M4 - Maynooth to Leixlip [planning and design underway]

Connolly line from Maynooth is and has been ridiculously overcrowded for a long time. There ain't capacity for more people to abandon the car. The bus cant get in at any speed due to the million stops from Maynooth to city. 3 lanes is definitely needed, including for bus users. Imagine an enforced direct Maynooth to City bus lane

A look at the 2022 traffic count data for on the TII website (https://trafficdata.tii.ie/publicmultinodemap.asp) shows the following ADTs on the N4 and N7 for comparison

• N04 Between Jn03 Newcastle and Jn04 Lucan: 80,268
• M04 Between Jn06 Celbridge and Jn07 Maynooth: 55,111
• M04 Maynooth,West : 42,629
• N07 Between Jn07 Kill and Jn08 Johnstown: 78,947
• M07 Between Jn10 Naas South and Jn11 M7/M9: 47,433
• M07 Between Jn12 Newbridge and Jn13 Kildare: 42,286

So as can be clearly seen the amount of traffic reaching Maynooth is greater than that reaching the M7/M9 interchange. I didn't see anybody saying that we shouldn't have widened the M7 to three lanes (to Junction 11) so I can't see how people can object to widening the M4 to three lanes at least as far as Maynooth.

Or that most people commuting leave the M4 for the old N4 to avoid the toll thus leaving at kilcock

not really.. just people not waning to spend 2.90 twice a day 5 days a week.. still 19K a day as far as mullingar and tapering off slightly then

Truck drivers used to avoid it en masse, loads used to stop at Mother Hubbards in Moyvalley for breaks.

Its closed down. Survived a decade plus but I imagine the increasing cost of fuel and time for drivers ate away at the point of skipping the toll.

As somebody who works in the industry, I'd be really interested if you could pleasd post the studies that have debunked induced demand as I've never heard of such studies and the whole transport planning industry is still firmly under the impression that it is far from debunked but rather proven to be very real in virtually every piece of literature on the topic.

Agreed on both points there.

I have a fuel card and don't pay for fuel. I drive a commercial Ford Focus......basically a Ford Focus with seating capacity of 2 instead of 5 by way of removing the rear bench seat. As a result, it's €4.50 a pop for me which is nearly €200 a month if I were to travel to Dublin 5 days a week (thankfully not the case in my case).

I've tried using the M4 toll road over the course of a full tank of diesel instead of using the N4 and my range is quite a bit better if I DON'T use the tolled motorway between Kinnegad and Kilcock. Over a full 50l tank, I get about 1,000km if I always use the M4 and I get about 1,100 to 1,150km if I use the N4 whilst sticking to the speed limits. Although I don't pay for the fuel, I try not to waste fuel either.

Unless I'm in a serious hurry for something and I need to shave 10 minutes off a time critical journey, you don't need to be a rocket scientist which road I take.

I'm not sure what point you're trying to make and if it was to me. My point is that the traffic volume on the M4 at Maynooth exceeds that at the M7/M9 interchange. So if the M7 was worth expanding to three lanes to that point the M4 can justify three lanes to Maynooth. I don't think there's any justification for extending beyond that.

I took figures from the point where the M4 is to be extended to - Maynooth - and pointed out that they are the higher as those at the end of the three lane M7. I didn't see anybody saying that the M7 didn't required widening around Naas and yet that's based on lower traffic figures. Are you saying you don't think the M7 widening should have taken place?

You mentioned Kilcock but I've never mentioned it in my posts. I'm not suggesting going that far because I agree that the volume drops enough at Maynooth to let it go back to two lanes at that point. I think the volume of cars justifies what is a two junction, 8km extension from J5 to J7 on the M4. There's a wide enough margin to take it and it shouldn't be an onerous build apart from a redesign of the Maynooth junction itself as the current junction there is not fit for purpose even without a widening of the road.

As for alternative methods of transport the reality is that Maynooth train station is simply not fit for a substantial increase in commuters. It's right in the centre of town with very little/if any scope for additional parking assuming your going to encourage more people on to the train commuter service. The bus routes have already been changed with the rollout of the C-spine and numerous express services into town and yet traffic on the M4 remains a problem.

Thanks for sharing, haven't seen that anywhere else, and the closing date is only a week away? How come for the most minor part 8 there seems to be a 6-8wk consultation, but making changes to a motorway gets pushed on through?

Looks like a lot of "improvements" at junctions (hopefully actual improvements for active travel) and bus lanes in the hard shoulders, with only negative possibility being the addition of a third lane outbound.

If people break down, do they block the bus lane? Queues at off-ramps are going to be great for public transport too, I hope there's camera enforcement throughout.

Personally looking forward to improvements at J6 - the meandering path that pedestrians and cyclists have to take through it, let alone the difficulty in judging when it's safe due to the speed of the car traffic, it doesn't induce people to leave the car behind when going from Leixlip to Castletown House for instance.

I'm of the same opinion on the virtual consultation rooms. There's a 'List View' at top right that will give you a menu of PDFs.