Does anyone else get excited when approaching a Motorway?

veryangryman

I mean like, after half an hour at a snails pace in your Moates, Tullamores and Portarlingtons of this world, to hit the approach at Monasterevin and stick the boot on with a heavy Foo Fighters tune blaring away at the speakers?

It gets your frustrations out is what im trying to say...anyone relate?

Rovi

I wouldn't say 'excited,' exactly, more like 'relieved.'
It's just great to be on a road where 'cruising speed' isn't determined by the slowest plodder.

dodgyme

up until they decided to toll every route. you's swear they were building tunnels under the alps or something?

thewing

Yes relief is definitely the feeling. Booting past the car who's ar*se you've been staring at for 30 miles is a very nice feeling indeed.

po0k

Ride of the Valkyries - dub remix

mike65

Not excited since I was about 12! Relief naturally, but with the knowledge it won't last very long.

Mike.

Chris_533976

Though you get that horrid feeling of nausea when you come off the motorway

eg: N18 coming off the Ennis bypass about to go under that farce of a narrow bridge at Crusheen and round the farm track.

N20 coming off the DC from Limerick towards Cork and getting towards the end of the Croom bypass WS2 only to see a slow lorry infront of you knowing damn well it'll be 30km before you can overtake the damn thing.

Zoney

Chris:

Or stuck behind a lorry coming off the motorway on the N7 at Portlaoise! One also gets worked up (in a bad way) just merely thinking about getting through Mountrath these days.

veryangryman

veryangryman wrote: »

I mean like, after half an hour at a snails pace in your Moate ?

Roll on April
Athlone - Lucan HQDC & Motorway all the way!!

mike65

Mountrath

Is'nt that bypassed yet? Jebus. Many moons ago I had a delivery drop there on a semi-regular basis. I never quite got the feel of the road layout!

Mike.

Rovi

Zoney wrote: »

Chris:

Or stuck behind a lorry coming off the motorway on the N7 at Portlaoise! One also gets worked up (in a bad way) just merely thinking about getting through Mountrath these days.

Give it a couple of years, and Mountrath will be no more than a bad memory-
http://www.nra.ie/RoadSchemeActivity/LaoisCountyCouncil/N8PortlaoisetoCullahillCastletown/Map,11428,en.pdf

...and all you barstewards in your cars and lorries will be the same for the noble citizens of that fine metropolis.

Rhiannon14

*laughs as the puny Irish roadway system*

Chris_533976

The road atlas I looked at in the shop today was a 2007 version with that section under construction, but with Rathcormac bypassed by N8 (actually M8) and no bypass for Fermoy......

fricatus

Rovi wrote: »

I wouldn't say 'excited,' exactly, more like 'relieved.'
It's just great to be on a road where 'cruising speed' isn't determined by the slowest plodder.

thewing wrote: »

Yes relief is definitely the feeling. Booting past the car who's ar*se you've been staring at for 30 miles is a very nice feeling indeed.

Yeah, it's not so much excitement as relief. It's only excitement for the month or two after passing your test!

(Hands up all those - like me - who only drove on a motorway after passing their test*... fwwoooooo ppphhhhssshshhh... the sound of the wind and a tumbleweed methinks)

Crap part is when you're doing the reverse journey (invariably home from Dublin) and you're tearing past slowcoaches, but then there's one just waiting for you on the Kilcullen ramp just at the end of the M9... then hogs the white line all the way to Carlow. Grrrr!!!!

Roll on the interurbans!




* learned to drive in the UK of course...

fricatus

fricatus wrote: »

(Hands up all those - like me - who only drove on a motorway after passing their test*... fwwoooooo ppphhhhssshshhh... the sound of the wind and a tumbleweed methinks)

* learned to drive in the UK of course...

*puts up hand*

Stark

Cashel bypass. I always feel so relieved to hit the Cashel bypass after being stuck behind some slow sod all the way from Urlingford. The nasty thing is there are no real overtaking opportunities until shortly before the bypass. Once, I went to the trouble of overtaking someone, only to come round the next bend and see the bypass about a kilometre away. Was fairly annoyed.

Rovi

fricatus wrote: »

(Hands up all those - like me - who only drove on a motorway after passing their test*... fwwoooooo ppphhhhssshshhh... the sound of the wind and a tumbleweed methinks)

* learned to drive in the UK of course...

Deleted User wrote: »

*puts up hand*

*jumps up and down*
Me too, me too!

The utter absence of motorways here at the time may have had something to do with that.

L1011

Rovi wrote: »

Give it a couple of years, and Mountrath will be no more than a bad memory-
http://www.nra.ie/RoadSchemeActivity/LaoisCountyCouncil/N8PortlaoisetoCullahillCastletown/Map,11428,en.pdf

...and all you barstewards in your cars and lorries will be the same for the noble citizens of that fine metropolis.

As will jobs in its many petrol stations

subway

i absolutely cannot wait to get onto the M50 on my way home from work everyday!

Rovi

Rovi wrote: »

*jumps up and down*
Me too, me too!

The utter absence of motorways here at the time may have had something to do with that.

It was six years before I drove on a motorway... nearest one to where I lived was nearly 50 miles away and going the wrong direction.

Rovi

MYOB wrote: »

As will jobs in its many petrol stations

There's the downside to getting bypassed, businesses that rely on passing trade take a hit.
That said, there seem to be plenty of thriving filling stations in Naas, Newbridge, Kildare, Monasterevin, Ballybrittas, and Portlaoise, all of which have been bypassed by the M7 over the last decade or so.

Lucan - Athlone (when complete) no petrol stations at all on the route.

AckwelFoley

Yes, i do get very excited.

Thats why i keep a box of tissues in the front of the car with me

steyr fan

Deleted User wrote: »

Lucan - Athlone (when complete) no petrol stations at all on the route.

Those overpaid planners are at it (or not) again.

spacetweek

steyr fan wrote: »

Those overpaid planners are at it (or not) again.

There's a plan to roll out a network of service and refuelling areas, but they're putting them in when the network is finished, not as and when a route opens. So for a few years you'll have to exit and refuel at a town.

L1011

Rovi wrote: »

There's the downside to getting bypassed, businesses that rely on passing trade take a hit.
That said, there seem to be plenty of thriving filling stations in Naas, Newbridge, Kildare, Monasterevin, Ballybrittas, and Portlaoise, all of which have been bypassed by the M7 over the last decade or so.

Would likely be because you need to pull off in to them to get fuel. Maynooth to Abbeyleix has nothing, I've coasted on orange in to the (expensive) Statoil there before. Lucan to some little Statoil on the N11 is the same...

westtip

spacetweek wrote: »

There's a plan to roll out a network of service and refuelling areas, but they're putting them in when the network is finished, not as and when a route opens. So for a few years you'll have to exit and refuel at a town.

YOu mean they are waiting to see which council gets bribed enough to rezone a certain field in Westmeath etc - You just wait for it - in some local area plan for some townland five miles from Moate, a five acre field with no connections to any services but which just happens to be adjacent to the M4 will suddenly get rezoned as commercial use/industrial - and guess where the M4 service station will be - Ah sure we may as well put it in that little pocket of land we rezoned in the Local Area Plan. It will slip through the planning process and the councillors will all talk about the democratic process etc.....Local Government - who needs it? 40 years down the line - the long and still running Mahon tribunal with Justice Mahon (aged 137) will be sitting listening to how the new Teashop Billy the Boot, Westmeath all Ireland finalist of 2020, formerly of Moate Parish Council, and an all round sound fellah - just like his father and grandfather who both represented the town in public office suddenly hit boom times in recession hit Ireland of 2009 and 2010, and nobody really knows where he got his money from.....Nothing changes, Nothing will change, corruption in the planning process runs in our bloodstream.

smashey

fricatus wrote: »

(Hands up all those - like me - who only drove on a motorway after passing their test*... fwwoooooo ppphhhhssshshhh... the sound of the wind and a tumbleweed methinks)
* learned to drive in the UK of course...

*waves*

I learned in Birmingham. Ooohhhh, spaghetti junction.

Seth Brundle

mike65 wrote: »

Not excited since I was about 12! Relief naturally, but with the knowledge it won't last very long.

Mike.

Overtaking lane hoggers, etc. ruin what should be a pleasant but monotonus drive!

Deleted User wrote: »

Lucan - Athlone (when complete) no petrol stations at all on the route.

Look at it from another perpective - Newry to Athlone will have no petrol stations at all on the route!

Chris_533976

One the interurbans are done, Cork to Newry wont have one!

ardmacha

One the interurbans are done, Cork to Newry wont have one!

going to Cork, the upgraded N7 still has some access to petrol, unlike the newly built motorways.

Our man in Havana

MYOB wrote: »

As will jobs in its many petrol stations

And a new petrol station has opened in Mountrath. Madness.

Spook_ie

smashey wrote: »

*waves*

I learned in Birmingham. Ooohhhh, spaghetti junction.

There's a memory from way back driving around and around spaghetti junction, can hardly wait for the Red Cow Interchange, It'll be a killer, people driving round and round totaly lost until they die or run out of fuel

Our man in Havana

Spook_ie wrote: »

There's a memory from way back driving around and around spaghetti junction, can hardly wait for the Red Cow Interchange, It'll be a killer, people driving round and round totaly lost until they die or run out of fuel

I heard of one guy that spent 12 hours circling the Arc D' Triomphe in Paris.

mackerski

Spook_ie wrote: »

people driving round and round totaly lost until they die or run out of fuel

Or until they get the bright idea of reading the signs.

icdg

kbannon wrote: »

Look at it from another perpective - Newry to Athlone will have no petrol stations at all on the route!

Er, Texaco Foxhunter, the busiest petrol station in the country???? Even when the Lucan Road upgrade is done (which should see its access changed to being on a paranell access road) it will still be only seconds off the N4 and probably quicker to get to from the mainline than any MSA that may be built.

There is also an Esso garage right off M4 J3 (future J7).

MSAs will be built. They are a feature of every other motorway network on the continent and will hopefully soon feature on ours too.

denashpot

ya i blow my load!! delete thread please.

galwayrush

Yes,the freedom to drive at a reasonable speed safely but my excitment is killed when i have to stop at a Toll Booth.

steyr fan

Driving from Longford to Dublin this evening, 50-60km all the way to the Mullingar bypass - it was like all my summer holidays, Christmas holidays and birthdays rolled into a few minutes of giddiness (until I remembered that being giddy while behind the wheel is not a good idea).

So there, I DID get excited. Yes I did.:D

L1011

icdg wrote: »

There is also an Esso garage right off M4 J3 (future J7).

And an Applegreen 600 yards from J2A/6.

Seth Brundle

Bond-007 wrote: »

I heard of one guy that spent 12 hours circling the Arc D' Triomphe in Paris.

Did he look like this?

icdg wrote: »

Er, Texaco Foxhunter, the busiest petrol station in the country???? Even when the Lucan Road upgrade is done (which should see its access changed to being on a paranell access road) it will still be only seconds off the N4 and probably quicker to get to from the mainline than any MSA that may be built.

You are indeed correct! I pass it twice a day and still managed to forget about it!

Ford Cortina

I know it for sure when I approach the motorway, my car shimmies like a tinker on a trotting horse. (funny thing there was a trotting horse with its 3 riders on the day in question from the nearby "settlement").
My childern love the motorways though although my wife is not amused, especially the time the song "The Hucklebuck" came on the radio (the kids were clapping like crazy). My mechanic told me about balancing my tyres but I'm thinking my mechanic is trying to rip me off, I mean how could my steering wheel vibrate because of unbalanced wheel.

That said I feel like a kid full of excitement when I'm driving on this rare Irish phenomenin called a motorway. My wife says my faces lights us like Jim Carey in "The Mask" and I smile like this:D

veryangryman

Ford Cortina wrote: »

I know it for sure when I approach the motorway, my car shimmies like a tinker on a trotting horse. (funny thing there was a trotting horse with its 3 riders on the day in question from the nearby "settlement").
My childern love the motorways though although my wife is not amused, especially the time the song "The Hucklebuck" came on the radio (the kids were clapping like crazy). My mechanic told me about balancing my tyres but I'm thinking my mechanic is trying to rip me off, I mean how could my steering wheel vibrate because of unbalanced wheel.

That said I feel like a kid full of excitement when I'm driving on this rare Irish phenomenin called a motorway. My wife says my faces lights us like Jim Carey in "The Mask" and I smile like this:D

Brilliant!!!