I know they’re forward looking on congestion but while I rarely use the M50 when I do the main cause of congestion is that fact 80%+ of people don’t know how to use a motorway. There are 3 lanes but nobody drives in the left most. Few know how to merge/exit properly
Like in town (where most congestion I see is due to breaking red lights, blocking yellow boxes, making illegal turns with almost impunity) a lot of it would be solved if the guards actually enforced basic rules of the road
The main problem is that traffic will take alternative routes, how will the councils manage this?
having seen their complete inability to forecast impacts of new bridges opening, new sets of traffic lights being installed my guess would be they won’t manage it until after the actual event
I’m not sure how the proposed toll will help this point?
The implication seems to be that some of the people using the M50 are doing so to enjoy the scenery and the toll will weed these out so that the road is kept for non-discretionary use.
Some traffic will also be forced off the M50 onto minor roads freeing up capacity on the M50 - are they actually pushing this as a solution? If these minor roads are anything like the R149 I already use to avoid the Westlink toll bridge, I’m not sure how they’re going to handle an extra 100,000 vehicles a day.
Anyway, I’ve mapped out my new alternative route so bring it on guys
It’s important to remember that the M50 was not built to act as a ring road that would keep traffic that didn’t need to go into Dublin City out of it (if it did they’re would only be junctions on the single digit N and M roads). It was built to service a ring of shopping centres built by the cronies of the government of the time. When these guys find out that the local authorities are charging people to come to their doors they are going to kill this stone dead.
They were advised to build 3 lanes originally (according to an engineer I know) but didn’t
Some of the exits are a joke, there’s no slip for Dundrum FFS and the first thing you encounter off the ramp is 2 lanes merging to one with pedestrian lights (rather than having foot bridges across)
I’ve heard it being said before but no iea if true
3 lane roadways seem to encourage snails driving at 60kph in the left lane.
If you drive in the left lane, then you end up being blocked in by the middle lane traffic when you need to overtake these lane blockers.
Sometimes the easiest option is to drive in the middle lane, even though this is clearly wrong.
I remember before the “upgrade” the speed limit was 120kph after the “upgrade” its 100kph,surely this is just delaying the time a motorist spends on the M50 getting from A to B.
I’ve never understood (or obeyed) that. There was a stretch that was 60mph back in the day around exits 15/14/13 because of cross-winds apparently, which at least is a reason. But I don’t see a reason for changing the speed limit from what - exit 15 the entire of the way north?
Yeah narrower lanes and a reduction in the line of sight were the reasons given, that latter being due to the loss of a grassy verge (replaced with a more in your face jersey barrier) which supposedly cut the line of sight around some steeper bends.
In reality some sections are pretty poor anyway since the upgrade (e.g. South bound at junction 7 is a rollercoaster), and the additional (short) free-flow on-slips made J6 to J10 quite treacherous. I think only J6-J10 needed to be 100km/h, but since this is the busiest section anyway, it was probably better not to have 120km/h traffic joining the back of the more congested zone.
I always do the middle lane to leave the inside lane free for exit and entry and use the overtaking lane for, er, overtaking
In France they’re hot on bad lane use but there are so many exits on our m50 I think it’s safer to stay out of the inside
We need an infomercial, drivers pay attention to those…
Re tolls, I think Leo is right, it will clog up ancillary roads, and it’s not like they’re free flowing at the moment anyway. A few more years of austerity will get the road user numbers down, win/win
I’ve found this frustrating since moving back to Ireland how traffic flows due to ignorance or lack of courtesy. I’ve often wondered about the economic cost of this, but people will think it shallow to mention this when the main (sole?) focus of traffic enforcement is road safety. Anyway, once I stopped navel gazing I joined the anarchy and now I just ignore all the rules to get me where I need to be in an expedient fashion, albeit adhering to the one and only rule that seems to be enforced. Don’t exceed the sometimes arbitrary speed limit, too much.
I’ve been waiting for these tolls tbh surprised it took so long. amazed there are none on 7,m1 and m11 ( Yes I know they are there far out but none are close in ) m1 at Drynam, M11 at Glen of the Downs , M7 at Naas South. You’d rake in cash as all are a pain to bypass
