Police controlling junctions.

Archeron

Has anybody else noticed the problem with some Gardai controlled junctions in that the police are actually making things a whole lot worse? My own experience leaving Chapelizod village to turn toward the Lucan road. When there were no police there, it took maybe 5-10 minutes of tailback to get through this set of lights. Now the police are there and there is a tailback into Castleknock fo the same set of ligts. This morning took me nearly 40 minutes to get through, and then you spot a cop blocking our traffic from moving through multiple sets of light changes, while happily letting everybody else go through the red lights. Now this morning, the same thing happened in Blanchardstown village. 20 minute delay to met with the most un-intelligent looking officer standing in the middle of the road looking confused!
I do appreciate what they are trying to do, and the tough job standing in the middle of a busy road getting soaked, but does anyone actually show these officers how to control traffic in busy junctions? Every now and then, I see a cop who does this perfectly, and thats good, but what about the rest? Oh howe I dread operation "freeflow" !

seamus

Yeah, the N4/M50 junction gets worse when there are Gardai controlling it. All logic dictates that it shouldn't - and if you watch the Gardai, they do make the better decisions (at this junction anyway) as regards who should go where and when.

I think that the presence of the Gardai;
1. Changes the flow of traffic to which people are accustomed, causing them to drive more cautiously and
2. Causes people to drive single-file, eyes forward, instead of changing lanes and other manouvers which can serve to help traffic progress (though they can hinder it also).

Garibaldi

Gardai were "controlling" the junctions at each end of O'Connell bridge on monday. It took, and this is not exaggeration, 20 minutes sitting in the pissing rain (on a motorbike) to get from the Abbey St. junction to O'Connell bridge. The lads must've been out sick the day the rest of the class went to Templemore Traffic School.

markpb

I remember reading somewhere last year that that the fine people in the Dublin traffic centre think that although gardai make better decisions at the immediate junction, the traffic management system makes better decisions across a group/sequence of junctions.

Victor

Police at road junctions should primarily be there (a) to make sure people actually obey the rules of the junction (traffic lights, priotiy, signage, yellow box junctions) and (b) should only interfere when there is an obvious problem (unresponsive traffic lights,a ccidents, etc.).

Archeron

markpb wrote:

I remember reading somewhere last year that that the fine people in the Dublin traffic centre think that although gardai make better decisions at the immediate junction, the traffic management system makes better decisions across a group/sequence of junctions.

Good point! The junctions they stand at look "relatively" clear, but because of the bends in the road, no-one seems to notice the thousands of annoyed drivers in a massive windy tailback! I've seen a tailback from Chapelizod to the the Fás in Ballyfermot for this exact reason. I feel like asking them if they know about the massive tailbacks, but one of my indicators doesnt work at the moment, so best not to give them excuses......:D

Random

Victor wrote:

Police at road junctions should primarily be there (a) to make sure people actually obey the rules of the junction (traffic lights, priotiy, signage, yellow box junctions) and (b) should only interfere when there is an obvious problem (unresponsive traffic lights,a ccidents, etc.).

Agreed.

Nuttzz

In Kildare, pre bypass, they used to turn off the traffic lights and put a cop on the junction in the centre of the town, caused much more distruption than when the lights were on

MorningStar

Victor wrote:

Police at road junctions should primarily be there (a) to make sure people actually obey the rules of the junction (traffic lights, priotiy, signage, yellow box junctions) and (b) should only interfere when there is an obvious problem (unresponsive traffic lights,a ccidents, etc.).

But How do we make them do that? I have been paying attention to one of these junctions everytime I am near it. About 5 minutes a day I see this junction and watch the garda let people break lights, missuse the yellow box and turn, cross lanes at turns etc... The cops are doing nothing now as they have got bored doing it and ticketing people

_Kaiser_

I've seen them in Ballymun the last few weekends at the turnoff for Coolock Lane. No real reason for them to be there as the lights were working fine and the traffic wasn't too bad (till they decided to "help") ... then after about 10 minutes they hopped back into their car and disappeared off up towards the M50.

Someone must be thinking it's good PR to see them actually doing something besides hiding out catching people for doing 52kph in a 50 zone.... though it DOES explain why Blanch Shopping Centre to the village was so bad for half the week...