Yet another bad crash on the m50.

.jacksparrow.

So just went past what seems another bad crash at the Lucan exit, usual delays etc.

Seems this is a daily occurance, bad drivers or bad layout?

I think Irish people can't grasp how to use motorways, between lanes and merging, the stuff I have seen is crazy.

Something needs to be done.

maniac2000

I honestly don't understand why so many people use the M50 these days especially when most of the time you are sitting in traffic. I was only saying to a friend that I should never have to use first gear on a motorway but that was the re-occurring theme daily on my commute to exit 9. For a week straight about 3 weeks ago I was constantly crawling from ballymun to exit 9. I at first thought ah I must be unlucky but when It happened each morning I changed my commute to a rat run through town and ballyfermot(to avoid naas rd). This rat run actually gets me there quicker than it was taking me to get there via the motorway! also I save 20 quid a week on toll charges!

.jacksparrow.

It has gotten bad lately, it was really good for a while, was getting across it in 20 mins, don't know if its anything to do with the schools been back but its terrible this last while.

Always a crash in the morning and evening.

tin79

It happens every year at this time. Darker mornings, more rain, more cars on the road (students back in college, schools back, less people cycling with the bad weather).

Seems to take a few weeks for people to remember how to drive again then it levels off.

Scortho

.jacksparrow. wrote: »

So just went past what seems another bad crash at the Lucan exit, usual delays etc.

Seems this is a daily occurance, bad drivers or bad layout?

I think Irish people can't grasp how to use motorways, between lanes and merging, the stuff I have seen is crazy.

Something needs to be done.

I think bad drivers.
It might however be a good idea to get rid of the quick merge lane, and instead have a long merging lane, similar to what they have at the rathcoole slip onto the n7

seamus

Most of the M50 has long merge lanes - in fact most of it (most of the western/northern part anyway) has dedicated lanes joining the exits together.

Heavy traffic causes more accidents on motorways because people tend to let their attention wander. It's a vicious circle.

Though as said above, this time of year is typically pretty bad for it because a lot of people have "forgotten" how to drive in bad weather and heavy traffic. It settles down by December.

Scortho

seamus wrote: »

Most of the M50 has long merge lanes - in fact most of it (most of the western/northern part anyway) has dedicated lanes joining the exits together.

Heavy traffic causes more accidents on motorways because people tend to let their attention wander. It's a vicious circle.

Though as said above, this time of year is typically pretty bad for it because a lot of people have "forgotten" how to drive in bad weather and heavy traffic. It settles down by December.

They have long merge lanes but there's also a quick merge lane on a few where you see some idiot trying to join at 60 kmh when the traffics doing 100 kmh.
When I'm merging in the shorter lane, I see what speed the traffic ahead of me is going.
No point racing to 100 km if the traffic is travelling at 60kmh.

superflyninja

This year seems especially bad. In previous years I would typically be a couple of minutes late but now its more like a half hour almost daily. There doesnt even seem to be accidents on the m50 either a lot of the time just massive amounts of heavy slow traffic.dunno whats going on.

sumo12

Bad drivers, no indication when changing lanes, tailgating, speeding, merging incorrectly, lack of observation, using phones, racing/dicing, driving with fog lights on when the sun is shining and it was foggy last week, middle lane hogging, bald tyres, lack of vehicle maintenance.. shall I go on? See it on a daily basis. Only way I see of fixing it is have a compulsory 1 hour driving test covering all types of road situations every 5 years. No insurance or licence if you fail. Gards can't patrol every road every minute of the day, so it is about driver education and training.

BigEejit

superflyninja wrote: »

This year seems especially bad. In previous years I would typically be a couple of minutes late but now its more like a half hour almost daily. There doesnt even seem to be accidents on the m50 either a lot of the time just massive amounts of heavy slow traffic.dunno whats going on.

I took 4.5 hours 2 years ago to drive 60 miles on the M2/M25/M4 around London. No crashes, no road works and no wide loads .... just heavy traffic.

I was watching a program on TV ages ago, and basically an expert (motorway planning) was saying that all it takes is _one_ hesitant/over cautious driver tipping the brakes often to keep a long distance between them and the vehicle in front when the traffic is heavy.
You get people braking a little harder than the over cautious driver and people behind him/her changing lanes causing traffic to slow behind, cars nipping into the large gap in front of the hesitant driver causing the hesitant driver to brake harder to restore the large braking distance etc etc. It can snowball so that a mile behind this happening traffic will be slowing right down and stopping.
It stays that way right until the end of rush hour, long after the driver that caused the problems has left the motorway.

El Horseboxo

Drove on the m50 for a week when in Ireland for the All Ireland football final. Got on J5 around 7.30 and took almost an hour to get through to Newlands cross. So different from how I would have last drove on it. Traffic was far more heavier for that time.

Don't get why people stay in outside lane till a few hundred meters before their exit and then block and slow down traffic trying to cross over 3 lanes. I was overtaking and a car came to a complete stop in the outside lane to get back across to take the J6 exit.

I also noticed that when traffic was backed up and you're crawling in 1st. That everyone rushes to get into the lane that appears to start moving quicker. Naturally that then slows that lane down while the ones they just left picks up. Repeat the pattern and nobody gets anywhere.

Nightmare commute. I'll never complain about my one here in the US again.

The fact that you answer a few questions in a theory test, do a few lessons and then do a driving test around a quiet suburb at 11am and are now a full licensed driver ready to take on a 3 lane motorway is crazy.

I think its only people who have an interest even slight in driving take the time to consider how driving on a motor way should be done. The rest are just happy to sit in a lane or skip into whichever lane is going fastest at any given time with no forethought into what exit they will take and the best position to be in.

Also the fact that the M50 is concave in shape with the busiest exits where it is most curved southbound means their is also a natural slowing down from Ballymount to the westlink bridge where the exits are closest together.

rubberdiddies

I travel the M50 a few times a week but always after 9am. Journey times from J4 to J9 is about 15 minutes or so.

Today for the first time in a few years I had the misfortune to find myself on the M50 at 8am travelling southbound.
Took 1 hour to get to J9.
Is this normal these days?

On the way back I also passed the accident northbound at the Lucan sliproad. It looked pretty bad. Hope everyone involved is ok

pippip

All the bad driving techniques etc can cause some delays and as the op described probably caused the crash in this case.

However you will always have bad delays on a motorway when traffic is backing up off the slips. There is no way around it and no amount of perfect driving will prevent delays in that scenario with high volumes needing to travel the road at a particular time.

arleitiss

The amount of times I've seen idiots (literally) using the right lane yet going even slower than left lane, it's really annoying.
I see many people flash lights or beep them to move, think it's okay to do?

Also I agree that motorways should only have long merge lanes

Honey-ec

Combination of factors - absolutely appalling driving, capacity too low, exits too close together (700m between Js 9 and 10, absolute madness). Often it's not even a crash that's causing the delays, just a brake-light backlog from people getting overcautious at times of high volume, as someone mentioned above. There's actually a very intersting explanation of that phenomenon here: http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/28/the-freeway-has-no-stoplights-so-why-does-traffic-halt

I definitely think it should be compulsory for learner drivers to have a set number of lessons on upgraded N routes in order to somewhat prepare them for what it's like to drive on a motorway. Merging, lane discipline, exiting - all of these could be covered on such roads.

dedocdude

.jacksparrow. wrote: »

Something needs to be done.

What do u recommend OP?

Another big smash this evening under the bridges southbound at blanch. Currently all lanes closed.

I was traveling northbound and cars in each lane in front of me slammed the brakes for no reason. Nearly another smash caused by rubberneckers.