L Road Signs in Towns and Cities

L1011

Carawaystick wrote:
I noticed was signs for L roads in Douglas(especialy around Frankfield) in Cork, and in Balbrigan, Co. Dublin. Some of these were into cul de sacs in housing estates and streets with street name signs.

There are plenty of roads around the north co. Dublin area with no L signs.

L road signs are going up patchwork as an area is worked on. All sideroads have them one direction out of Maynooth now; but on the other 6 roads out of the town none are... in DLRCC I've seen housing estates signed even.

icdg

MYOB wrote: »

L road signs are going up patchwork as an area is worked on. All sideroads have them one direction out of Maynooth now; but on the other 6 roads out of the town none are... in DLRCC I've seen housing estates signed even.

The R148 beween Leixlip and Maynooth has recently been resigned (though they made some stupid mistakes, like signing the R157 as the R148 - from the R148!!! - and putting an ADS up westbound at the R148/R404 junction but none eastbound).

L-road signs are to my mind mostly useless. Some of them are very short, some of them have five digits for goodness sake. I think L road signs should only be erected for inter-town roads of importance - roads within towns should have signs displaying the street name instead. One could argue that if an L road is important enough to have its number signed, it should be considered for R-road status anyway.

marmurr1916

icdg wrote: »

The R148 beween Leixlip and Maynooth has recently been resigned (though they made some stupid mistakes, like signing the R157 as the R148 - from the R148!!! - and putting an ADS up westbound at the R148/R404 junction but none eastbound).

L-road signs are to my mind mostly useless. Some of them are very short, some of them have five digits for goodness sake. I think L road signs should only be erected for inter-town roads of importance - roads within towns should have signs displaying the street name instead. One could argue that if an L road is important enough to have its number signed, it should be considered for R-road status anyway.

Shortest L-road I've seen signed is in Bandon, Co. Cork. It's a stretch of tarmac at the junction of two Regional roads.

It's about 5 metres long...

Don't have a photo, but the junction layout is something like this:

/|

The L-road is the / section, with the | and the _ being the Regional roads. In reality, the / connects with both roads.

It allows people to make a left hand turn from one regional road onto the other regional road.

BluntGuy

L-road signage is mostly for adminstrative purposes anyway. I can't see many people taking the trouble to learn off L-roads by heart, they're just too long.

But I do appreciate the fact they exist, as it brings some sort of order to the local road network. And if you have a GPS with L-road signage on it (not that I've seen any), the signage is useful for checking that you're on the correct route.

mackerski

BluntGuy wrote: »

But I do appreciate the fact they exist, as it brings some sort of order to the local road network. And if you have a GPS with L-road signage on it (not that I've seen any), the signage is useful for checking that you're on the correct route.

I have a Garmin device with a map featuring L-road numbers. Naturally it's from OpenStreetMap

Dr. Kenneth Noisewater

I have to say, although I rarely have any reason to go down any L roads, I'd imagine they are very useful for trying to get places in rural areas rather than taking "the third right after the house with the yellow gable end and then go through the crossroads and its the second left turn". There are fairly vast areas, at least in Co Galway, where there are very few R or N roads, and these signs are necessary!

Carawaystick

agreed alright about numbering rural roads.

Does anyone know who is in charge of doling out the numbers for the L routes?

I know L1002 is off the N2 just the Derry side of Kilmoon. does anyone know if there's L1001 or even L1000?

Aside: is there a R100? or do they start with R101?

funnyname

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Local_Roads_in_Ireland

murphaph

Carawaystick wrote: »

Aside: is there a R100?

No.

Carawaystick wrote: »

or do they start with R101?

Yes!

baalthor

Carawaystick wrote: »

agreed alright about numbering rural roads.

Does anyone know who is in charge of doling out the numbers for the L routes?

I know L1002 is off the N2 just the Derry side of Kilmoon. does anyone know if there's L1001 or even L1000?

Aside: is there a R100? or do they start with R101?

They look like they're assigned at random - there's a L7** near me but the previous two numbers in the series are about 8km away.

If all the similar numbers had been grouped together they could have formed a sort of alternative postcode system.

Dubluc

to Murphaph, seeing as how you are interested the R101 is the North Circular Road in Dublin as far as I know.

L roads are numbered seperately in each administrative county so to the person who has seen L1002 off the N2 that must be in Co. Fingal or Co. Meath because there is another one in Palmerstown before you meet the M50 on the N4 outbound. I believe this is in Co. South Dublin.

Five digit L roads are cul de sacs and in other cases the numbers reflect how important the county council considers them.

I come from a rural area originally and it is a help to be able to tell some delivery guy that the house is between the junction with Lxxxx and Lxxxx.

The sooner they are incorporated into sat navs the better.

I presume the reason they are being put on signs is to save the bother of putting names on roads when postcodes come out. In conjunction with a post code in future it will be relatively easy to find a rural house if you are looking for say a friends house for the first time. Basically a person will give you their address and the number of their road. Your sat nav or map will bring you to the correct road in the correct townland with the help of the post code you will get close enough to the yellow gable the turn in the road or that oak tree by the fort!

thetonynator

They'd probably be better spend the money from all the costs of doing that on fixing potholes . . .

Carawaystick

Dubluc wrote: »

Five digit L roads are cul de sacs

Not all of them in Galway anyway.

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

I have to say, as a rural dweller, the L road signs are brilliant. Our road doesn't have a name (even locally) and it so easy now to tell people to turn at the sign for L1234. It should be used for post codes!

marmurr1916

The junctions of local roads with regional roads all seem to be signed in Co. Cork (at least around Bandon), with some housing estates in the suburbs of Cork city (officially in the county though) having L-road numbers at their entrances.

You can see this around the Grange area. Even housing estates with street-name signs have the L-road numbers at their entrances.

What I haven't seen yet is L-road numbers signed at the junctions of L-roads with other L-roads.

Carawaystick

marmurr1916 wrote: »

You can see this around the Grange area. Even housing estates with street-name signs have the L-road numbers at their entrances.

That's exactly what prompted me to start the thread!

marmurr1916 wrote: »

What I haven't seen yet is L-road numbers signed at the junctions of L-roads with other L-roads.

I think I've seen this in Galway. Near Bullaun. but the far end of one of the L roads is on the new N65.

nordydan

I noticed a 4 digit R-road signed for Clonskeagh here this afternoon, heading westbound on the R112 (fosters avenue).

I take it this is another signage error, or has an R road been upgraded?

unit 1

Good old Ireland, I too noticed these signs recently and twigged it might be to do with postcodes.
Now if this is true, how do they know these are even required for new postcodes as the design has gone out to tender has it not. Mmm maybe somebody knows something everyonelse does'nt.

Dubluc

unit 1 wrote: »

Good old Ireland, I too noticed these signs recently and twigged it might be to do with postcodes.
Now if this is true, how do they know these are even required for new postcodes as the design has gone out to tender has it not. Mmm maybe somebody knows something everyonelse does'nt.

I wouldn't think it's as sinister as that. I'd imagine that as all the roads have numbers assigned already the authorities are just publically displaying the numbers to assist for sat navs, and postcodes when they arrive. It saves naming roads and the resultant arguments and confusion. The numbers are unique nationally in respect of Mororways, national routes and regional roads and are unique within administrative counties in respect of local roads.

nordydan

Apologies for bumping this thread but I have a query for anyone living near (or who has visited & noticed) the offshore islands (Cape Clear, Aran, Tory etc). Are there L-signs noticeable in these offshore locations?

L1011

nordydan wrote: »

Apologies for bumping this thread but I have a query for anyone living near (or who has visited & noticed) the offshore islands (Cape Clear, Aran, Tory etc). Are there L-signs noticeable in these offshore locations?

None on Arranmore (the proper one not the misnamed one). Would only really make sense there and on Clare and Bere Islands in terms of having car ferries and the chance of outsiders coming in (unless somewhere else has got a car ferry of late)

There were also none on Inisheer when I was there for work recently enough, but it has no car ferry and indeed relatively few motorised vehicles of any description.

charlemont

Adriel Wrong Jelly wrote: »

I have to say, as a rural dweller, the L road signs are brilliant. Our road doesn't have a name (even locally) and it so easy now to tell people to turn at the sign for L1234. It should be used for post codes!

Good man yourself, Yes they should be joined up planning with the government departments and use the L routes in addresses outside of City Councils, Borough Councils and Town Councils.

unit 1 wrote: »

Good old Ireland, I too noticed these signs recently and twigged it might be to do with postcodes.
Now if this is true, how do they know these are even required for new postcodes as the design has gone out to tender has it not. Mmm maybe somebody knows something everyonelse does'nt.

L has been the prefix on these roads since the 70's, Any council maps in planning offices etc will have the L numbers. The older system also used L but it meant Link routes and they joined T routes together much like the R/Regional routes today.

Carawaystick

charlemont wrote: »

Good man yourself, Yes they should be joined up planning with the government departments and use the L routes in addresses outside of City Councils, Borough Councils and Town Councils.

Unless the road has a name already with a sign, either in a rural or non-town-council town or village area.