Suggestions to improve Limerick traffic

Builderfromhell

Have been meaning to open a thread on this subject for some time. Their are often threads on different aspects of Limerick road design etc. and I feel this subject deserves a thread of it's own.
Rather than moan and complain about the many errors made by our road engineers, I thought it would be interesting to hear suggestions for improvement.

I'll start with this;

Driving from the City along Hyde road you will come to a set of traffic lights on the junction with Carey's road, see map. http://maps.google.ie/maps?hl=en&tab=wl.
http://maps.google.ie/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=limerick&sll=53.401034,-8.307638&sspn=8.259853,19.753418&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Limerick,+County+Limerick&ll=52.657292,-8.624547&spn=0.00205,0.004823&z=18

http://maps.google.ie/maps?hl=en&tab=wl

Most traffic from the city is turning left. A green light for turning left could be fitted to allow traffic to turn left while traffic is coming down from Carey's road.
Simple, cheap but I think very effective.

kilburn

Very true, simple and effective. Make Henry Street 2 way again.

Conor Bourke

Trust me, Limerick does not have traffic problems like Galway. I do not miss it one teeny tiny bit.

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056031682

Poxyshamrock

Have a bus service from Raheen to Castletroy

Jofspring

Fix the timing of traffic lights all around the city. Most are awful, 15 seconds for one side of the road and 2 minutes for the other. I agree with the idea of a filter up Careys Road, but the only thing about it though is there is a filter like this if you are turning from Shelbourne road left onto the Ennis Rd to head towards town and 9 times out of ten the front car or a few cars are not turning left so hold up any cars behind them that are turning left, which defeats its purpose and can be frustrating for the cars behind. There are a lot of roads that sensors could be installed at lights also. Very annoying sitting at a red light and no traffic coming from any other direction yet they have a green.

Amazotheamazing

Jofspring wrote: »

Fix the timing of traffic lights all around the city. Most are awful, 15 seconds for one side of the road and 2 minutes for the other. I agree with the idea of a filter up Careys Road, but the only thing about it though is there is a filter like this if you are turning from Shelbourne road left onto the Ennis Rd to head towards town and 9 times out of ten the front car or a few cars are not turning left so hold up any cars behind them that are turning left, which defeats its purpose and can be frustrating for the cars behind. There are a lot of roads that sensors could be installed at lights also. Very annoying sitting at a red light and no traffic coming from any other direction yet they have a green.

The Ennis road/Union Cross one has been changed. The two minor roads now have "turns" to go.

phill106

Monorail



/ends thread

bullets

a LART would be nice.
Rumors for years about one going from Patrickswell to the City.
~B

Berty

The lights at the junction of Clare Street / Park Road / Pennywell road are a nuisance but I only e-mailed LCC yestrerday about them.

They are going red at Park Road Junction and then a few seconds later red on Clare Street. So, as some cars still pour through from the Clare Street side Pennywell can only filter through 2-3 cars with the rest managing to block the yellow box.

Also,

Punches Cross coming from the Rosbrien Road. I have timed them and they are giving 5 seconds to traffic which is madness.

It should be at least 20 seconds because it you are ever approaching from Prospect Hill then you are doomed because people on the Rosbrien road do not want to let you out knowing they only have a few seconds themselves and its only gotten worse since the rat run is coming through Greenfields now.

mgbgt1978

I remember a couple of years ago when the short-cut through the petrol station at Punches Cross was closed.
A couple of days later I spotted Rory McDermott (the city council traffic engineer....95% sure that's his name) having a good look at the scene at 8am.
Haven't seen him near the place since...they mustn't have covered that particular problem in Traffic-Engineering College.:D

talkingclock

phill106 wrote: »

Monorail

or

http://boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=67779453&postcount=2

h3000

Berty wrote: »

The lights at the junction of Clare Street / Park Road / Pennywell road are a nuisance but I only e-mailed LCC yestrerday about them.

They are going red at Park Road Junction and then a few seconds later red on Clare Street. So, as some cars still pour through from the Clare Street side Pennywell can only filter through 2-3 cars with the rest managing to block the yellow box.

This really bugs me. It has to be one of the most stupid sequence of traffic lights I have seen. The other way round would work so much better (Red at Clare st/Pennywell 10ish seconds later Red at Park Rd/Dublin Rd). At least you would be able to get out of Pennywell side.


That's if people bother obeying the lights in the first place, every junction I come to lately at least two cars go through the red light.

steveon

Take away the newly establish bus lanes, waste of time get rid of the wide footpaths that are of no use...put a sensor at every light junction...therefore they can change quicker and when there needed..This was promised years ago but still hasn't materialized..

Roxboro road is now a disaster, because of the new orbital route, there is nowhere to park or drop-off kids. In the first week of its introduction there was traffic wardens everywhere they are nowhere to be seen now., Hyde road now a disaster because of newly established lights, the residents of Weston were forgotten about as they can no longer get out of there estate from the backlog of traffic here..

Limerick roads are now a joke....you cant go five meters without a newly established set of lights., which of course can all be turned off when their is a munster game going on....then the pedestrians are left fend for themselves.

They should never be turned off unless there is an accident or late at night when there is hardly a need for them at all. This would also drop running costs in my opinion. When people in the city realize all the government want is for people to use the Tunnel to further enhance their coffers.

I say boycott it and it wont be long before they drop the price of it...

Cheaper toll...more users..more users more money to be made so its ridiculous charging the money they do..

kenoconnell

phill106 wrote: »

Monorail



/ends thread

Would only work with stops at every house!!!

phill106

kenoconnell wrote: »

Would only work with stops at every house!!!

ah sure every third house would do. I'd walk 2 houses away to get a monorail!

phog

It's not all down to traffic lights and raod layouts, some of the traffic back logs are down to poor driving. Teach everyone to obey the rules of the road, be curteous to other road users. On narrow junctions, let oncoming traffic turn right to allow their traffic continue to flow freely. Stop blocking junctions and roundabouts.

zuroph

Limericks traffic is fine.
A controversial view. But true. If you think there is any problem with Limerick's traffic, you have never been out of the city.

Berty

This thread, however, is a thread to "improve" Limerick traffic.

We do have it easier than other cities, however, there is still much more for improvement.

zuroph

cars laser aligned to the road, and connected to a mainframe server to reduce any chance of accidents, or drivers messing up traffic flow.


but seriously;

Put a floodlight on either side of the pedestrian crossing on clare street outside the Art College so you can actually see at night if there is anyone there, its lethal at the moment!!

phill106

make pedestrian crossing lights only flash when people are standing there?
Not limerick specific though, but something i think could work!

talkingclock

phill106 wrote: »

make pedestrian crossing lights only flash when people are standing there?

Why? Nobody is obeying them anyway...

limklad

I just read in the Limerick Leader that the City is getting rid of the roundabout at the shannon Bridge/Dock Road to add a troublesome Traffic lights. At Thread started here about it.
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056032734

Personally I got fed up with city traffic.

All I can say is it the city method of choking the business out of the city along with the country highest Rates. The city traffic planners will win the prize for the best Traffic management in the country :rolleyes:

testicle

zuroph wrote: »

Put a floodlight on either side of the pedestrian crossing on clare street outside the Art College so you can actually see at night if there is anyone there, its lethal at the moment!!

+1

There have ben several people killed there over the years!

steveon

They were talking about the pedestrian crossing there a few weeks ago in the Limerick post, solution to it...add another one further up the road at where pennywell road meets clare street...

zuroph

two lightbulbs would solve it.

steveon

I totally agree with you Zuroph that lights would solve the problem at this particular crossing but tell the idiots we have running the city...

Their solution to everything is add another set of lights here and there causing non stop problems...

In the last 3days they have switched off the traffic lights at the junction of Careys road and Hyde road, result no traffic jams...and not 1 accident..

I beleive they have done this on purpose as they know there would be huge backlogs of traffic here as a result of their silly policys.

CrazyChick18

I know this would never happen but anyways...

remove half off the traffic lights outside the city centre over the munster match on the other night they were all off and every bit of traffic seemed to be moving a really good pace.

Sensors def needed at lights juntion at union cross i be at it 6 o clock in the morning going to work and have to wait for about 3 or 4 mins for lights to change and no othertraffic at either sides :mad:

yammagamma

traffic lights during big matches in city. turning traffic lights flashing red and amber is as far as i can tell against road traffic law.and god help some1 if they drive through the flashing red and kill some1. only place in road traffic law where there is meant to be flashing red is a automatic level crossing and you must stop and not drive through a flashing red.. the flashing red and amber lights crept in from cork where they used to do this about a year before they started it here..it is against road traffic law to drive through a flashing red light.. it used to be a question often in a driving test where do you see a flashing red light...:mad:

shg101

zuroph wrote: »

Limericks traffic is fine.
A controversial view. But true. If you think there is any problem with Limerick's traffic, you have never been out of the city.

I have driven in cities in the US (Boston, San Francisco, Sunnyvale, San Jose etc etc), Europe (Brussels, Paris, Barcelona) and Asia (Taipei, Hong Kong IIRC). Limerick traffic is NOT a disaster, but not fine IMO.


This evening for example is took me an extra 25 mins to go from Raheen to Corbally because the morons in the Corporation have installed traffic lights just off the Shannon bridge that backed traffic on the Dock all the way out to Raheen, and I'm sure in the city as well.

Amazotheamazing

shg101 wrote: »

I have driven in cities in the US (Boston, San Francisco, Sunnyvale, San Jose etc etc), Europe (Brussels, Paris, Barcelona) and Asia (Taipei, Hong Kong IIRC). Limerick traffic is NOT a disaster, but not fine IMO.


This evening for example is took me an extra 25 mins to go from Raheen to Corbally because the morons in the Corporation have installed traffic lights just off the Shannon bridge that backed traffic on the Dock all the way out to Raheen, and I'm sure in the city as well.

Why would the outbound lane on the Condell road be closed? You can't turn right from the T junction so there's no need to stop traffic.

Will be interesting to see how it goes.

shg101

Amazotheamazing wrote: »

Why would the outbound lane on the Condell road be closed? You can't turn right from the T junction so there's no need to stop traffic.

Will be interesting to see how it goes.

Are they allowing right turns now maybe from the side road?

Anyway, what I have seen happen is that cars wanting to turn right after the bridge (up by Seletians) are backing up and blocking the crossing over the bridge so even if the outbound lane was never closed the road still gets blocked.

phill106

shg101 wrote: »

I have driven in cities in the US (Boston, San Francisco, Sunnyvale, San Jose etc etc), Europe (Brussels, Paris, Barcelona) and Asia (Taipei, Hong Kong IIRC). Limerick traffic is NOT a disaster, but not fine IMO.


This evening for example is took me an extra 25 mins to go from Raheen to Corbally because the morons in the Corporation have installed traffic lights just off the Shannon bridge that backed traffic on the Dock all the way out to Raheen, and I'm sure in the city as well.

Was headin down shannon street, saw the bridge and turned off. Traffic from the roundabout out over the bridge as far as i can see.
Well done with the traffic lights lads.

Builderfromhell

Was driving into town from salesians over the bridge at Condell road and traffic seemed to be stopping on the bridge all the way back to where there is only one lane. This means that until the lights go green to allow cars drive towards salesians cars heading out he Condell road are not able to move.
It's hard to believe this was not planned for.

thesimpsons

looks like what we gained time wise from the tunnel relieving traffic has now just been wiped out this morning by these new lights. Added 15 minutes extra this morning to commute. So when they remove the roundabout at end of bridge it'll probably add another 10 minutes :eek:. and daytime traffic was just becomming pleasant :mad:

shg101

thesimpsons wrote: »

looks like what we gained time wise from the tunnel relieving traffic has now just been wiped out this morning by these new lights. Added 15 minutes extra this morning to commute. So when they remove the roundabout at end of bridge it'll probably add another 10 minutes :eek:. and daytime traffic was just becomming pleasant :mad:

Yes, passed the car park that is (once again) the Dock Road this morning on my way out to Raheen. I pity those guys. They had 3 WEEKS to enjoy the benefit of the tunnel. Traffic backed up to the roundabout beside Fr Russell Road at 8:30AM.

I actually had the 'benefit' of the traffic lights this morning as I come in by Salesians. The problem now is that since the lights only come on every 3 minutes, people are much less inclined to let people in side roads join in, instead they want to make the lights. So more problems....


And what are AA Roadwatch saying?

*LIMERICK* Limerick city traffic is busy on the Dock Rd and Ennis Rd and it's unusually heavy on the Dublin Rd outbound.

Idiots.

Itsdacraic

F**kin Hell.
The muppets have done it again.
Total gridlock on the Dock Road this morning.

shg101

Itsdacraic wrote: »

F**kin Hell.
The muppets have done it again.
Total gridlock on the Dock Road this morning.

Stopping the outbound lane to allow traffic turn right off Salesians is a decision of epic stupidity.

I'm going to ring them this morning and see what they say. Is this the number?

Contact

Roads Department (Maintenance, Safety Traffic and Public Lighting)

Phone: (061) 407229
Fax: (061) 418345
email: engineer@limerickcity.ie

Twin-go

Took me 10 mins to exit from the tunnel slip road onto the Dock rd (coming from Shannon) this morning.
The roundabout had 2 lanes of traffic coming from the cement factory going onto the single lane Dock rd. It was extreamly difficult to get into the traffic as it was moving slowly but not coming to a stop.
The Dock rd seem to be under more pressure now that it has most of the N20 traffic going to the city and traffic from the N7 to the city and those avoiding the toll.

shg101

Twin-go wrote: »

Took me 10 mins to exit from the tunnel slip road onto the Dock rd (coming from Shannon) this morning.
The roundabout had 2 lanes of traffic coming from the cement factory going onto the single lane Dock rd. It was extreamly difficult to get into the traffic as it was moving slowly but not coming to a stop.
The Dock rd seem to be under more pressure now that it has most of the N20 traffic going to the city and traffic from the N7 to the city and those avoiding the toll.

Only difference between this morning and yesterday are the new lights. Otherwise Dock Road was under less pressure inbound into the city because of the Tunnel.

I saw the traffic backing up the slip roads all right.

bazz26

It's obviouse that not enough city commuters are using the tolled tunnel as antisipated so they are making it less convenient to avoid it now.

I witnessed similar on Saturday evening when the Munster match was being played. Seen alot of the traffic coming from the Tipperary/Cork direction getting off at the Dock Road despite the neon signs on the D/C promoting to use the tunnel.

highlydebased

bazz26 wrote: »

It's obviouse that not enough city commuters are using the tolled tunnel as antisipated so they are making it less convenient to avoid it now.

I witnessed similar on Saturday evening when the Munster match was being played. Seen alot of the traffic coming from the Tipperary/Cork direction getting off at the Dock Road despite the neon signs on the D/C promoting to use the tunnel.

Even if they were using the tunnel, they'd have to enter the city from the dock road side which was backed up this morning

phill106

Congratulations city councillors, you have officially broken limerick traffic.
I come from shannon via the tunnel. Generally the exit onto the dockroad where the cement factory is always empty, one or 2 cars max on the roundabout.
This morning?



Took about 5 minutes to exit onto the roundabout. Taking the second exit, I was obviously driving so could not take another pic, but the people exiting the motorway from just before 2nd exit of the roundabout was backed up all the way up the slipway.

From 2nd exit on towards quinns cross roundabout, backed up the whole way.


If they wanted to stop the traffic, why not just lie down on the road and stop it, rather then going through the expense of traffic lights!

Itsdacraic

Apparently the city council have just called an emergency meeting of their planning department to discuss this fiasco.

I got this picture of them as they cycled into city hall to avoid the traffic:

shg101

AA Roadwatch finally on the ball:

LIMERICK* Slow inbound on the Raheen Rd, otherwise no major delays reported. * New traffic lights were switched on at the Condell Rd/SCR Jct this morning. There were long delays on the Dock and Condell Rds due to a problem with the sequence. Limerick city council do not expect major delays for evening commuters as the sequence is being rectified.

BobTheBeat

shg101 wrote: »

AA Roadwatch finally on the ball:

LIMERICK* Slow inbound on the Raheen Rd, otherwise no major delays reported. * New traffic lights were switched on at the Condell Rd/SCR Jct this morning. There were long delays on the Dock and Condell Rds due to a problem with the sequence. Limerick city council do not expect major delays for evening commuters as the sequence is being rectified.

I fail to see how theyre going to rectify the sequence well enough, to allow traffic to smoothly flow from the shannon side of the lights.

This city is fckud

phill106

Muppets joe! Muppets!
I mailed info and engineer@limerickcity.ie the pics from this morning.

BobTheBeat

phill106 wrote: »

Muppets joe! Muppets!

Agreed! Off topic I know, but Im giving serious consideration to using the tunnel on a daily basis (I travel from shannon direction as well). Can I ask what tag you are using? Looking at the tolltag.ie lease option and it looks ok.

phill106

bobmeaney wrote: »

Agreed! Off topic I know, but Im giving serious consideration to using the tunnel on a daily basis (I travel from shannon direction as well). Can I ask what tag you are using? Looking at the tolltag.ie lease option and it looks ok.

Old fashioned money! I keep firing all my non-copper money into cup holder and use that. must look at the tags, but if there is a charge I dont think i would bother. At the moment, the maximum i ever see car wise in front of me is 2 cars, and more often then not there is no cars in front of me, particularly the exact change only unmanned booths.
Slow down, fire it in, off you go in less then 20 seconds.

Twin-go

bobmeaney wrote: »

Agreed! Off topic I know, but Im giving serious consideration to using the tunnel on a daily basis (I travel from shannon direction as well). Can I ask what tag you are using? Looking at the tolltag.ie lease option and it looks ok.

Hey Bob,
I have Tolltag.ie tag and its great. Express lane it worth the €1.21 extra per month rental alone. No stopping, no searching for change, no getting stuck behind people dropping a €5 note into the basket and wondering why screen still asking for €1.80 (seen it happen).

If you use the tunnel daily well worth it.

Phil,
If you're working in Raheen it may be worth staying on the N7 and exiting onto the M20 should be no conjestion but will be a little further to travel. I'm going to try this tomorrow see how it goes time wise.

thesimpsons

bazz26 wrote: »

It's obviouse that not enough city commuters are using the tolled tunnel as antisipated so they are making it less convenient to avoid it now.

anyone working in city centre area from alot of parts of the suburbs cannot use the tunnel but we were enjoying the benefits of others using it to bypass the city. Far as I can tell there are plenty using the tunnel roads and the toll booth operators confirm that they are quite busy. They are really trying to p*ss off everyone else though. Traffic today was worse than in the old days as we could all see how pointless it all way, now you've got a lovely tunnel and can't even get on to it. Did anyone even see any engineers observing the new lights to see how they were working. Even at 9.30 this morning, there was still major traffic on Condel Road while the rest of the city was free. Stopped at the lights for a full cycle while there was no traffic from down Salesians hill.

phill106

Twin-go wrote: »

Phil,
If you're working in Raheen it may be worth staying on the N7 and exiting onto the M20 should be no conjestion but will be a little further to travel. I'm going to try this tomorrow see how it goes time wise.

Just off the quinns cross roundabout. I dont think that would save me anytime somehow.