No Garda Traffic Corps Under Resourcing on N4 !!!

2011abc

Sunday- Garda van at Liffey Valley city bound .Squadcar with handheld and some poor 'client' pulled in under a kilometre later near Esso .
Monday - Same van in its hidey hole on stretch between Foxhunter and 'Superquinn' 'crossroads'

They must be making a fortune .More than self financing at this stage .Hard pressed to think of safer roads .

Mycroft H

2011abc wrote: »

Sunday- Garda van at Liffey Valley city bound .Squadcar with handheld and some poor 'client' pulled in under a kilometre later near Esso .
Monday - Same van in its hides hole on stretch between Foxhunter and 'Superquinn' 'crossroads'

They must be making a fortune .More than self financing at this stage .Hard pressed to think of safer roads .

They're always there. Its one of the spots where the 80km/h limit is justified. It can be a busy road at times and lots of exits with short on/off ramps.

Eric Cartman

Only ever on the straight, flat well lit bits there , that road is so overpoliced youd be mad to speed on it.

A fine example of where different labe soeed limits would work, 80 is fine for the left but the middle and right hand lanes could safely be 120

Susie564

They were up at the Ballyfermot walk-over, citybound on Sunday evening at about 8pm too. I live locally so use the N4 a lot. It must be the most speed trapped road in the country!

coylemj

It's called shooting fish in a barrel. On the southside the equivalent spot is the underpass on the N11 at UCD, inbound traffic is a sitting duck for a speed trap at the top of the hill. The speed limit is set by the pen pushers in Dun Laoghaire co. co. and is 60 kph for a stretch of dual-carriageway with three lanes each side.

Less frequently they locate a speed gun at the bus stop beyond the Montrose to catch outbound traffic coming out of the dip.

ba_barabus

coylemj wrote: »

Less frequently they locate a speed gun at the bus stop beyond the Montrose

They had the Van located under the 100km/h sign outbound at the Newlands cross road works. I, along with everybody else on the road, was doing 80 as we headed southbound after the lights. I'm assuming I have a letter in the post. Seemed a bit unfair really as it was at the sign signalling the end of the roadworks. Surely having the van in the middle of the roadworks would be better and improve safety. Oh well

Reg'stoy

coylemj wrote: »

It's called shooting fish in a barrel.

Not at the Liffey Valley entrance/exits either city bound or outbound. Traffic joining from the Liffey valley looking to cross over for the M50 southbound have to cross over three lanes in a very short distance, limits in place here are totally justified. Opposite side which I use every day can be dodgy too, joining from the M50 and looking to exit at Liffey Valley means trying to move across traffic merging from the M50 northbound.

Don't want to get into a whole speed limit debate but sometimes some are obviously correct and enforcement needed.

GTE

Once you pass Liffey Valley, its a very over policed road.

The argument that the 80kph is justified is only correct for a couple of parts of the stretch between the m50 and m4. 100 with cop on from drivers would be a lot better.

The van placement by the new Lucian junction is definitely a fish in a barrel situation.

HandsomeDan

The 80 limit on road is broken by pretty much every car on it. 120 in the right always. Seen the trap. Was pretty sure I was caught a few time but no letter arrived...

In all fairness the van is always visible for hundreds of metres with the exception of the location eastbound after the Lucan/Adamstown exit. If you got caught you were not paying attention and/or drove too fast for the conditions.

Indricotherium

coylemj wrote: »

It's called shooting fish in a barrel. On the southside the equivalent spot is the underpass on the N11 at UCD, inbound traffic is a sitting duck for a speed trap at the top of the hill. The speed limit is set by the pen pushers in Dun Laoghaire co. co. and is 60 kph for a stretch of dual-carriageway with three lanes each side.

Less frequently they locate a speed gun at the bus stop beyond the Montrose to catch outbound traffic coming out of the dip.

Cars coming from liffey valley and going south on the M50 have to cross 4 lanes in 100 meters there.

60km limit more than justified.

Jesus.

Reg'stoy wrote: »

Don't want to get into a whole speed limit debate but sometimes some are obviously correct and enforcement needed.

The limit may well be reasonable but why do they enforce it there so often compared to more dangerous places but with less traffic?

There's plenty of money to be made where they are would be my guess.

Eric Cartman

Indricotherium wrote: »

Cars coming from liffey valley and going south on the M50 have to cross 4 lanes in 100 meters there.

60km limit more than justified.

That junction was poorly designed and while 60 may be appropriate for that specific section , 100-120 would be acceptable for the rest

GTE

Eric Cartman wrote: »

That junction was poorly designed and while 60 may be appropriate for that specific section , 100-120 would be acceptable for the rest

That is the crux of the matter. There is much more to the stretch of road than the M50 junction.

60 kph for what is the "end of the road" (N4) as such heading eastbound over M50 with joining traffic etc. is fine and should be enforced unless a better way to do that junction can be organised because it can get a bit hairy.

Anything westbound after the M50 junction is fish in a barrel unless drivers who are taking the piss are the ones getting caught. For me, that is 100kph or more. Maybe 110 if there is no traffic, but that is more appropriate to a variable speed limit being set up.

Indricotherium

bbk wrote: »

Anything westbound after the M50 junction is fish in a barrel unless drivers who are taking the piss are the ones getting caught. For me, that is 100kph or more. Maybe 110 if there is no traffic, but that is more appropriate to a variable speed limit being set up.

Variable speed limit yes that would be ideal. The road is often abandoned at night, and could probably support a much higher limit than 80.

But I drive down that road a lot, at different times of the day, and it's not the middle of the night that I see the van parked there. It's rush hour. Cars close together, diving around lanes, rushing home.

That road is far from motorway quality. There are 3 off ramps on it in the space of 4 km. That's traffic merging an ed leaving the road, getting up to speed crossing lanes, and that's before you get into the mentalness of the way people drive on the road in the rat race home.

Even beyond that though you have 5km at 80km/h ~~ that's Just over four minutes.

If you haven't the patience for that ...... should you be driving a car?

ironclaw

ba_barabus wrote: »

They had the Van located under the 100km/h sign outbound at the Newlands cross road works. I, along with everybody else on the road, was doing 80 as we headed southbound after the lights. I'm assuming I have a letter in the post.

When was that?

nice_guy80

I wish they'd start pulling people on the stretch between Mullingar and Longford town.
I've seen some crazy driving and maneuvers.

blackwhite

nice_guy80 wrote: »

I wish they'd start pulling people on the stretch between Mullingar and Longford town.
I've seen some crazy driving and maneuvers.

Often see a Garda motorcyclist with a speed gun at the top of the hill by the Lough Owel viewing point here

There's also two fairly regular Go-Safe locations on the Dublin side of Ballinalack and on the Sligo side of Rathowen.


That said, some regular patrols looking for dangerous driving (i.e. not just excessive speeds) would be welcome on this road, and on most others too.