Adding a second or third lane...

sdanseo

Has anyone else noticed some places in Dublin where DCC has added lanes seemingly just because the space is there? For example, hading out of town on the N1 just after Fagan's outside St. Pat's, the bus lane starts only to stop again after 2-300m. The result is instead of one freely-flowing lane (there's never much of a jam after the bridge I find), buses and cabs merge out into the bus lane, only to slow everyone down by having to merge straight back in again.

It's the only example I can think of off hand but it's starting to piss me off and I'm seeing it in more and more places. The other thing is places where the is no second lane, but it's needed and in some cases people manufacturing lanes where they think there should be one. In one place I drive past reguarly, people make a left-hand lane which is used as parking once rush hour is over (Fairview strand leading to Richmond Road).

Anyone else think that for the sake of a few less, or few extra road markings these silly little problems could be solved?

AugustusMaximus

The greatest stupidity is indeed where dual carriageway has been created for no reason, meaning that fast drivers over take the others and create a massive clog up where the road remerges.

bk

sdonn_1 wrote: »

Has anyone else noticed some places in Dublin where DCC has added lanes seemingly just because the space is there? For example, hading out of town on the N1 just after Fagan's outside St. Pat's, the bus lane starts only to stop again after 2-300m. The result is instead of one freely-flowing lane (there's never much of a jam after the bridge I find), buses and cabs merge out into the bus lane, only to slow everyone down by having to merge straight back in again.

You are talking about the bottleneck at The Cat & Cage Pub and it is one of the most annoying and most serious bottlenecks in the city as it is on the route of almost every north heading bus.

They should really knock the wall in the park across from The Cat & Cage and widen the road to eliminate this bottleneck. It really wouldn't be too difficult to fix.

Ham'nd'egger

bk wrote: »

You are talking about the bottleneck at The Cat & Cage Pub and it is one of the most annoying and most serious bottlenecks in the city as it is on the route of almost every north heading bus.

They should really knock the wall in the park across from The Cat & Cage and widen the road to eliminate this bottleneck. It really wouldn't be too difficult to fix.

"They" have not had joy in taking on a little extra land to take out the bottleneck, yet. Given that you have a pub on one side and a college on the other, these are the two landowners to ask who is holding it up.

Carawaystick

Dublin City council used a compulsory purchase order to buy the carlton cinema site to build a shopping centre on it. The same city council seem to be unable to acquire undeveloped land from St Patricks College in Drumcondra, to widen the road to allow a buslane or 2 be built. Which of these two cases are really in the public good?

bk

Hamndegger wrote: »

"They" have not had joy in taking on a little extra land to take out the bottleneck, yet. Given that you have a pub on one side and a college on the other, these are the two landowners to ask who is holding it up.

Pub would unlikely to be removed, as it is one of the oldest pubs in Dublin (circa 1600) and therefore probably a protected structure.

There is no such excuse for undeveloped park land (of which there is plenty, even if a lane was added) at St Patricks College.

As Carawaystick points out, DCC has the power to fix this, but aren't interested as it is only in the general publics interest, it is of no value to DCC, unlike the Carlton CPO.

Godge

There are a lot of problems that DCC could fix but they are too short-sighted. When building a bus lane in Stoneybatter, they consulted the local residents (including the local traders) who wanted to keep parking spaces (why do you need spaces for local neighbourhood shops supposed to be in walking distance of their clientele?). Suited DCC as they got the income.

Nobody asked the hundreds of people sitting on the buses from Blanchardstown, Mulhuddart and Tryllestown.

mikemac

Carawaystick wrote: »

The same city council seem to be unable to acquire undeveloped land from St Patricks College in Drumcondra, to widen the road to allow a buslane or 2 be built.

I stand to be corrected but I'm told the college have gas tanks, piping and other facilites all at this point. You can't see them from the road but it's just over the wall on college grounds.
So it's not just a case of knocking the wall and widening the road.

I know this bottleneck well and hopefully something will be done eventually.

bk

mikemac wrote: »

I stand to be corrected but I'm told the college have gas tanks, piping and other facilites all at this point. You can't see them from the road but it's just over the wall on college grounds.
So it's not just a case of knocking the wall and widening the road.

Fair enough, no indication of these on Google Maps sat images, so mustn't be major facilities, therefore I wouldn't imagine it would be too difficult to move.

Obviously I'm not saying it would be a one day job, road works rarely are, but neither would it be a major job and it would really help.

markpb

mikemac wrote: »

I stand to be corrected but I'm told the college have gas tanks, piping and other facilites all at this point. You can't see them from the road but it's just over the wall on college grounds.
So it's not just a case of knocking the wall and widening the road.

You can see them just after you go past (going outbound) if you look back. This could be a defence for DCC now but those gas pipes were only installed two years ago. They had plenty of time to CPO an obvious pinch point and did nothing.

What makes matters worse is that when they widened the road last Summer, they could have installed a set of bus priority lights. These would have let the buses into the single merged lane a few seconds before the cars are allowed in and made the whole thing work a lot better. Instead we got the usual half-assed job from a bunch of road traffic engineers who don't care or their bosses who won't pay for it.

mysterious

The Cat and cage road area is a right bottleneck and quite dangerous. I'm sursprised there hasn't been an accident. I don't get why they went to all the bother of widening the Bus stop at the entrance to St.Patrick's college. when you sill have this corkscrew bottleneck 150yards futher up for everything to funnel quicker into.

I swear to god, I really try to keep my cool, But this country is just laughing stock, on the best of day's even. This sort of crack just DOES not happen in other countries.

It just can't be possible, how they would plan their infastructure like the half arsed attempts we seemed to applicable to do.......

shamwari

Correct me if I'm wrong, but is the obstruction not the Cat and Cage pub, but rather the premises of a solicitors firm....?

sdanseo

shamwari wrote: »

Correct me if I'm wrong, but is the obstruction not the Cat and Cage pub, but rather the premises of a solicitors firm....?

It's both - you can only really see the cat and cage (apart from its sign) from the south side and the solicitors has a large sign on the north side of the building.

Anyway, sorry to drag this back up, just remembered it and thought I'd clarify - my original point was not about the bottleneck itself (although that is very annoying and needs to be dealt with) but more that the delays are made worse by the addition of needless second lanes or bus lanes that only last a few hundred metres. The associated merging in and out only serves to slow down the flow.

Opinions on that, anyone?