New Driving Patterns

popebenny16

On Sunday I was shopping away in Thurles and decided that I wanted to go to Rathdowney to check out the designer outlet there. So I drove out onto the M8 at Horse and Jockey and went down to Rathdowney Junction (cant recall if it is 2 or 3) and went in that way, as opposed to going through two towns and two villages along the old way.

Afterwards I realised that, had there been no motorway, I would have never even contempated the journey.

From reading the board I have noticed also how many people are now using the motorways to go on journeys they have never taken before, or had done rarely but now more regularly, for example Limerick to Belfast. My example is more local and short, I was wondering if any other posters have similar stories.

Another example is my new found interest in going to nenagh for shopping, as it is now about twenty mins away as opposed to fifty using the loal roads.

ClareVisitor

When I was over for Christmas I went to visit a friend fo mine who said she now goes shopping in Limerick rather than Galway (she lives just over the Galway-Clare border south of Gort) becuase the motorway makes it so much easier to get there. I haven't been to Limerick since the motorway opened, but I would assume the city centre is quieter as much of the through traffic will have been removed.

marmurr1916

I presume you mean the M8?

I think the improved journey times have made a lot of people more willing to travel longer distances and made many people realise just how small Ireland is.

When I was about 11 or 12 we went on a family holiday from Cork to Scotland, taking the ferry from Belfast.

Just getting to the outskirts of Dublin took about 4 hours, then we had to negotiate a maze of back roads to get from the N7 to the N1 (in hindsight my father should have just driven into Dublin).

We got the ferry terminal in Belfast about 9 hours after leaving Cork, about the minimum length of time we could have done the journey in.

Nowadays, that journey would take a maximum of 4.5 hours (with much easier driving), even allowing for heavier traffic.

Amtmann

Most people now do Clonmel to Thurles and Dublin by the N24 and M8 nowadays. People also go to Kilkenny from Cashel and Cahir by Urlingford, whereas before most went via the N24 and N76.

People are driving longer distances more frequently on the M8 in my experience, though I have no figures to back this up. It's just anedotal. Certainly I would countenance a trip up to Tara or Newgrange from Cahir a lot more willingly now than I would have in the past. I can't be the only one.

Aidan1

Here we have a dramatic demonstration of the argument made by the likes of Frank McDonald that constructing motorways actually gives rise to more road movements, and an increase in distances travelled, rather than actually reducing vehicular traffic! Simply put, if you build it, people will use it. It also gives voice to the fact that only about a third of car journeys in Ireland are commuting related, and that a major challenge for policy makers exists around the recreational use of cars.

That said, I wouldn't willingly give up a single km of motorway or DC, not alone have they fundamentally changed intercity motoring in Ireland, they have revolutionalised life in broad swathes of rural Ireland, both in terms of allowing towns and villages some peace from national traffic, and through expanding individual's 'range'.

It's also very interesting (geek alert) to see how the motorways fundamentally alter and reconstitute people's mental maps of the landscape or even their perception of the basic geography of the country - and the effective reordering of existing spatial patterns. This has profound economic, social and human implications. Reductions in travel time for certain destinations means that some towns are now shopping or social destinations for a much broader hinterland than previously was the case (Carlow, Athlone and Clonmel are my favourite examples). Businesses can now trade down corridors at much reduced cost, opening up new markets(or, conversely, giving rise to greater competition). People living in small towns can now much more easily access higher order retail and service functions, bad news for small shops and business.

Even for farmers, the basic geography of the landscape that they may have known for decades is now completely changed - exposed to them in an entirely new way. A trip down the M9 is like a drive through the 1990s for me - I recognise fields and farms that I only ever previously saw from a tractor, but laid out linearly, rather than in the fragmented way previously experienced.

Personally, I think that in time we will come to recognise the construction or the Motorway Network as a social and economic development as important as the construction of railways, or even the introduction of the bicycle.

Mc Love

The only new driving patterns I have noticed are bad ones

DWCommuter

Aidan1 wrote: »

Personally, I think that in time we will come to recognise the construction or the Motorway Network as a social and economic development as important as the construction of railways, or even the introduction of the bicycle.

An excellent point Aidan1 and based on an obvious truth. The only point I will add is that I doubt we need any more time to recognise how much of a contribution the Motorway Network has made. Its happening everyday now. The OPs post is a tiny example of that. As for it being representative of adding additional traffic to the road network, I would deem that normal. Thats what these roads are for. But it won't bring traffic chaos to Rathdowney. The concept of new roads bringing additional traffic is one that has been discussed internationally, but Ireland is unique (in population/road infrastructure terms) and should not be compared to other European nations. Our traffic gridlock and car dependency issues are far more dangerous in our large towns and cities because we have failed to implement efficient road design and public transport facilities. Many of Ireland traffic blackspots are easily solved via proper road design.

JupiterKid

I don't think we have even really begun see the full consequences of the new motorway network. Aidan1 made some excellent points in that the new roads will change people's mental maps and perceptions of place.

The new motorways will open up places like never before and I suspect will be a force for social change in rural and urban Ireland. Ireland seems much smaller given the greatly reduced travel times and will make people realise just how small a country we truly are.

Bards

JupiterKid wrote: »

I don't think we have even really begun see the full consequences of the new motorway network. Aidan1 made some excellent points in that the new roads will change people's mental maps and perceptions of place.

The new motorways will open up places like never before and I suspect will be a force for social change in rural and urban Ireland. Ireland seems much smaller given the greatly reduced travel times and will make people realise just how small a country we truly are.

exactly, why is it that more people seem to commute between carlow and Kilkenny than Kilkenny and Wateford. Was it the state of the old N9 between these two cities vis a vis KK to CW.

I reckon this will change within the next 10 years (Probably sooner) as Waterford has much more of an industrial base than Carlow/Kilkenny and should now attract people from further afield, that will not now mind the commute

Stinicker

I go to Belfast and Northern Ireland at least a few times a year now from Kerry, The M8 and Newry Bypass have made a huge improvement and I went from Kerry to Belfast in 4 hours 50mins last time and if I pushed it up along I would have made Belfast in under 4 hours. I just wish there was a Motorway up the West coast to Donegal and straight up through the Midlands to Derry. .

Aidan1

Ireland seems much smaller given the greatly reduced travel times and will make people realise just how small a country we truly are.

Very true. As a Cork person, one of the very disappointing things about the rest of Ireland is how small everything is (!). In the late 1990s, I could leave East Cork and drive for more than 2 hours to my then girlfriends house in deepest West Cork, nearly 150km and never leaving Cork county. Driving west for 2 hours from Dublin now will put you in Galway city. Coast to coast this is now a very small Island. It illustrates the point that Paul Krugman made about Ireland in the late 1990s; we're too small to be considered as a 'country' in the same economic sense as you would Germany or France. Instead, we're actually just one region in the wider Atlantic/European economy. In turn, the debate about 'balanced regional development' is just a load of arse. The country is one region, development anywhere is good for everywhere.