N3 traffic in last fortnight

athtrasna

Has anyone noticed how bad the N3 has gotten at rush hour over the past fortnight. The on slip at the roundabout near Blanch hospital has been backed up fully (including the bus lane) every day.

It wasn't as bad as this in September so what's changed?? It's now taking me 2 hours to get to Fitzwilliam St every morning! Have tried the village but it can take almost as long to get there from the Snugborough Road and then through the village as the N3 queue.

New traffic lights in Castleknock have messed with traffic taking the back road too.

Gaspode

athtrasna wrote: »

Has anyone noticed how bad the N3 has gotten at rush hour over the past fortnight. The on slip at the roundabout near Blanch hospital has been backed up fully (including the bus lane) every day.

It wasn't as bad as this in September so what's changed?? It's now taking me 2 hours to get to Fitzwilliam St every morning! Have tried the village but it can take almost as long to get there from the Snugborough Road and then through the village as the N3 queue.

New traffic lights in Castleknock have messed with traffic taking the back road too.

Dont know what's changed, but I'd agree it has gotten worse.
And judging by the photos on this thread, it is going to get even worse again for a while!

PauloMN

Yep, I've noticed it's got very bad over the past week or so. I only commute in twice a week thankfully, but it's definitely much worse than it was in September. Actually it's kind of back to normal IMO, I think it's more the fact that the traffic in September was surprisingly light.

Leaving after 7am, the traffic is now backed up to the Quinn building from the M50 roundabout heading towards the city. From there it's around 25 - 30 mins to the M50.

littlebitdull

Its got much worse recently. And at strange times of the day too. Like sometimes even at midday it can be heavy.

Stark

I think traffic everywhere has gotten worse since last year. I've noticed this around Dublin and Cork anyway. For Dublin city centre, this seems to be backed up by the figures DCC released when they announced their increase in parking charges.

ParkRunner

It's just the combination of people coming back from holidays, schools/colleges all back I reckon. Every autumn right up to Christmas it is like that. Roll on operation freeflow so some poor garda can stand outside Blanch garda station looking perplexed as not a vehicle in sight is moving But it does seem odd that even on the way home at about 5:30pm traffic seems to be backed up on the N3 going inbound.
Also the fact that only three buses really go through Blanch into the city centre. It's a pity that with the recession the metro hasn't a hope of getting built or rail services improved. Also as long as they are going to charge €4 per day to park at the phoenix park train station, the car park will stay empty.

Jip

As PauloMN points out, it's just back to 'normal' for this time of the year. We've been fairly lucky with it throughout the summer and into September but now it's back to how it's always been for this time of year.

Stark

This morning's traffic seemed very quiet oddly enough.

littlebitdull

Glad you think so Stark .... it was pure ****down our way!!

Stark

I must have been lucky then. Maybe whatever caused the tailbacks down your way stemmed the flow of traffic towards my direction :P

athtrasna

Stark wrote: »

This morning's traffic seemed very quiet oddly enough.

Not too bad to the M50 but it took me 20 mins from the M50 roundabout to Auburn Roundabout :eek:

Phoenix Park station is in the wrong place. Have to deal with the worst of the traffic to get there in morning and evening. By the time you clear the station some of the worst traffic is behind you.

thomasj

An absolute mess it is at the moment. Blakestown is a mess, ballycoolin is a mess the n3 is a mess!

A complete mess!

wutra

I travel to Swords from Clonsilla. During the summer it takes just under half an hour, this morning it took me 1h 15mins, although me did get to hear on the radio about some psychic predict the arrival of a massive alien ship over Arizona today which will hang around for 3 days, a bit more exciting than the budget!

start schools at 7am i say so all the parents can be gone when I have to leave for work, muah ha ha ha.

GSF

What are they doing further up the N3 inbound from the Clonee bypass onwards? Seems like they are narrowing the lanes. What are they up to?

athtrasna

Going to get worse tomorrow, new barriers on slip road to N3 inbound from Blanch and also forcing cars coming down the slip to merge earlier. This does not bode well for already crazy traffic in the area!

DublinDilbert

athtrasna wrote: »

Going to get worse tomorrow, new barriers on slip road to N3 inbound from Blanch and also forcing cars coming down the slip to merge earlier. This does not bode well for already crazy traffic in the area!

I just drove in that way tonight.... That's going to be a completely nightmare tomorrow morning... every inch of that road space is used in the morning time, its going to be mad....

Nevyn

and then the christmast maddness in and around the shopping center will start.

Jip

Spotted them myself Saturday evening and knew this morning was going to a a nightmare, and of course it was. I would normally hit the N3 after joining there at around 7:40, was nearly 8 this morning. The traffic was backed up the Snugbourough Road almost as far as the Aquatic Road at that time, I can only imagine it got worse at the morning went on.

What is going on there anyway ? The barriers appear but there's no sign of anyone working from Friday evening until this morning. Tools.

Stark

Apparently they're "constructing" a bus lane from the Clonee exit to the shopping centre (according to AA roadwatch anyway). Although last time I saw the cones out, it was the lane nearest the central median that was closed off...

Jip

Something to do with buses is the best bet. Dublin City FM mentioned it was to do with a QBC corridor expected to last 3-4 months, god help us all.
I'm working from home today due to how badly it affects me but not everyone can do this.

GSF

Stark wrote: »

Apparently they're "constructing" a bus lane from the Clonee exit to the shopping centre (according to AA roadwatch anyway). Although last time I saw the cones out, it was the lane nearest the central median that was closed off...

if only they ran buses direct from Clonee to the city centre in peak times it might be worth it, but they seem to take the scenic route to town.:rolleyes:

PauloMN

athtrasna wrote: »

Going to get worse tomorrow, new barriers on slip road to N3 inbound from Blanch and also forcing cars coming down the slip to merge earlier. This does not bode well for already crazy traffic in the area!

To be honest, the "merging" before the cones went up was a disaster, with taxis, cars and coaches switching from lane to lane all trying to avoid each other. The cones and barriers are at least stopping the arseholes that drive up the bus lanes in normal cars.

Now of course if there's a crash or breakdown, then it'll be absolute chaos!

CrazyRabbit

What traffic?

<---motorcyclist.



Sorry, couldn't resist.

Jip

PauloMN wrote: »

To be honest, the "merging" before the cones went up was a disaster, with taxis, cars and coaches switching from lane to lane all trying to avoid each other. The cones and barriers are at least stopping the arseholes that drive up the bus lanes in normal cars.

Now of course if there's a crash or breakdown, then it'll be absolute chaos!

When they put up the cones at the end of the bus lane at the slip road from Snugbourough road getting onto the N3 there was fine and worked well.

But what's happening now is that the slip road becomes one lane (technically it was always one lane as one was a very short bus lane but it worked well as two as it spread the traffic evenly into the main N3) before it gets anywhere the N3 and forcing traffic to merge into the N3 in the one spot. This leads to the situation of the Snugborough Road being backed up as far as the Aquatic Centre and into Corduff the other direction as there's now less space for the same volume of traffic and people on the N3 already not letting traffic merge in turn messes everything up further.
The N3 itself is not affected too much by this but traffic coming from the village and the corporate parks direction are.

athtrasna

that road still needs arrows at the merge point. I was hit by a truck when merging a couple of years back and even though the Gardai said the truck driver was at fault cos he moved forward without looking at the road and seeing that 90% of my car was in the lane.

But without arrows it was my fault, my loss.

Why don't all merges have arrows?