N8/N25/N40 - Dunkettle Interchange [open to traffic]

I wonder whether N40E towards the tunnel is now constrained by traffic joining from Mahon and merging poorly into the main flow, forcing bracking and causing a tailback. It looked to me from google that it was clear past Mahon. Remains to be seen how this is over the next few days, but hopefully it'll improve.

Are we not describing in this instance a case of 2 lanes into 1? If so, how much of the vanishing lane are you suggesting has been needlessly paved due to it being rude to drive in it?

Zip merging in the Uk is handled better, both lanes are used up to the merge point, and there's no begrudgery except now and again someone will try to tailgate the car in front and barge in, or someone who has zipped early feels entitled to "their space" and blocks the merger.

The clowns that queue in the left lane with an empty lane outside are just causing a back-up further back.

Yeah much better, reason being the speed van is not there today.

Traffic still coming to short dead stop out on the N25W but the removal of the speed van has made a big difference.

100÷

Irish drivers are more polite. Probably too polite. It results in unpredictability on the roads which isn’t a good thing.

I find a higher percentage of Irish drivers not being as competent as UK drivers though.

You haven't seen much road-rage? How did you live in London so long and never use the North Circular Road?

Anyway, the topic: the 30 km/h speed limit on City to Tunnel is permanent (the tight loops on the M50 Red Cow interchange are similarly at 30). The rest of the interchange is on a 60 km/h limit. It remains to be seen whether that 60 limit will extend through to the south side of the tunnel, but it makes sense that it would.

I drove the eastern approach to the tunnel yesterday - seemed pretty good, but with a lot of construction around, there were a couple of spots where I had to navigate coned-off sections and double-check where I was going, but the merging is fairly clear. It is similar to the M50 Red Cow: take your time, get in lane, follow your lane markings, and you're fine. Once commuters have unlearned their lane-choice reflexes it will all flow much better.

The speed van comment previously is spot on: I was at the 60 km/h limit on the approach, a car ahead of me which had been going at the same speed as me slammed his brakes (down to about 45) as soon as he saw the van. I was driving at a quiet time when traffic could have driven much faster than 60, so I understand why the vans are there, but some drivers' response to seeing a camera van makes the road more dangerous.

Seems to be behaving itself.

Also, the N25W to N40S was much better this morning - agree with above that the removal of the speed van solved that issue. That said, traffic did seem very light this morning in general.

I'm still worried about the evening traffic N40N, but we'll see how that goes.

N40E backing up from tunnel to Bloomfield already.

Someone mentioned this slowdown could be caused by traffic joining from the Mahon slip pulling out into the overtaking lane. I think that is a factor along with the large overhead VMS on approach to the tunnel advising everyone SLOW DOWN\new layout ahead - which is totally understandable when you have so many workers onsite.

If you're leaving little island east, heading for tunnel, is that auxiliary Lane open the whole way down? Looking at Google, it seems slow where traffic merging is happening, but lighter at the tunnel/interchange.

Wonder will traffic leaving little island east realise it may be quicker to go to new dumbell and join there.

I'm still confused regarding the Tunnel -> M8 northbound speed limits (7min to 8:24). Even the person in the video was unsure too. So it goes from 35km/hr to 100km/hr ? I was driving it today and stayed to 35 to be safe but everyone got into right lane and was overtaking me at higher speeds. The cars merging from N8 were definitely not doing 35km/hr. Even more strange as the cars in the opposite direction (INTO the tunnel) are going 60km/hr.

Apologies for being OT, but let me defend my opinion. FWIW I've over 50 years of driving experience in Ireland, The UK, and mainland Europe.

This 'When two lanes merge into one, the vehicle in the through lane – the lane that is not ending – has the right-of-way. The merging car is required to yield to traffic'.from https://www.ayresassociates.com/breaking-down-the-zipper-merge/#:~:text=When%20two%20lanes%20merge%20into,required%20to%20yield%20to%20traffic.

Once a queue is formed in the through lane and there is no queue in the ending lane I prefer to join the end of the queue in the through lane, no matter how far it is to the end of the ending lane as I feel I have no right to join at the top of the queue, the corollary of which is, I feel no obligation to let in late joiners who overtake the queue by shoot up the empty closing lane, although I sometimes do.

But here's an option that makes some sense quoted from the same article, States promoting the zipper merge have one grand secret to success: don’t tell which lane will close! When drivers see signs alerting to an eventual lane closure, they become more alert to changing conditions but use both lanes as long as possible.

BTW, I've never heard the term 'Zipper Merge' until it appeared in this thread, excuse my ignorance.

Apologies if posted before, been a lot of posts here in the past few days...

5km tailbacks past Bloomfield on N25E from the free flow interchange again. Queue growing towards Douglas.

I drove this yesterday and for the life of me couldn't figure out why it was backed up to the tunnel and then free flowing straight after it.