North Wall Quay - Samuel Beckett Bridge

Heisenberg.

This post has been deleted.

loyatemu

AFAIK its because they don't want people rat-running thru East Wall to avoid the toll. It was a condition of planning for the bridge.

Chris_5339762

Yeah, the movements allowed are very carefully planned so people dont toll dodge the East Link.

Tefral

Its over the Toll..

I used to live in spencer dock. The solution to this is: if your coming down Northwall quay with the river on your LEFT, turn right just at PWC, at the set of lights by the Luas turn left, go behind the convention centre, go left at the next set of lights and drive straight on over the Beckett bridge.. takes about 2 mins

Heisenberg.

This post has been deleted.

pclive

loving the way the OP just ignored Loyatemus reply re. being a condition of planning and to prevent rat running

Chris_5339762

Its not to prevent rat running in the traditional sense, its solely to protect the private company involved in tolling the east link. Nothing to do with keeping unsuitable roads clear of ratrunners at all.

MJohnston

loyatemu wrote: »

AFAIK its because they don't want people rat-running thru East Wall to avoid the toll. It was a condition of planning for the bridge.

Ironically it seems like the last bit of careful planning they did. The traffic light interaction between Mayor Street and Cardiff Lane is pretty horrible right now and it got even worse once they added the really weird bicycle phase. I could rant forever but basically:
- Nearly impossible to get from John Rogersons Quay onto the bridge at peak times
- Turning right onto bridge from North Wall has a red light filter, meaning you wait even when there's no traffic coming in the opposite direction (I hate anywhere I see these filters)
- Interaction between Mayor Street/Guild Street and N Wall Quay/Guild Street junctions is such that traffic turning right from Mayor Street towards the bridge can be stuck there for several green phases, and there are regularly vehicles blocking the Luas tracks
- The aforementioned 'no left turn' onto the bridge, which is frequently ignored, making it pretty dangerous for pedestrians

I think the only problem they've ever dealt with around here was the "no right turn" from Guild onto Upper Sheriff Street, which was very silly (and I was very glad that they removed).

markpb

Chris_5339762 wrote: »

Its not to prevent rat running in the traditional sense, its solely to protect the private company involved in tolling the east link. Nothing to do with keeping unsuitable roads clear of ratrunners at all.

Background: East Link is now owned by Dublin City - NTR only operate it for them.

In your conspiracy theory, the same that ABP put this restriction in place to protect the states interest in the East Link bridge then turned around and denied permission for the Childrens Hopsital at the Mater after they spent €35m planning to put it there?

This is getting like the Killiney Towers roundabout threads - everyone's a traffic management expert except the people qualified to do it.

Chris_5339762

I'm not a conspiracy theorist, but I dont believe for one minute that the traffic management on Samuel Beckett was anything but designed to stop traffic toll dodging the East Link.

LXFlyer

The main reason was to prevent excessive traffic flows on the roads around the new bridge. They are busy enough as it is without cars avoiding the toll bridge adding to them.

Chris_5339762

So de-toll the East Link then crazy no right turns like there are on Samuel Beckett wont happen.

ongarboy

I thought the no left turn was because if the bridge is already full with stationary traffic, if you were coming from the O2 arena direction of North Wall Quay and were unable to turn left due to the blocked up traffic already on the bridge, you would hold up all the traffic behind you that want to stay on North Wall Quay (going towards Custom House). Due to the Victorian looking bascule drawbridge type steel structure just before this junction, only one lane of traffic can fit at these traffic lights so a separate lane for left turn only could not be facilitated. I'm open to correction on this though.

This probably does also tie in with measures to reduce the amount of traffic using the bridge which residents expressed concern about during the bridge's planning phase.

Sligo Quay

cronin_j wrote: »

Its over the Toll..

I used to live in spencer dock. The solution to this is: if your coming down Northwall quay with the river on your LEFT, turn right just at PWC, at the set of lights by the Luas turn left, go behind the convention centre, go left at the next set of lights and drive straight on over the Beckett bridge.. takes about 2 mins

Thats all very well, but next time you turn right by PWC, just before the junction at the LUAS, there is a ''no left turn'' sign at certain times which every body seems to ignore, not sure if its between times 10.00-12.00, I don't think Spencer Docks residents and business want ''rat runs'' ether, don't get me going on cars driving down Mayor st passing a sign with ''trams only''.
My biggest pet hate in this area is, traffic trying to turn right from Samuel Beckett bridge on to North Wall Quay, when all the have to do is continue on and turn right up Sheriff st which will bring them to the same destination down to the docks and East Wall.
Doing U Turns on Guild st is totally illegal as the motorist has to cross a continuous white line, I could go on and on and on.
The most important thing really, motorists should plan their journey and stick to the rules of the road instead of breaking the rules to suit their situation when they are sitting in a jam.

eirman

cronin_j wrote: »

The solution to this is: if your coming down Northwall quay with the river on your LEFT, turn right just at PWC, at the set of lights by the Luas turn left, go behind the convention centre, go left at the next set of lights and drive straight on over the Beckett bridge.. takes about 2 mins

I don't think this can be done now without violating a 24 hour bus lane.

beauf

eirman wrote: »

I don't think this can be done now without violating a 24 hour bus lane.

Can you elaborate?

HydeRoad

Chris_5339762 wrote: »

So de-toll the East Link then crazy no right turns like there are on Samuel Beckett wont happen.

On the contrary, the East Link thoroughfare is a very busy through route, given the horseshoe shape of Dublin Bay, and the possible channeling of enormous amounts of traffic through here on a north / south trajectory. The only thing that keeps it navigable at all is the presence of a toll. Try removing the toll, and try imagining the traffic jams you would have here, in both directions. I'm no fan of private toll companies, but there is a lesson to be learned here about the capacity for tolls to curtail traffic volumes in areas that just cannot cope with the irrational traffic volumes that are allowed to flood into the city.

Congestion charging has been mooted for years, but nobody seems to have the belly to implement it. The sooner it comes in, the better.

cgcsb

before we have congestion charging we need to have modern public transport as an alternative, otherwise it's just another tax rather than an avoidable charge. In order to have modern public transport, we must have integrated ticketing on a simple zonal basis, without being chastised for changing bus or changing between modes. One we have such a system, I say congestion charge away, crucify the habitual driving commuters.

Riskymove

Chris_5339762 wrote: »

Yeah, the movements allowed are very carefully planned so people dont toll dodge the East Link.

I don't fully get this

couldn't people simply approach the bridge from a different direction to use it and "dodge the toll"

anyone coming up North Wall Quay could have simply taken a slightly different route to the bridge