Remaining Bottlenecks

MLM

Chris_533976 wrote:

That worries me.

Plans are there for Sarsfield & Bandon as one scheme. But as far as I know theres nothing even in planning for Dunkettle. Thats a disaster zone as it is, its going to be beyond chronic once Sarsfield & Bandon roundabouts are done.
(

Sarsfield and Bandon were supposed to go ahead as soon as the kinsale road one was complete, but was postponed to divert funds to the inter-urbans. The north ring road should take some pressure off Dunkettle, assuming it gets built. Rather than expensively re building this interchange, it would be better and more productive to improve public transport in the surrounding areas. I would love to see high frequency bus routes between, Glanmire, Blackpool, Mayfield, Mahon, Douglas, Watergrasshill, Fermoy, and Little Island.

yellow012

AndrewMc wrote:

Athy, approx 20000 per day. Not aware of anything being planned, let alone built.

Afaik the plan is: The M9 when its finished is going to be the main artery from Waterford - Kilkenny - Carlow - Dublin. What they hope will happen is a lot of the traffic that normally would travel through Athy on the N78 will use the M9 instead.
The existing R418 linking Athy to Castledermot will be upgraded linking Athy to the M9. There is also plans for a inner relief road bypassing Athy.
When all this is finished the N78 is going to be downgraded to a non-national 80kph road.
If this was all done it would make a huge differece to the town, as it stands its one of the most pedestrian/cyclist unfriendly places I know of.

daveirl

This post has been deleted.

DMC2005

RadioCity wrote:

I deliberately block the 2 lanes to stop anybody doing that.

No wonder we have traffic problems when people block lanes deliberatly.

No matter what roads are built, idiots that do this will still cause traffic problems.

RadioCity

No matter what roads are built, idiots that do this will still cause traffic problems.

Are you aware of the context of the road, and why do you refer to me as an idiot?

The left turn is a rarely used lane, except for motorists who skip the queue, turn left, do a dangerouus U turn and are then facing the right direction. If everone waited in a queue and didn't cut in, the queue would move much quicker. And that is fact.

spacetweek

yellow012 wrote:

When all this is finished the N78 is going to be downgraded to a non-national 80kph road.

Interesting - source?

Carawaystick

Wishbone Ash wrote:

Eh, come again!

I don't see why money should be wasted on the N2 south of the N33 junction. the entire N2 should be re-routed via the M1/n33.
I see there's plans for Slane to be bypassed, and Collon on the nra's site. waste of time and money.
If the M1 and M3 aren't enough to get through meath, then the county should be paved over.

Same in Louth, the N52 from Ardee to Dundalk should be re-routed via the M1 and N33. it's free to use the motorway here so no excuses.

The N52 is already re-routed along the N6 from Tyrrelspass to Kilbeggan.

Wishbone Ash

DMC2005 wrote:

No wonder we have traffic problems when people block lanes deliberatly.

No matter what roads are built, idiots that do this will still cause traffic problems.

When driving large vehicles such as articulated trucks it is frequently necessary, for safety reasons, to block two lanes.

If an articulated truck driver intends to turn left from a 2 lane street/road into a narrower road, he needs to move across to the right lane to enable the trailer to clear the corner. He may have to do a 'muppet check' and block part of the left lane to prevent car drivers from crawling up the nearside and putting themselves in danger of the turning trailer.

This would be expected in a category EC driving test.

DMC2005

RadioCity wrote:

The left turn is a rarely used lane, except for motorists who skip the queue, turn left, do a dangerouus U turn and are then facing the right direction. If everone waited in a queue and didn't cut in, the queue would move much quicker. And that is fact.

It is not your job to police the roads, or ensure that traffic queues fairly. To block a lane in case someone gets somewhere before you is both petty and childish. This is like people that sit in the overtaking lane of motorways at 120km/h and justify it by saying that anyone going faster them is speeding.

Why can't everyone just obey the rules of the road, and stop using other peoples poor driving as an excuse for their own ?

Wishbone Ash wrote:

When driving large vehicles such as articulated trucks it is frequently necessary, for safety reasons, to block two lanes.

I've no problem with that, however it's clear that he is not blocking the lane for safety reasons - he is blocking it to stop people skipping the Queue.

corktina

some lane markings would want looking at and would helo a lot in this respesct.

for instance, Mallow railway station roundabout heading south...two lanes, right on for straight on or turn right...left one for Mallow town....nearly noone uses the left turn as they all turn at the previous roundabout....so this lane is largely used for queue jumpers....simply changing this lane to straight on or turn left and having the right lane for right turns would help the traffic a lot and stop the abuse (i did see the Gards stop two guys the other morning for abusing this lane...never saw that before...

DMC2005

corktina wrote:

simply changing this lane to straight on or turn left and having the right lane for right turns would help the traffic a lot and stop the abuse (i did see the Gards stop two guys the other morning for abusing this lane...never saw that before...

Totally agree. However if idiots still decided to block this lane just in case someone was jumping the queue, then we'd be back to square one.

yellow012

spacetweek wrote:

Interesting - source?

I was talking to the Towns Engineer. FWIW I will believe all this when I see it happening.

road_high

AndrewMc wrote:

Athy, approx 20000 per day. Not aware of anything being planned, let alone built.

Athy came into my head straight away when I saw this thread. The forgotten town of Kildare for sure...

fricatus

mfitzy wrote:

AndrewMc wrote:

Athy, approx 20000 per day. Not aware of anything being planned, let alone built.

Athy came into my head straight away when I saw this thread. The forgotten town of Kildare for sure...

The M9 is planned to take traffic not just from the existing N9 and N10, but also from the N78, which runs through Athy.

There's even a link planned from Athy to J3 of the new motorway:
http://www.nra.ie/RoadSchemeActivity/KildareCountyCouncil/N9N10KilcullentoCarlow/SchemeName,9879,en.html

Looks from the map as if it starts at the north of the town. It might be a better idea if it was incorporated into a town bypass.

JupiterKid

Actually, talking of Athy - whatever happened to the much vaunted and talked about inner relief road the town was supposed to be getting over 5 years back?

Prof_V

JupiterKid wrote:

Actually, talking of Athy - whatever happened to the much vaunted and talked about inner relief road the town was supposed to be getting over 5 years back?

Thrown out by Bord Pleanála:
http://www.pleanala.ie/casenum/ER2035.htm
It got a fair amount of publicity because it's rare enough for this to happen to a road scheme. However, it's still in the 2006-2012 development plan:
http://kildare.ie/CountyCouncil/Planning/DevelopmentPlans/TownPlans/AthyTownDevelopmentPlan2006-2012/LinkToDocument,11530,en.pdf#page=5

road_high

fricatus wrote:

The M9 is planned to take traffic not just from the existing N9 and N10, but also from the N78, which runs through Athy.

There's even a link planned from Athy to J3 of the new motorway:
http://www.nra.ie/RoadSchemeActivity/KildareCountyCouncil/N9N10KilcullentoCarlow/SchemeName,9879,en.html

Looks from the map as if it starts at the north of the town. It might be a better idea if it was incorporated into a town bypass.

Still seems that traffic in from north KK wanting to join the M9 will still haveto crawl through the town though. Even for its' own sake the town badly needs a second bridge crossing or else will continue to stagnate and lag far behind its neighbours.

jimmycrackcorm

RadioCity wrote:

Castleblayney, Slane, & Ardee(sometimes), the right tun at Ballygawley A5 onto the A4, Omagh (nightmare)- a town which has a "throughpass" but not worth a monkeys, and Ballybofey....

Castleblaney is getting it's bypass as we speak. In fact my N95 gps mapping currently urges me to take the bypass but I don't have off-road capability.

AndrewMc

mfitzy wrote:

Still seems that traffic in from north KK wanting to join the M9 will still haveto crawl through the town though. Even for its' own sake the town badly needs a second bridge crossing or else will continue to stagnate and lag far behind its neighbours.

Indeed. I don't really see how the new link road will help traffic through Athy — that link only seems to replace the existing N78 Athy/Kilcullen route. Anyone coming from Dublin to Kilkenny would stay on the N9 already.

I also agree on the stagnation issue. Businesses have complained that traffic is preventing people from shopping (1km+ tailbacks at 11am, 20-30 minute delays aren't unusual). It's often quicker for me to drive 19km to Carlow than 2km to Athy (includes parking in both cases).

yellow012

AndrewMc wrote:

Indeed. I don't really see how the new link road will help traffic through Athy — that link only seems to replace the existing N78 Athy/Kilcullen route. Anyone coming from Dublin to Kilkenny would stay on the N9 already.

I also agree on the stagnation issue. Businesses have complained that traffic is preventing people from shopping (1km+ tailbacks at 11am, 20-30 minute delays aren't unusual). It's often quicker for me to drive 19km to Carlow than 2km to Athy (includes parking in both cases).

Yeah Athy is a town that needs a good kick up the ars£. Total inertia about getting anything done. As it stands motorists and pedestrians and cyclists are all getting the sh1t end of the stick.
Motorist are stuck in traffic crawling through a bottleneck of a town they don't want to go through.
Pedestrians, cyclist, people living next to the N78 in Athy have to put up with conveys of traffic trundling/speeding (depending on the time of day) through the town, night and day.
The M9 if it is ever completed, is supposed to be the solution to everything, somehow i doubt it.:(

road_high

I think this thread has shown that there are many awful bottlenecks throughout the country still :rolleyes: . Despite the modest (in my opinion) progress of the last 15 years as regards new roads etc, this development as not kept pace with the needs of the towns and cities our national roads are supposed to serve and link.
I mean really awful bottlenecks like New Ross, Abbeyleix, Enniscorthy etc etc are still on the drawing board as regards bypasses in many instances. It's depressing really paying all this VRT and road tax an get so little in return...