Suggestions to improve Limerick traffic

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.

um7y1h83ge06nx

It's nuts!

I live in Abbeycourt in Fr. Rusell Rd., Raheen. Normally I head straight into town along Nessan's Road.

This morning I pulled out of the estate and the entire road was full going in the direction of the Crescent.

I had to turn left for the Cement factory and loop around up by the South Court onto Nessan's Road.

Why did they fcuk with things? Normally Limerick traffic is pretty okay/

shg101

Lilyana Rough Satire wrote: »

Why did they fcuk with things? Normally Limerick traffic is pretty okay/

If I made an equivalent change to the production process I am responsible for, DIDN'T CHECK the effect (ie yesterday afternoon), and came in this morning to chaos I'd be lucky to have a job.

These guys can effect thousands of people and doubt if anyone there gives 2 sh*ts about them.

phill106

shg101 wrote: »

If I made an equivalent change to the production process I am responsible for, DIDN'T CHECK the effect (ie yesterday afternoon), and came in this morning to chaos I'd be lucky to have a job.

These guys can effect thousands of people and doubt if anyone there gives 2 sh*ts about them.

just to confirm, it was already bad yesterday afternoon, traffic backed up from condell road to shannon bridge roundabout. Not sure about how bad dock road was as didnt come that way.

Kess73

Interesting to see the figures for the tunnel usage that were released the other day for August.

Many may remember that there was lots of talk before it opened of studies showing that 100,000 vehicles a day would be using it, then 50,000 a day was said, then settling in the 25,000 to 30,000 range for daily usage.


The August figures show an average of 13,500 vehicles a day using it.


There may be a grain of truth in comments made by people of certain changes in the traffic system happening in order to prod people into using the tunnel more often and bringing up the tunnel figures.

Builderfromhell

Limerick traffic engineer's are constantly making major errors and waste huge amounts of tax payers money.
The new traffic lights at Salesians/Condell rd are a classic example. The amount of traffic that will turn right (from salesians heading to shannon) at this junction must be minimal. If I needed to turn right for Shannon or Ennis I would have avoided traffic and kept to the old Ennis rd.

The red light allowing traffic from salesians to turn right is contributing to the tail back all the way along the Dock rd.

phill106

Builderfromhell wrote: »

Limerick traffic engineer's are constantly making major errors and waste huge amounts of tax payers money.
The new traffic lights at Salesians/Condell rd are a classic example. The amount of traffic that will turn right (from salesians heading to shannon) at this junction must be minimal. If I needed to turn right for Shannon or Ennis I would have avoided traffic and kept to the old Ennis rd.

The red light allowing traffic from salesians to turn right is contributing to the tail back all the way along the Dock rd.

Exactly, the only people who would be turning back that way are parents who drove their babies to salesians and happen to live in that estate by clonmacken.
I think the right turn is a terrible idea. Take it out of the equation, see if it helps.

shg101

Builderfromhell wrote: »

Limerick traffic engineer's are constantly making major errors and waste huge amounts of tax payers money.
The new traffic lights at Salesians/Condell rd are a classic example. The amount of traffic that will turn right (from salesians heading to shannon) at this junction must be minimal. If I needed to turn right for Shannon or Ennis I would have avoided traffic and kept to the old Ennis rd.

The red light allowing traffic from salesians to turn right is contributing to the tail back all the way along the Dock rd.

How ironic that a thread about how to improve the traffic comes just before this collosal balls up. Best way to improve the traffic now is to roll back yesterday's changes.

thesimpsons

phill106 wrote: »

just to confirm, it was already bad yesterday afternoon, traffic backed up from condell road to shannon bridge roundabout. Not sure about how bad dock road was as didnt come that way.

lights only turned on at 2.30 yesterday - and the chaos was instant. I would imagine that tunnel traffic would be higher for september compared to August - school and work holidays taking into account for Aug. It certainly seems busier now than earlier in the summer.

whats going to happen when they take away the Shannon bridge aroundabout and put lights there - OMG :eek:

phill106

We may as well all divide by 0.....

Raiser