I hate the M50 [Warning post #222]

errlloyd wrote: »

If you were able to get flexi hours for an hour either side of 9 and 5 you'd have a dream commute. I drive the M50 a lot around those times and the difference an hour makes is huge.

That's very true. Last two mornings I've left an hour earlier than normal travling from Dublin 15 to get to Dublin 5 using the N3 and M50. It is a huge difference leaving at 7am v 8am. Huge!

There has been a lot of accidents and breakdowns of late as well. People need to take more care and service their bleeding cars! - I'm half kidding with the service part there although I do wonder how many are down to lack of basic car maintenance.

the.red.baron wrote:

The Last bad spot is the coming out of Liffey Valley to try to go south bound, you have to cross 3 lanes in a couple of hundred meters which also causes mayhem.

The limit on that stretch is 60kph specifically for that reason. The only time it's hairy is when people keep doing 100/80. But if the Gardai do a speed check there, they're shooting fish in a barrel.

You can't win.

errlloyd wrote: »

If you were able to get flexi hours for an hour either side of 9 and 5 you'd have a dream commute. I drive the M50 a lot around those times and the difference an hour makes is huge.

Unfortunately 6pm is not offpeak anymore. Frequently there are delays and problems now till after 7 on that hell road

errlloyd wrote: »

If you were able to get flexi hours for an hour either side of 9 and 5 you'd have a dream commute. I drive the M50 a lot around those times and the difference an hour makes is huge.

I work flexible hours, between 7:30am and 10am. While it's great that I'm never late for work, the time wasted sitting on the M50 still has to be made up by staying in work later.

I'm lucky that I travel Northbound, joining at Liffey Valley, and exiting at Finglas. God help anyone traveling Southbound in the mornings though.

Stheno wrote: »

I used work 8-4:30 in Dundrum and commuted from Swords.

Even leaving at 6:45 I regularly spent over an hour and a half getting there.

Were you regularly 15 minutes late for work :P. I'd say as you get close to 8am Wesley College really makes chaos of that exit.

I am majorly cherry-picking my times here. But google maps allows you to put in arrival time, and it will give you the estimate based on the average traffic at those times, which it calculates using people who leave their location data on.

Anyway, for the poster I originally quoted to get from Navan to Cherrywood it looks likes this. Google breaks it down to 20 minute intervals, and I've shown the 8 semi reasonable options. The 3 main ones are highlighted. Which are the 8-4 day, the 9-5 day, and the 10-6 day. (Each day aims to arrive at 7:40, 8:40 and 9:40 because I am a punctual ****er). And each day assumes the worst for commute time, which is kinda cheating I guess because though you might have to assume the worst in the morning because you're never late, it seems unreasonable to go with the worst, and not the average in the evening.



As you can see if the OP could negotiate to do the early start or the late start he / she could save up to 50 minutes a day commuting. 4:10 a week, 20 hours a month. The better part of 200 a year. Sure Stheno, we could watch the entire televised coverage of the Aviva Premiership in that time (132 hours per annum) and still have time left over to do actual enjoyable stuff

Patww79 wrote: »

This post has been deleted.

The port tunnel was closed, trucks that normally use the M50 had to go through city reducing traffic on M50.

Showing green on Google Maps traffic, nothing reported on nratraffic.ie.

Muahahaha wrote: »

Jaysis thats shocking for a distance of 28km. Theoretically you could cycle that distance in a quicker time than driving the m50. Not that you'd want to in the winter or anything but things are seriously amiss when cycling is faster/the same as making a 28km motorway journey.

I said earlier I was being earmarked for a project that would bring me from blanch to cherrywood - cycling 30km through town was a viable consideration for me. On a good day I'd cover that in about 1 hour 15

Harrison Dirty Story wrote: »

Just listening to Paschal now...it will take 3 years to implement!

What annoys me re tolls is that there's nothing for anyone south of current toll to pay... Why is only half the traffic paying all the tolls?

Surely would make sense to have lower tolls and try and charge cars from the n7 and n4 going m50 south..

the minister for transport is a total moron. The guy has said, multi point tolling wont happen until there is a decent transport network for Dublin, is that one that would involve MN and DU, which you have just robbed Dublin of for at least another decade to "save" total and utter irrelevance money in the scheme of things Pascale, that pocket change?!

the below is from an rte.ie article, the real shocker for me, is that growth was so massively underestimated (sarcasm overload), where have we seen that before? :rolleyes: Sure why not lie more Paschal, the more you lie about projections being over optimistic etc, the less the government can begrudgingly invest in area such as transport and infrastructure and other areas they begrudge giving a red cent to!

Prime Time also reported that up to 400,000 unique journeys are now taking place on the M50 every day – well in excess of the number of journeys previously estimated.

The growth in traffic levels on the M50 are the highest in Europe.

New technology to help clear the scene of collisions faster is also to be acquired according to the Minister.

He also ruled out additional multi point tolling in the near future. The measure would, according to an NRA report, reduce traffic volumes on the route.

Mr Donohoe said that he would not be in favour of additional tolls on the M50 until viable public transport alternatives are in place.

He also said forcing traffic off the M50 would result in an increase in congestion and traffic on other smaller regional roads and residential areas along the route.

The airport regulator reckoned it would take another half decade minimum to reach the numbers the airport will hit this year.

duffman3833 wrote: »

Variable speed limits will take up to three years to implement, and are expected to cost between €30m and €40m
Why will it cost so much?

The gantries will need to be fitted out with dot matrix type signs and all the necessary communications will need to be fitted too. The process will no doubt involve lane closures to do the works & lane occupation charges are hugely expensive.

All depends on the full scope of work of what's planned. One of the issues with the M50 is that there are too many exits and it is being used for local access which was not the intended use. I am surprised that the minister is not in favour of multi point tolling despite ignoring the advice of the NRA (must be an election coming).

The outer ring road needs to be built which has been considered but put on the back burner.

HiGlo wrote: »

I don't really get how reducing the speed limit eases congestion??
As it is there's so much traffic on the M50 at peak times that you don't get much beyond 60-80kmph anyway........

I just don't get it.

It won't make any difference when the traffic is heaviest (which is when the problems are) but it'll likely make them a few quid when they leave the limits stupidly low before/afterwards from people "speeding"

As usual in Ireland it's easier to bring in new nonsensical laws/rules than enforce the existing ones - in this case ones related to lane discipline, general muppetry such as tailgating and lane weaving etc