to slow down traffic.

L1011 wrote:

Because, of course, it goes so incredibly fast currently...

Indeed. Whatever about narrowing the road beyond Maxol or even the Moyglare Road, I can't say I have ever noticed an issue at the stretch they are working on.

ixus

Think it's because it is NTA who are doing/funding it that results in this section being done. Smaller roads not on their list.

Hercule

I generally drive but also cycle infrequently, I feel they should be prioritising drivers as the primary road users, I get the whole "more people should cycle" and "cyclists should have suitable lanes to travel on" but i'd say they represent less then 1% of the total road user in Maynoth, no matter how good cycling facilities are I don't anticipate that changing within the next few years - the completion of a ring road is/was a far greater priority then building cycle paths - we're very lucky the weather has been so mild this winter and traffic isn't as bad as it could be - but anyone who's gotten caught in the 1 hour+ straffan road crunch at peak times will have little interest in helping the 5 cyclists that pass by the 50+ tailback of cars.

At certain points in the road the lane isn't wide enough for an average size car - I don't drive a particularly wide vehicle and need to straddle the line to be able to comfortably get through , I refuse to believe that's intentional, I have to believe that there is an intention to re-do the road markings once the major works are done.

Mind you these are the same morons that decided to commence works when the schools + college were back.

L1011

The lines have not been repainted yet.

Orion

L1011 wrote: »

Because, of course, it goes so incredibly fast currently...

Not saying I agree with them. But that's the reasoning.

Orion

L1011 wrote: »

The lines have not been repainted yet.

Exactly. The lines there are to be ignored right now until they're finished. Then they'll repaint the lines on the whole road.

L1011

The ability of drivers to not be pricks at the Celbridge Road junction currently seems to be non existent. People who entered the junction forcing through when space opens up but the arm has green, driving through pedestrian green sequences for the same reason.

When extra lights are added around the town I can see this prickish behaviour causing actual gridlock

KFC can't control the drivers, of course.

lucernarian

Hercule wrote: »

I generally drive but also cycle infrequently, I feel they should be prioritising drivers as the primary road users, I get the whole "more people should cycle" and "cyclists should have suitable lanes to travel on" but i'd say they represent less then 1% of the total road user in Maynoth, no matter how good cycling facilities are I don't anticipate that changing within the next few years - the completion of a ring road is/was a far greater priority then building cycle paths - we're very lucky the weather has been so mild this winter and traffic isn't as bad as it could be - but anyone who's gotten caught in the 1 hour+ straffan road crunch at peak times will have little interest in helping the 5 cyclists that pass by the 50+ tailback of cars.

At certain points in the road the lane isn't wide enough for an average size car - I don't drive a particularly wide vehicle and need to straddle the line to be able to comfortably get through , I refuse to believe that's intentional, I have to believe that there is an intention to re-do the road markings once the major works are done.

Some OTT moaning here. For the roadworks on the Straffan Road, the extra crossing will make the traffic situation slightly worse, but wider and refurbished cycle lanes won't make any difference to the traffic situation. The money for the north-south cycle route will come from a different budget anyway.

This them vs us mentality is dubious at the best of times but here, it's bonkers.

Have a trip down the celbridge road to see a narrow urban road with plenty of speeding at night looks like, lights poorly positioned to ensure the couple of houses near the Esso aren't put out too much, no safety measures for cyclists whatsoever, but plenty of grass verges and pretty ornamental trees lining the road. If you can't drive safely through heavy traffic at 10kph on the "improved" Straffan Road, you frankly should reconsider driving on that route.

And I'd be all for the ring road being built asap - going to Lidl from Griffin Rath would be far easier and safer by car or by bike...

BTW, from what crevice did you pull the <1% statistic from?

L1011

Roads untreated despite the forecasts

Lastblackdog

L1011 wrote: »

Roads untreated despite the forecasts

I don't think that KCC ever salt roads. If they do I have never seen any evidence of same. I travel the Maynooth to Dunboyne road frequently and, never once, have I seen any signs of salt or grit.

Maybe your expectations are too high

L1011

Lastblackdog wrote: »

I don't think that KCC ever salt roads. If they do I have never seen any evidence of same. I travel the Maynooth to Dunboyne road frequently and, never once, have I seen any signs of salt or grit.

Maybe your expectations are too high

They do, at night mostly. A lot actually. I wouldn't be surprised if the staff for it have to be paid more to come in in the day!

I would imagine they gritted last night based on it being below 4c but that's useless when the snow starts at 6pm.

The majority of the Maynooth to Dunboyne road is in Meath; even if you assume Kildare are responsible for the lengthy enough section that is pretty much the border - but I think they aren't/

Flibble

A friend of mine is often on call over night with a local landscaping company to salt /grit the roads in Kildare & beyond at night when it's due to be icey, so they definitely contract it out.

HonalD

L1011 wrote: »

Roads untreated despite the forecasts

Are you concerned they aren't treated at 6pm today or at all? And where about?

n97 mini

In 2009 or 2010 they put so much salt on the roads, which all washes off into the water courses and rivers, that production at Intel was affected. Intel pulls water from the Rye and they weren't prepared for the sudden vast increase in salinity.

L1011

HonalD wrote: »

Are you concerned they aren't treated at 6pm today or at all? And where about?

6pm when the forecast was for evening snow. Plenty of low traffic time before then to treat. Maynooth.

n97 mini wrote: »

In 2009 or 2010 they put so much salt on the roads, which all washes off into the water courses and rivers, that production at Intel was affected. Intel pulls water from the Rye and they weren't prepared for the sudden vast increase in salinity.

That was urea rather than salt. Standard KCC inability to think of consequences