Traffic snarl up in Dublin Friday evening

Kashkai

I left work early today to get home ahead of the Friday evening country rush out the N4.

However I was no sooner in my car and on Georges Quay heading towards Heuston when I heard on the radio that a truck had crashed into a Luas at Queen St. Shouldn't be a problem I thought but then the traffic stopped and the first gear, brake, first gear, brake motion set in. When I eventually got to the new Joyce Bridge, I saw what had been causing the problem.

Yes you've guessed it - it was the boys in blue "directing traffic". Evidently they had been told to divert traffic away from the scene of the Luas crash and they took it upon themselves to stop the traffic on the south quays so they could send the traffic from Queen street out onto the south quays. Now some of you might think they were doing their best but I've two things to say to this:

1. If the Luas was stopped running between Heuston and Connolly, then the tracks were empty and thus the cops should have sent this traffic up Benburb street past Collins Barracks and onto Parkgate Street. This traffic could then have rejoined the west or south bound flows at Islandbridge and thus would not have interfered with the flow of traffic on the South Quays.

2. Their cack handed attempts to direct traffic caused a snarl up that stretched as far back as Ringsend according to the traffic reports on DCAL that took hours to clear. As I finally got home, the traffic reports were stating that it was taking an hour to get up the quays to Heuston.

Well done to the boys and boyettes in blue. Another magnificent example of you gob****es in action. Makes you feel all warm and cosy that your taxes are paying for this fifth rate police force.

Rant over. Have a nice weekend all and may the (police) force not be with you!!!!1

The Swordsman

Took me an hour and 20 minutes to get from Grand Canal Street to Dorset Street (via Pearse Street) yesterday:mad: . Earlier in the week, it was taking about 20.

I always find travelling to work on a Friday is usually quite a bit quicker than other days, but getting home is a nightmare. Why? BUSARUS :mad: .

Why is our main bus station where it is.

Firstly it's too small. On busy days like Fridays there are buses parked around the block waiting to get in and collect passengers. When they are ready they then have to cut accross three lanes of traffic to get over to the quays.

It's also in the wrong place. Should be somewhere a little less central where it can't cause as much disruption. Perhaps down towards the Point where it could access the Port Tunnel easily. Even if it was in somewhere like the IFSC (not sure where it could go) , it would be more ideal.

Where it is now is an absolute nightmare.

What do people think?

daymobrew

The Swordsman wrote:

Why is our main bus station where it is.
..snip..
It's also in the wrong place. Should be somewhere a little less central where it can't cause as much disruption.

What about the passengers and their luggage?
According to the DTO Journey Planner, it is a 20 minute walk between the Point Depot and Busarus.

Chris_533976

Only 20 minutes, eh? That means the option has probobly been seriously considered by the people in charge here

weehamster

Prosperous Dave wrote:

1. If the Luas was stopped running between Heuston and Connolly, then the tracks were empty and thus the cops should have sent this traffic up Benburb street past Collins Barracks and onto Parkgate Street. This traffic could then have rejoined the west or south bound flows at Islandbridge and thus would not have interfered with the flow of traffic on the South Quays.

I understand your anger but Dublin is full of one-way streets and an accident occurred on one of them. There are bollards at certain sections of the Luas track to stop traffic from heading down it.

I was caught in the traffic coming down Queens St coming from Hanlons Corner shortly after the accident. I was heading to Temple Bar. There’s no way I was going to head to Islandbridge just to go all the way back again. Moving the traffic to Islandbridge would have just moved the problem to the N4/SCR Jtn and would have trailed back down the south quays anyway.

I know you would like to point the finger at the Gardaí and I'm not a great fan of them either, but it was not their fault that the traffic was bad. It was the feckn spa who jumped the light and who crashed into the Luas.

Oh yea, it is also the fault of our politicians. This whole thing clearly shows is that there are far too many vehicles going through the city centre and if we had a proper city wide train & tram system like in other cites in Europe, we wouldn’t be having this conversation. :mad:

Oh yea again, the €1b upgrade of the M50 will not change city centre traffic is the slightest. The money should have been but towards extending the DART toward Kildare, Maynooth & Drogheda which would made people to stop bring their cars into the city centre.

bk

daymobrew wrote:

What about the passengers and their luggage?
[QU OTE]

Get the Luas, which isgoing to be extended out as far as the point.

The ideal solution would be to have two bus stations, one to the North side of the M50 (serving North and North East of the country) and one to the south (serving south and south east of the country), both served by DART or Metro.

spacetweek

Prosperous Dave wrote:

Now some of you might think they were doing their best but I've two things to say to this:

1. If the Luas was stopped running between Heuston and Connolly, then the tracks were empty and thus the cops should have sent this traffic up Benburb street past Collins Barracks and onto Parkgate Street. This traffic could then have rejoined the west or south bound flows at Islandbridge and thus would not have interfered with the flow of traffic on the South Quays.

Well done to the boys and boyettes in blue.

What absolute nonsense. Traffic diverted onto the Luas line! What next, the M50 redirected onto DART tracks??

City centre drivers should get used to the idea that in the middle of town, public transport has priority and cars are only secondary. They can't expect to be treated with such privilege.

The cops did the best they could considering the seriousness of the crash and the awkward time it occurred (rush hour). Direct your rage at the f***head red-light-running truck driver, please. Him and his popcorn.

CLADA

spacetweek wrote:

What absolute nonsense. Traffic diverted onto the Luas line! What next, the M50 redirected onto DART tracks??

GO EASY ON PROSPEROUS DAVE, ITS BEEN OBVIOUS FOR A LONG TIME NOW HE HAS ALL THE ANSWERS TO IRELANDS POLICING PROBLEMS. I'M SURE WE CAN LOOK FORWARD TO A MASSIVE IMPROVEMENT WHEN HE JOINS THE GARDA RESERVE!

Victor

Take it easy folks.

Seth Brundle

weehamster wrote:

There are bollards at certain sections of the Luas track to stop traffic from heading down it.

But the bollards are not blocking the lanes - otherwise the LUAS can't use these sections!
However, the traffic signalling on many of these sections does not suit cars

The Swordsman

daymobrew wrote:

What about the passengers and their luggage?
According to the DTO Journey Planner, it is a 20 minute walk between the Point Depot and Busarus.

It's probably nearer to the Point than Stephen's Green. bk's idea was a good one. Have bus stations out of town, where they won't contribute as much to congestion and have them serviced by good public transport links to all parts of the city.

Busarus is a disaster. Buses heading to the West, South West and the South all have to go down the South Quays to get out onto the main routes. It also contributes to extra congestion on two of the main routes from the city centre to the North Side (Amiens Street and Gardiner Street).

spacetweek wrote:

What absolute nonsense. Traffic diverted onto the Luas line! What next, the M50 redirected onto DART tracks??

City centre drivers should get used to the idea that in the middle of town, public transport has priority and cars are only secondary. They can't expect to be treated with such privilege.

Why shouldn’t cars use these streets if the luas was out of action. I don’t think anyone was suggesting that it should be a permanent move, just something to temporarily alleviate the emergency situation that arose. I’m sure there were people sitting on buses (ie public transport) who were not enamoured by the situation on Friday. Common sense should prevail and if it means temporarily opening up streets/bus lanes normally reserved for public transport, so be it.

Kashkai

People should read the posts before responding to them -

I suggested that the traffic be directed onto the Luas tracks BECAUSE THE LUAS WASN'T RUNNING AND WOULDN'T BE FOR THE NEXT FEW HOURS!!!!!. This was a roadway before the Luas arrived and it can still be used by cars in emergencies. As I stated in another post on Friday, I saw a cop van drive down the Luas tracks on Abbey street when the Luas was still running!!!

Anyway when I passed the cops directing traffic onto the South Quays at the Joyce Bridge, they were holding up hundreds of cars stretching as far back as Ringsend (according to the traffic reports) to let a small handful of cars cross from the northside over the bridge to join the South Quays.

Finally, I could get into a slagging match with CLADA and Spacetwerp but I prefer to keep to the point. And I have no intention of joining the Garda reserve as I couldn't stand to be in close company with the biggest collection of gangsters this country has ever known (IRA included).

Have a nice day ya'll.