M50 traffic much heavier recently?

nuttlys

Mikros wrote: »

What they might need to consider in the future if traffic volumes increase on the M50 is the system of "smart motorways" they use in the UK. This basically involves variable speed limits backed up by average speed cameras to ensure a high level of compliance.

The variable speed limit is set lower downstream of traffic congestion to prevent more cars joining the end of the queue. Similarly if there is an incident or collision the response is coordinated and vehicles moved ASAP. At off peak times or when traffic volumes are low the speed limit is set back to the maximum. The whole system is automated based on various sensors and counters.

The result should be traffic that continues to move at a constant lower speed and avoids start / stop traffic. In the case of the M50 the traffic coming down the M1 travelling south bound could be throttled based on the volumes downstream, hopefully improving the situation for everyone. Now that's assuming Irish drivers can learn to merge correctly!

And to be fair the gantrys they have installed on the M50 do look setup to handle variable speed signs (you can notice the square shape over each lane). Problem here is you will need to bring in fixed speed cameras to enforce, which I believe the RSA/NRA/Gardai don't want after seeing UK go OTT on them. That could be overcome though.

That said I do think it's worth a shot if brought in correctly.

So variable speed signs and ramp meters, two great ideas to try before resorting to the lazy option of "more tolls".

I always thought people used the M50 to get somewhere fast (I did anyway), and that if the M50 were forced to turn off the toll when travel times were say 20% or more above normal, then they'd sort the traffic flow out pretty quickly. Nothing has hurt me more than travelling at 5km/h under the toll and hearing the tag beep.

Mikros

nuttlys wrote: »

And to be fair the gantrys they have installed on the M50 do look setup to handle variable speed signs (you can notice the square shape over each lane). Problem here is you will need to bring in fixed speed cameras to enforce, which I believe the RSA/NRA/Gardai don't want after seeing UK go OTT on them. That could be overcome though.

That said I do think it's worth a shot if brought in correctly.

So variable speed signs and ramp meters, two great ideas to try before resorting to the lazy option of "more tolls".

From what I understand variable speed limits are one of the options planned. I agree though that they will have no effect unless backed up by average speed cameras.

The main problem with the M50 was that it was originally intended as a bypass around Dublin. Thanks to the urban sprawl and poor planning that was allowed proliferate in recent years the M50 now acts as an orbital distributor for the city - in other words a lot of people taking short trips because the local road alternative or public transport option is poor or non existent. The idea of spreading the tolls is to discourage people making short non essential trips. That will only really work where there are viable alternatives to the M50.

They reckon in 10 years time (2023) the daily traffic volumes on the M50 will be more than 200,000 vehicles per day - well in excess of the operational capacity. It suggests the problem is going to get a lot worse before it gets better

Chris_5339762

A D3 motorway I don't think can take 200,000 per day. The M25 in the UK AFAIK has never reached 200,000, 'only' 196,000 on the western section near Heathrow.


http://goo.gl/maps/djELE

And that is basically D6.

Edit: If only they'd built the M31, and not dumped a D3 motorway into the center of Bracknell. http://pathetic.org.uk/unbuilt/m31/

spank_inferno

The M50 will always be doomed when 'dodgy' urban planning allowed a couple hundred thousand housing units & several large retail parks along what should be a ring road.

The M50 is Dublins premier retail street.

The next several weeks until the schools break for christmas are going to be hell.

Carawaystick

The traffic in the weeks since the Halloween break has been much better than the two weeks preceding the Halloween break

Sheldons Brain

Is it the case that these traffic counters are in the same place (between N2 and Ballymun Jct)

2012 http://nraextra.nra.ie/CurrentTrafficCounterData/html/M50-22.htm
2013 http://86.47.108.84/c2/calendar_alt.asp?sgid=ZvyVmXU8jBt9PJE$c7UXt6&spid=NRA_000000001501

if that is the case then there seems to have been a huge increase in traffic.
Why would that be so?

sparkthatbled

If i'm reading that right, it has pretty much doubled. :eek:

Best theory put forward so far is the unclogging of the m1 lissenhall bottleneck pushing the clog further down the road, but that wouldn't account for these kind of increases, surely...

Something has to be done about it, just ask the admiral!

ardmacha

Best theory put forward so far is the unclogging of the m1 lissenhall bottleneck pushing the clog further down the road, but that wouldn't account for these kind of increases, surely...

Would unclogging the M1 not just affect the timing of traffic for a few minutes, it shouldn't affect the traffic over the day.

serfboard

sparkthatbled wrote: »

If i'm reading that right, it has pretty much doubled. :eek:

I don't see that. I see 83K in Nov 2011, 83K in Apr 2012 and 133K on certain days in Nov 2013.

An increase of 60% - not doubling but still troubling!

ardmacha wrote: »

Would unclogging the M1 not just affect the timing of traffic for a few minutes, it shouldn't affect the traffic over the day.

Unless unclogging it encourages drivers who were avoiding the M50 (or using public transport) back onto it again?