M50 Southbound in the mornings

Vojera

What has been going on the past few weeks? Admittedly not as bad this morning, but most mornings traffic has been practically stopped from J5 Finglas onwards. I know the schools and colleges are back, so naturally traffic is going to increase, but it wasn't this bad before the summer break, was it?

I don't hear any reports of accidents of breakdowns, it just seems to be sheer volume. Am I going mad or is it worse than before?

MrDerp

I no longer take the route but it was certainly that bad this time last year. I drove the route for 4 years and last year was much worse. However, it always takes a number of weeks to settle down after the summer break. With lighter traffic, everyone's start time starts to creep by up to 10 mins - I certainly found mine did, as I was able to leave the house a little later and still be at my desk at the same time. People take a while to settle into their old routine and bring their start times back to where they need to be at winter time.

The AA were talking about this being the busiest back to school season ever though, and anecdotally that's playing out as everyone I know thinks its worse than ever. Ever since 3 lanes on the M1 were extended to Lissenhall, the M50 SB has been stop-start in the mornings. I'm hoping that Newlands X won't have the same effect on M50 NB when it opens, but I can see more constant (bad) merging onto the M50 NB at least causing slow downs and brake light backlogs

AlekSmart

"Build it,and they will come"....:)

messrs

any chance the roadworks for newland cross would have a knock on effect and causing that back log? or is it to far away to effect it?

Carawaystick

Vojera wrote: »

What has been going on the past few weeks? Admittedly not as bad this morning, but most mornings traffic has been practically stopped from J5 Finglas onwards. I know the schools and colleges are back, so naturally traffic is going to increase, but it wasn't this bad before the summer break, was it?

I don't hear any reports of accidents of breakdowns, it just seems to be sheer volume. Am I going mad or is it worse than before?

It was much worse last September/October, my trip was taking an hour last Sept, only 40 mins this year.

It settled down during and after the school holidays at Halloween last year.

AlekSmart

messrs wrote: »

Any chance the roadworks for newland cross would have a knock on effect and causing that back log? or is it to far away to effect it?

Definitely one of the contributory factors Mssrs.

However one only has to look at the methodology employed on the access to the M50 to get another perspective....It's all well and good adding extra lanes to the M-Road itself,but it appears that none of the worthies had responsibility for the bit's to one side.

Take Junction 10....This road (Bóthar Katherine Tynan) connects two of the largest/busiest Industrial areas in the Country,(Ballymount & Cookstown)and has done for years.

Yet,for the most part it consists of a single-lane carriageway,fiddled with over the years by painting acres of solid bordered hatching,,but still operating in an Egg-Timer fashion particularly around Kingswood Luas Station.

Long before a sod was turned on the M50 Upgrade this stretch of access required urgent and immediate upgrading to,at minimum, Dual Carriageway status.

Nobody appears to look at bigger pictures here,always just the picture on the table !

PS.Another example is the off ramp for Dundrum Town Centre,(J.13) where the actual ramp itself features the Statutory and Informational Signage now half-obliterated by overgrowth which obscures the VERY Important Land Position information to prevent conflict further down at the distributor roundabout.(Left Slip Lane for RATHFARNHAM ONLY !)....

The regular prangs on this roundabout bear testimony to the lack of visibility of the several directional and advisory signs on the approach...;)

My attempts to interest the M50 Concessionaires during recent cleaning operations resulted in a response that the Concessionaires responsibility ended at the M50 Boundary itself,with the off-ramp being the NRA's gig.....:rolleyes: :rolleyes:

hfallada

The economy is recovering, meaning there is more traffic on the road. I have noticed my bus ride taking me 25% longer this year, than last year due to more traffic on the road. I remember when the economy tanked, my bus ride went from 70 mins to less than 15 mins in a few years. The roads were exactly the same, but there was less traffic.


College has minimal impact on traffic as more colleges have little/ no parking for students. Eg Tcd has no parking, ucd has very little now

NufcNavan

Coming off the M3 also goes to crawling pace just after the exit from Clonee right up to Connolly hospital. Was it always this bad?

timetogo

I've noticed it too. I go from Swords -> Sandyford every morning and back again. I only started this route in Jan so I don't know if it was the same last year but it definitely hasn't been this bad earlier this year.
It's pretty crappy on the way back too during the evening. It was always busy but we're frequently stopping now at several points on the way home.

donspeekinglesh

NufcNavan wrote: »

Coming off the M3 also goes to crawling pace just after the exit from Clonee right up to Connolly hospital. Was it always this bad?

It seems to be consistently worse in the last week or two.

omicron

hfallada wrote: »

The economy is recovering, meaning there is more traffic on the road. I have noticed my bus ride taking me 25% longer this year, than last year due to more traffic on the road. I remember when the economy tanked, my bus ride went from 70 mins to less than 15 mins in a few years. The roads were exactly the same, but there was less traffic.


College has minimal impact on traffic as more colleges have little/ no parking for students. Eg Tcd has no parking, ucd has very little now

UCD still has thousands of spaces, the number of people who drive in is actually quite high!

Vojera

I take the M50 from J4 Ballymun to J7 Lucan and before the summer if I was leaving the house at 7:40am I was getting into work for about 8:10/8:15. The past few weeks if I leave at that same time I'm lucky to get into work for 8:30 (obviously I'm going a bit further than J7, but the N4 outbound never seems to have any problems other than the chaos directly after joining it until the Liffey Valley exit). During the summer I was able to stay on the M50 until J9 Red Cow and take fewer back roads to work and still get in on time.

timetogo wrote: »

It's pretty crappy on the way back too during the evening. It was always busy but we're frequently stopping now at several points on the way home.

As for coming home, I was coming home via Newlands Cross/M50 up until last week when again traffic seemed to significantly worsen out of nowhere, so I don't rejoin the M50 northbound anymore until Lucan so I miss that slow patch coming up to that exit, but at the Blanchardstown on-ramp it has gotten a lot worse. Between people panicking and trying to get into the Finglas exit lane straight away and then blocking the people trying to merge from Blanch, it can be crazy!