Cork to Dublin Airport on a Saturday Morning

Niall1234

Could anyone give me a bit of advice here. Will be driving from Cork City to get to Dublin airport for a flight leaving about 10 on a Saturday morning.

1. Whats the traffic situation like on the M50 of a Saturday morning at say 8 ?
2. Is it safe to stay at a steady 85mph on the motorway and dual carriageway sections without getting caught. Any speed cameras going up ? WOuld the Gardai be out that early ?
3. What are the best places to stop going up for toilets/cup of coffee etc.

green123

there will be no traffic on the m50 on saturday morning
cant help with the rest

Stark

Niall1234 wrote:

2. Is it safe to stay at a steady 85mph on the motorway and dual carriageway sections without getting caught. Any speed cameras going up ? WOuld the Gardai be out that early ?

No speed cameras until you get to Dublin. The Gardaí can be out at any time though.

Niall1234 wrote:

3. What are the best places to stop going up for toilets/cup of coffee etc.

Probably Urlingford, the great Toilet Stop of Ireland. There are two petrol stations there which the Aircoach/CIE buses use. I usually stop in the hotel in Abbeyleix, but you'll probably lose the time you gained speeding. There's also a food court just off the Portlaoise roundabout.

Pete67

Note also due to M50 upgrade in progress there are extensive roadworks on the M50 with 60 km/h limits. There are a couple of speed cameras in place too, so allow time for this section. You could always stay overnight in Dublin to avoid the rush?

Dub13

Its never sage to speed,give yourself ample time to make the journey and you will not need to speed.

green123

dont worry about the m50 at all
you will still have 2 lanes - both empty at 8am on sat morn
and driving at 60km for the few miles will only take you 2 or 3 minutes longer

DublinWriter

Niall1234 wrote: »

3. What are the best places to stop going up for toilets/cup of coffee etc.

Abbeyleix would be your best bet, it's half way, but I'm not sure there will be a lot open at the hour you'd be passing through.

It should be a fairly straight run. I've done it without a break many times, even before all the recent bypasses.

Don't take a chance with your speed. The guards are always out somewhere on that route.

Wishbone Ash

If you are using any of the long term car parks, allow plenty of time. Saturday morning is the busiest time of the week and you may have to wait/queue for a shuttle bus (although it should be easing off by 8am).

ScouseMouse

Agree with the other posters. No traffic worthy of a mention at 8am and you will only be doing 60 kph if some doddery do-gooder is sitting in the overtaking lane to make a point.

Are you actually flying out or dropping off/collecting ? If not flying out, you can park in the layby next to the runway where all the plane spotters go, and wait for your person to be ready. Get them to ring you and tell them to go to the departures level where you can drive up and collect them without paying anything !

The DAA are lashing up the parking charges all the time now.

ScouseMouse

If you are coming back from the airport there is one camera practically on the toll bridge coming south. There is another one southbound just after coming onto the m50 at the airport and also northbound just before the airport.

Niall1234

I'm actually driving up and dropping a person off and returning to Cork almost straight away.

I hear the speed cameras on the M50 will do you for 60 kph

ScouseMouse

After me telling you where the relevant ones are, thats not a problem and the other issue to bear in mind is: Is there an camera in the box this week and if so, is there any film in it !

Wishbone Ash

superscouse wrote: »

Get them to ring you and tell them to go to the departures level where you can drive up and collect them without paying anything !

...or you can simply drive around to the rear of the multi storey ABC car parks and (unofficially) wait.

(Last December the barriers were placed on the actual entrances to the car parks as opposed to the general car park area).

ScouseMouse

Assuming you come in on the naas road. Hang left onto M50 at the M50 roundabout. Keep going straight to the toll bridge. Pay money. Drive to airport. JUST BEFORE airport after big concrete water tower on left you have a speed camera. Slow down. Follow signs for airport. Coming around the bend SLOW DOWN, van and speed gun area. Drive into airport and don't pay unless you want to park and walk them to desk. Otherwise drop them at departures. If you do, short term car park opposite departures. If you want refreshments, there is a Maxol station which is reasonable at the airport. It is on the left as you exit. Given a chance, do not pay inside the airport as you get ripped off. On way back go easy till M50. Join M50 and there may be a fixed camera on the left about a mile down the road. Now drive to the toll bridge and after going through, another fixed camera on your left nearly on the bridge. Keep going and exit at Red Cow. Come off roundabout and follow signs for Limerick/Cork/Naas. Go easy for a couple of miles as you get regular speed traps at the old SDS warehouse just down the road.

Have a safe journey and don't become another statistic.

Superscouse

S.I.R

steady 85 ?? clock your car's spedo and brake comming up to bridges.

no gardi around , even if there are , you can outrun the mondeo in a yaris

Niall1234

S.I.R wrote: »

steady 85 ?? clock your car's spedo and brake comming up to bridges.

no gardi around , even if there are , you can outrun the mondeo in a yaris

Well, 85 on the clock is prob 80 mph in reality. 75 mph is the speed limit on motorways, and you'd want to be doing over 10% more than this to be legally done due to margin of error on speed guns.




Supercourse: Thanks for all the great info.

ScouseMouse

your welcome

ninty9er

You could drive the person to Cork airport, put them on a Ryanair flight to Dublin for €45 and save everyone the hassle??

Stark

Niall1234 wrote: »

Well, 85 on the clock is prob 80 mph in reality. 75 mph is the speed limit on motorways, and you'd want to be doing over 10% more than this to be legally done due to margin of error on speed guns.

If you're so sure about that, why are you worried about speed checks? The having to be 10% over the limit thing is baloney. The Gardaí generally aren't arsed pulling people who are less than 10% over, but that doesn't mean they can't. And speedometers usually overestimate, but you can't predict the margin. It could be overestimating by as much as 10%, or it might not be overestimating at all.

Wishbone Ash

Stark wrote: »

It could be overestimating by as much as 10%, or it might not be overestimating at all.

Precisely. New tyres and tyres at the legal wear limit will give different speedo readings.

rebel.ranter

Stark wrote: »

And speedometers usually overestimate, but you can't predict the margin. It could be overestimating by as much as 10%, or it might not be overestimating at all.

You could do a speedo comparison test with a GPS if you were sad like me. They are most accurate between 30mph & 70mph (50-100km/h) (tested a few cars, as I said I'm sad), but most underestimate in my findings. I think you would be very hard done by if you were done for speeding being 10km/h over.

Wishbone Ash

rebel.ranter wrote: »

I think you would be very hard done by if you were done for speeding being 10km/h over.

Depends on the posted limit. Being 10km over in a 30kph limit area would be a lot!

tech

2.5 hrs no hassle

Stark

2.5 my ass. Takes me 3.5 hours to get from Silversprings Moran Hotel (about 2 mins drive from the Dunkettle roundabout) to Blanchardstown on a good day.

Rory123

2.5 hours seems quite optimistic. Maybe in the Harry potter ford anglia :-)

tech

It not that fast, Ive left Red cow on a Sunday morning to Till in sub 2.5hrs leave Dublin @ 6am

There is so much new stretches of rd and motorway now its a doddle

Stark

Were you keeping to the speed limits the whole way?

At least at that hour of the morning you don't get stuck behind members of the 70km/hr brigade and can overtake if needed I suppose.

tech

do about 65-70 on normal rds and 80 ish on motorways

Victor

Thats mad - 500+km round trip. Watch out for the mad ones on the road.

http://www.irishrail.ie/home/

Ticket Web Price
Adult € 31.00
Reserve Seat € 3.00

and

http://www.dublinbus.ie/your_journey/viewer.asp?route=748
http://www.dublinbus.ie/your_journey/airport_services.asp

CASH FARES:
Adult: €6.00.

or

http://www.aerarann.ie/home/

€95

or

http://www.aircoach.ie/aircoach.journey.wizard.php

http://www.aircoach.ie/aircoach.fares.php
DUBLIN - DUBLIN AIRPORT
ADULT (12+)
One Way €7

CORK - DUBLIN
ADULT (12+)
Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays:
Single €12

groupb

There's a white or green old shape transit parked between the airport roundabout & the M1 roundabout. Do'nt go over 60.