N17 - Knock to Collooney [design & planning underway]

They are ok on low volume roads, regional roads and most national secondary routes but as I said before I think we should be aiming to have DC standard for all National primary routes. Safety the priority but even from the point of view of the economy no one should be stuck behind a tractor or other slow moving vehicle on primary routes. It's lost time to businesses.

Some movement on addressing safety concerns on the N17. Whatever they come up with will have to involve eliminating or greatly reducing right hand turns. Otherwise a waste of time. Type 2 DC minimum is really what's needed.

Cheers. Didn't know about that thread. Reposted article to that.

Only at discussion stage it seems but the static speed cameras proposed for the N5 black spot at Swinford might be one good measure to reduce speeding. The junctions are a big problem though.

According to TII's logic you should have crashed into the van, increasing the collision stats and improving the case for junction improvement works.

Well done for avoiding that! If you weren't 100% concentrating that could have been very different!

We pass that junction regularly, it is getting increasingly busy. A roundabout is not the answer. The entire road needs to be replaced.

That left-turn slip is the problem. The car turning left there blinded the van driver, but the presence of three lanes here also tricked the van driver into thinking that he would be pulling out ahead of the left-turning car.

Normally where there are three lanes at a left-turn, the arrangement is: 1. Straight through, or left-turners; 2. Right-turn lane for opposing traffic; 3. Through-lane for opposing traffic.

What makes this junction so dangerous is that the order has changed to 1. Left-turners; 2. Straight Through; 3. Straight-through and right turn for opposing traffic: The direction of traffic in the middle lane of the three is reversed compared to normal practice, and this is potentially lethal. If you are used to the normal arrangement of lanes at junctions, drivers approaching N17 here from R293 and wishing to turn left will assume that if the lane closest to them is clear, or has a car making a turn into their side-road, then the way is clear, because the middle and far lanes are travelling in their opposite direction. So, you look right, and wait for that lane to become safe to join, then pull out.

That assumption is dangerously incorrect here, because the nearest lane ends right at the junction (the lane markings are vague too, so it’s unclear that this is the case), and there’s a second through-lane: you can see the van driver realise their mistake as they have to come out further than they thought they would, and are then met with a car coming from a direction they weren’t even looking in.

Yes, the van should have waited until the entire junction was clear, but the road design tricked them into thinking it was safe to emerge here, when it absolutely was not.