Question: 2 black ropes across a road

tippbhoy

does anyone know what the ropes across the roads are. I've seen it in a few places around the country, 2 black rope looking things across a road, about 2 feet apart. seen them in templeogue, N8 in littleton and down in west cork.

Just curious

patrickc

tippbhoy wrote:

does anyone know what the ropes across the roads are. I've seen it in a few places around the country, 2 black rope looking things across a road, about 2 feet apart. seen them in templeogue, N8 in littleton and down in west cork.

Just curious

AFAIK they measure how many vehicles use the road and what speed they are doing

Tails142

measuring traffic volumes

tippbhoy

cheers,

that makes sense, is there any fear that this could be used by the Gardai for speed checks at some stage, find out where the most profitable roads are etc.

patrickc

any i've come across have always been in towns I always presumed they were just to manage traffic, see the volumes etc.. e.g castledermot on the main dublin to waterford road had some this week, they need a bypass and i presumed they were collecting figures for things like that

tippbhoy

patrickc2006 wrote:

any i've come across have always been in towns I always presumed they were just to manage traffic, see the volumes etc.. e.g castledermot on the main dublin to waterford road had some this week, they need a bypass and i presumed they were collecting figures for things like that

Defo one on the main road between Urlingford and Littleton, saw it today.
There's a new road being built on that stretch i think so maybe thats it.

patrickc

yeh possibly, maybe they get more funding for resurfacing the more using it or something like that

Sully

Saw three in Tramore. One just as you enter the town from the main road, one at the top of newtown hill and one heading out the costal road.

Thought they were some kinda speed ramp, was wondering what other crazy thing our local government decided to put in..

Wishbone Ash

tippbhoy wrote:

does anyone know what the ropes across the roads are. I've seen it in a few places around the country, 2 black rope looking things across a road, about 2 feet apart. seen them in templeogue, N8 in littleton and down in west cork.

Just curious

I think we need a stickie on that question as it's asked so often.

Tails142

tippbhoy wrote:

cheers,

that makes sense, is there any fear that this could be used by the Gardai for speed checks at some stage, find out where the most profitable roads are etc.

There are systems that monitor cars through areas though they're not in use within Ireland. They recognise your reg as you pass one camera, recognise it as you pass another camera a few kilometres away and calculate your average speed. They're far better at keeping cars below the speed limit as you dont get the sudden braking and speeding up which happens at the gatso style cameras we have here.

As to which roads are the most profitable... well, these are often roads which are designed for much higher speeds but are restricted due to pedestrians or access to properties... think of the naas road infront of coke or the blessington road at tempelogue.

spacetweek

tippbhoy wrote:

cheers,

that makes sense, is there any fear that this could be used by the Gardai for speed checks at some stage, find out where the most profitable roads are etc.

:eek: Are you implying that the Gards are just trying to make money from catching people speeding??

Hotblack Desiato

patrickc2006 wrote:

yeh possibly, maybe they get more funding for resurfacing the more using it or something like that

The surface through Castledermot has been in an appalling condition for years now; the fact that it's a national primary route doesn't seem to matter a damn.

patrickc

ninja900 wrote:

The surface through Castledermot has been in an appalling condition for years now; the fact that it's a national primary route doesn't seem to matter a damn.

tell me about it, I travel it most days, apparently after digging it up to lay pipes they didn't bother resurfacing it because they need to lay more at some stage, and the traffic chaos last time was unbearable

Winters

The NRA, local authorities and companies such as Abacus, Count-On-Us and Sky High use them to count traffic flows on a road.

You might also see cameras or people with clip boards and junctions and these are used to count turning movements.

Not in use by gardai.

road_high

One on the main Kilkenny-Waterford N10 at Danesfort... There was a load of these around Kilkenny too last year.

quitepossibly

I've seen one between Pedlar's Cross and Ballinascarthy on the N71 in west Cork. That section of road was earmarked for improvement a few months back according to a local paper. Its one of the worst stretches of the N71, steep, bumpy, potholes, poor curvature and complete with a very dodgy hard shoulder.

Happy Bertie

So they're not speed bumps. LOL

If you jammed the brakes (non ABS) going over them, for say accident avoidance, it would probably dislodge them.
Do they still use people to do manual traffic counts?

BTW in Clare farmers run black PVC water pipes and in some cases electric power cables accross the roads there.

fletch

Happy Bertie wrote:

Do they still use people to do manual traffic counts?

Yes as far as I know they do. I recently saw two people sitting in a ditch in Clonsilla here and they looked to be counting the cars

Victor

Happy Bertie wrote:

Do they still use people to do manual traffic counts?

Sometimes, although I get the impression that these days they prefer to just put a video camera on a light pole for the day and take the data back to the office and fast forward through the blank bits.

impr0v

Happy Bertie wrote:

If you jammed the brakes (non ABS) going over them, for say accident avoidance, it would probably dislodge them.

They're not that popular for that reason. They're basically pipes filled with air which register the compression caused by being crossed. They're relatively easily ripped and/or dislodged.

Winters

Victor wrote:

Sometimes, although I get the impression that these days they prefer to just put a video camera on a light pole for the day and take the data back to the office and fast forward through the blank bits.

It depends on the type of job and some other factors like location, timeframe etc. Cameras are definitely cheaper when you want say a 2 hour am and pm junction turning count.

Abacus would use cameras 90% of the time. CoU and LAs would use manual counts quite a lot. Ive done a few manual counts with a clipboard and a clicker, its fairly simple.

RSIs (Road Side Interviews) and ODS (Origin Destination Surveys) are also conducted for more complex projects.

tippbhoy

spacetweek wrote:

:eek: Are you implying that the Gards are just trying to make money from catching people speeding??

not at all, tis clear as day places like the dual carriageway around the spawell need to be a high priority. If a car mounted the kerb on that straight stretch and careered over the grass margin and then onto the deserted footpath at say 70kph instead of 60kph, who knows what could happen.