Traffic counts decreasing? I don't think so!

veryangryman

Quoting myself from another thread here...first sign of madness :pac:

"Traffic decreasing? My ring it is! I have never in my life seen the roads so busy around the midlands and west

Even this morning - 6.30 on the road and hitting decent traffic the whole way from west to midlands on the main roads

Will someone please show me examples of places where traffic is down, because i certainly have not seen it "

Anyway, can some people tell me where they think the Recession has made 1 iota of an impact on traffic counts? Specific places. Im guessing Dublin but that only appears to be the case as the roads have been widened IMO. It is up, way way up anywhere i have been, and i know that there is the usual spike in Sept/Oct due to return to work/school/college but Im pretty sure this is way higher than previous

copacetic

Dublin traffice seems a fair bit busier this autumn that is was the last 2 years.

limklad

Raheen/Dooradoyle Traffic as well has pick up but no where the levels as before. The Limerick Tunnel with the Rosbrien to Dock Road has helped reduced through traffic, which explains why traffic is lighter.
All Dual Carriage way roads M7 & M20 south of the city are busier.

Condell/Dock Road has pick up since the schools open and was a nightmare when the Traffic lights was installed on the Condell road near the Shannon bridge.

brandodub

Very noticeable increase on M3 from Navan too. M50 now generally has all lanes at capacity from exit 9 to exit 5. Heresay says its the same from exit 9 south also.

KevR

Available traffic counts (Jan-Aug) show that the Athlone Bypass has seen 5.6% growth in traffic this year compared to the same period last year.

There was a slight decline on the Athlone Bypass in 2009 compared to 2008 but this was more likely due to the M6 Galway-Ballinasloe tie-in with the Bypass which caused delays resulting in some people taking an alternative route. The decline on the Bypass was not due to the recession and there was probably overall growth in wider Athlone area in 2009.

The imminent upgrade of the Bypass could cause traffic counts on the Bypass itself to fall later this year and next year.

Also, increases on the M6 at Athlone East and Kilbeggan East. NRA still haven't uploaded and traffic counts for the M6 West of Athlone.

Some people argue that the recession has caused traffic to drop because people are out of work and there has been some emigration. My arguement is that many people who owned cars but also paid for monthly or annual commuter tickets on buses/trains gave up their commuter tickets when money started getting tight and instead switched to the car which they are paying for regardless (even if it means getting stuck in some traffic). Many people need a car regardless of having a public transport option available for work and some other things. During the good times they were able to also pay for public transport and beat some of the traffic; it's a luxury some people can no longer afford.

Irish and Proud

I checked some of the NRA traffic stats and yeah, in the twilight zone are traffic levels dropping all over. Yes, roads in the West such as the N18 has shown slight declines, but others such as the M4/M6, M8 and M9 are well up - even on 2007. The N11 is down however - I'd say the M9 is part of the reason for this decline. A to R is around 20k PCUs - down from about 23k but would still well justify at least a standard dual motorway. The M1 is stable, but although no recent stats are available, I'd say the M50 is well up too.

Ignore the ADTT estimates for the moment - I guess they include the sharp drops in traffic for January - of course, this was down to the weather and should be discounted in order to compare like with like. Would love to see some new stats for the M50 - I believe the N7 at Johnstown is around 75k PCUs.

Source: http://nraextra.nra.ie/CurrentTrafficCounterData/index.html

KevR

I would attribute most of the (small) decline of traffic on the N18 to the fact that a huge amount of flights to/from Shannon have been cut.

I used to fly from Shannon regularly a couple of years ago (driving and taking the bus to the airport); I don't use it at all now. City Link initially reduced the frequency of their Galway-Shannon bus service and then they got rid of the service altogether because there wasn't enough people travelling between the two locations after the cuts in flights. There is obviously less people driving between the two locations also.


I'd like to see new traffic counts for the M50 and Lucan Bypass.

Victor

"Traffic expands to fill available road space".

what those figures don't tell you is the composition of the traffic. You would see a huge decline in the amount of construction traffic.

spacetweek

Victor wrote: »

what those figures don't tell you is the composition of the traffic. You would see a huge decline in the amount of construction traffic.

Eh? How could that ever be anything other than a tiny number of vehicles?

Truck traffic has been rising relentlessly over the years as the industry takes advantage of upgraded roads to expand and railway freight goes into terminal decline.

Car traffic will continue to rise relentlessly nationwide as we have a large amount of bungalow blitz and out-of-city dormitary towns, more than many other countries would see.

The unemployment rate has peaked and with road works finished up, we won't see any further drops in traffic. It'll all be upward from now on.

bkehoe

Certainly decreased on a road I'm familiar with anyway, the N25 between New Ross and Waterford. http://nraextra.nra.ie/CurrentTrafficCounterData/html/N25-13B.htm

Compared to 2008, some months have 1000 less cars per day! The M9 opening may reduce this further as less people from Waterford choose to go N25 - N30 - N11 to Dublin.

Cicero

on the news the other day, they spoke about the taxpayers having to pay out millions to the NRA because the traffic volumes passing the tolls weren't what was predicted....however, this is not to say that there isn't growth in traffic volumes- there is...it's just that the rate of growth has slowed since the so called boom years....there is still a small % in new traffic hitting the roads every year..

Tea drinker

purely anecdotal a bit off topic, but I will be in dublin next week and noticed hotels next week are really filling up too. Was in stockholm last week and got the second last key in the hotel. I think business has adapted and the volumes of traffic, hotel guests and airplane passengers are reflecting that.