What is being done to address the M50 problem?

An electric moped with removable battery would easily manage that in 20 minutes on the R roads. More economical, less expensive and better for climate change than a car.

I doubt anyone travelling at peak has other options.

They'd need to encourage staggered school and work starts to lighten peak traffic.

Good for you to live a short walking distance from a reliable bus stop and have a travel schedule and destination that matches that bus.

Now imagine you got a job that wasn't on the same bus route.

why would you choose a job that was a nightmare to travel to? especially in this economy where people have options.

What I think will happen is that the traffic will just get so much worse in time that a lot of people will start taking things into their own hands and using electric mopeds, electric bikes, doing some of their journey by e-scooter etc. This is already happening. It wont be an option for many but a friend of mine has to drive to work in D2 from Mountmellick a couple of times a week, leaves his car somewhere near the Red Cow and cycles in from there.

As you say it's already happening.

As this thread is about the M50. It's only going to get worse. I think it's being unrealistic to think it will get better.

Yeah it's requires a level of foresight and planning Ireland has never really demonstrated. Dunno if that's due to the political system or what.

The M50 does not have have capacity to accommodate all those who wish to travel at peak times while maintaining reasonable journey times. Either increase the capacity of the road or reduce the number of people using it at peak times by whatever means (increased tolls, off-peak incentives, alternative routes, alternative means of transport, etc)

Nothing will be done with the M50 because anything that is done will encourage more people to use it and have a good, miserable time.

What needs to happen is an orbital train route serving the major industrial estates (e.g. Cherrywood/Sandyford right up to the airport and the ones in Swords even, link to the Luas and Metro either end) and also having stops at major residential (e.g. Lucan, Blanchardstown, etc) and shopping centres on the way. Especially with Cherrywood being the latest place being developed to add to the commuting misery if nothing is done. If you could get on in south Dublin and get a train to work, to the airport, or to a shopping centre, I bet many people would take that over sitting in traffic on the M50.

I bet the cost would be probably prohibitive too and I don't know if it would be physically possible at parts of the route. But I bet one thing, if it was quicker than using the M50 and planned properly it would finance itself in no time.

The other big thing the government need to do is massively incentivise working from home with grants, etc for companies who do allow it for all their staff, all the time. This will take the pressure off public transport and Dublin and lead to more balanced regional development. The problem is, every motorist is a source of revenue even if they are also a source of CO2 emissions as well.

Well yeah - there won't be because we just don't think big enough quickly enough. We get too bogged down in satisfying every NIMBY to get anything done. Most other countries could probably build such infrastructure in a few years, we'd still be arguing over the route in 3 years.

Agree with you in everything else!

if all the uninsured, unlicensed, no tax , non roadworthy or disqualified cars and drivers were taken off the road it would greatly reduce traffic volume . Very easy to do with ANPR technology etc if the guards and that waste of oxygen McEntee could be bothered to do their jobs

I did imagine it, and turned down those roles for that reason. People do have agency over their own lives and can make decisions for themselves. Many often don't, or don't take everything into their decisions. Any time I've rented or bought a place to live, public transport availability to where I want to go has always been a large consideration.

I was in China recently and EVERYONE has an electric moped that's limited to 50kph.

If the government brought in some laws surrounding this sort of vehicle then it would go some way to get people out of their cars. Something less restrictive than current motorbike laws would be ideal. If we can get someone on an electric bike onto the road with zero training maybe there could be some leeway.

Santry to Sandyford is not even 20km.

Wasn't the tolls to be phased out when the building costs were paid off? (over 25 year or so). As I recall from when they were introduced..

Is that really a big issue for doing journeys around the city?

Realistic things that should be done, all achievable in the short term <12 months bar Metro integration of course.

1. Full Smart Motorway implementation. Legislate for and activate the legal variable speed limits, and rigidly enforce with cameras every 500m. (as an aside, this is purely for peak flow, speed limit is and should remain 100km/h and in fact should be increased to 130km/h or normal European speed limit for motorways during the night, except perhaps the narrower windier Southern Cross Route (J12 to J14).
2. Enforce misuses of the motorway other than speed. Failure to keep left, incorrect use of the Aux lane, leaving and rejoining to dodge traffic, slowing or stopping becasue you missed your exit or failed to change lane early enough.
3. Per-junction tolling. Disincentive toll dodging by removing the toll from a single point by adopting a flat fee per junction or per km. €3 or €4 to travel the entire length from the Tunnel to M11 sounds about right, and pro-rate of course for shorter journeys. Reduce this by 25% for registered tags as is currently the case, reduce by an additional 25% for PHEV and 50% for BEV. This also disincentivises the use of the motorway for short hops that don't currently include J6-7. Remove infrastructure for in store payments, force it online only to save running costs. Remove tag infrastructure, use cameras.
4. Park and Rides at key junctions. This one requires some supporting infrastructure from other agencies in terms of infrastructure and increased frequencies to Luas / Train / Bus so let's strictly stick to what would be achievable in the short term. New, larger or upgraded / fit for purpose P&R facilities would be suitable at J18, J14, J11, J7 (all Luas & Bus), J7/9 (Rail and later DART+ at Parkwest & possibly to include a Junction 8), J6 (Rail and later DART+ at Navan Road). Later, Ballymun for the Metro in time). Also Bray for Rail, just out of scope to the south. Almost every junction benefits from high freqency bus service too, it doesn't have to be rail or tram for P+R.

if they got rid of the tolls it would put more cars on that section of the m50. Not suggesting that’s the only reason but currently it’s not feasible to get rid of tolls.

on the broader conversation until we have better PT then it’s difficult to get people to switch. We can only use the carrot and stick approach once we have a carrot.

I can only speak for myself but I have a decathlon ebike with the 25km limit and it made longer journeys and wind and hills a piece of piss. Granted i cycled before I got one but its a diff ball game to normal bikes and they'll become more and more popular. I see loads of commuters on them now, it's like cycling without the worst drawbacks of cycling.

Riverside 500e you get about 45km out of it with decent help

I’m from Newbridge so have an idea of what Your Partners friend goes through with that ‘hell that is the Red Cow’. Why don’t they park & ride at the RC?

Peak hour bus lanes a good idea, very cheap buses, some might stop at a major junction along the way, some might stop at the n4, some at the n7, some at the n3? They stop at the airport and then onto swords etc area with a park and ride? Park and ride in sandyford / leopardstown, cherrywood etc too...

All I am saying is that the tolls were supposed to be limited in duration.

In a nutshell, yes. A slightly better way of saying it:

"hey guys, you know how the issue is the road is overcrowded and there is no alternative routes? Lets find a way to reduce the number of vehicles using the road at peak times

And that was 10 years after the Russians offered to build a metro in return for butter.