M50 Speed limit

mpeter92

I drive on the m50 between ballymun and blanch at about 8.p.m. and traffic is moving fairly fast. I'd be worried about getting speed ticket. so if the limit is 60 i'd keep the needle on 60, 100 i'd drive at 100. But doing this is so dangerous when every single other car is doing double that. then you get a HGV up your back end. The limit by the way is mostly 60. so what do you do? Keep up with flow of traffic or obey speed limit?
the rules of the road say:
"You must progress at a speed and in a way that avoids interference with other motorway traffic"

r3nu4l

This has been done before but the last line of your post is definitely worth discussion imo.

I have a similar situation on my commute to work where the limit is 70mph but driving at that speed can result in drivers taking chances just to overtake you because almost everyone on the road drives at 80+ apart from the HGVs that drive at 57mph. So you end up either crawling along at 57 mph for miles or driving the same speed as the traffic around you.

Thankfully, the police in my area seem to have a 'we're not looking' policy when it comes to the speed limits on the road so there's not much danger of a fine for me.

OldmanMondeo

To quote Bart Simpson,
"Your Damed if you do and Your Damed if you Don't"

While driving at 60kph is the correct legal thing to do, keeping with the flow of traffic is probably the safer thing to do.

But should you get a ticket and go to court how would the judge view it? Could you use the argument of exceeding the limit because it was the safer thing to do? Interesting case if it did ever happen.

Drummerboy08

Keeping to the speed limit is sticking to the law.

Keeping up with the traffic, is breaking the law, but is probably safer.

In saying that, I've yet to see a speedtrap on the bit of road under construction on the M50, and i've been using it at peak times, and during the evening for the last 2 years.

What worries me, is the amount of standing water gathering on the new sections of road. I hadnt driven on it with a good spill of rain, but this morning there was alot of rain on the road. The scary thing is, that if you hit that water at 100kmh, you'll be in trouble.

mpeter92

A good while ago they had a camera between ballymun and M1 faceing towards M1. I think its been taken down since. There loads of signs saying speed camera near ballymun so i keep it to the speed limit just incase.

Drummerboy08

mpeter92 wrote: »

A good while ago they had a camera between ballymun and M1 faceing towards M1. I think its been taken down since. There loads of signs saying speed camera near ballymun so i keep it to the speed limit just incase.

I think thats long gone. With all the construction works going on, it would be impossible to maintain a camera there. Maybe when the work is finished you'll see a new camera being put in, but I dont think there's any speed traps like that along the M50 at the minute.

vincenzolorenzo

Nope there's no speed camera on any part of the M50 at the moment, and hasn't been for quite some time now. When its all finished i expect to see at least a couple spring up along the way.

Quint

A while back heading northbound on that section was mental. 3 lanes, left was marked N2 all the way from Blanch. So if you were going past the N2, according to law you should do do 60kph in the middle lane. Crazy with trucks and cars zooming past you. 80kph is the minimum I do in that section.

Seth Brundle

As long as you keep left then you should be fine!

bladebrew

i always stay at around 70km/h,there always seems to be a gang of cars that are happy enough to travel at that speed (in the left lane!!) then people doing 100km/h in a 60 zone can use the outside lane:)

i like to think if im doing 70km/h and the car beside me is doing 100km/h the gardai will be more interested in them!

Voodoomelon

bladebrew wrote: »

i always stay at around 70km/h,there always seems to be a gang of cars that are happy enough to travel at that speed (in the left lane!!) then people doing 100km/h in a 60 zone can use the outside lane:)

i like to think if im doing 70km/h and the car beside me is doing 100km/h the gardai will be more interested in them!

Whilst I see your point about just staying slightly over the limit, you're best sticking with the speed of the majority.

No Garda car is going to go after you on the M50 for doing 70kph, not because its only 10kph over the limit, but because in the majority of places they physically couldn't get to you or pull you over.

Which means that the only thing thats going to get you is a rogue speed camera, which will do you if you're doing 70kph or 120kph.
And that leads to the conclusion that you're better off keeping up with everyone else, to prevent you (unfortunately) from pis$ing off other drivers, causing others to take risky maneuvers and to keep traffic going at a regular and uniform speed.

dudara

Whatever about the speed limit on the M50, you really have to watch out for the 3-lane divers (as I like to call them). These are people who come up in the overtaking lane and then dive across 3 lanes of traffic without slowing to get to their exit. It's a very common practice on the M50

BrianD3

I would tend to do an indicated 70 km/h. Given that my speedo will be overreading by a few km/h and that the Gardai also tend to allow a few km/h over the limit, I's say it's unlikely I'd be done by a gatso van or checkpoint.

If I come up behind a driver doing an indicated 60 km/h I won't overtake him and will drive at his speed at a safe distance.

Anyone who has a problem with me driving "too slowly" can **** right off.

One of the other problems with idiots driving way over the speed limit is that driver merging onto the M-way also have to break the speed limit to merge safely.

Something that always used to amuse me when there were roadworks south of the westlink - idiots driving at 100 km/h through the roadworks then further south when it became a 120 km/h limit, they're still doing 100 and probably hogging the overtaking lane at the same time :rolleyes: