M50 this morning at standstill.

uck51js9zml2yt

What was going on with the M50 southbound this morning at 8.00?
Traffic in the overtaking lane was at a standstill while the other 2 lanes moved freely.

Georgia Miniature Dreamer

Georgia Miniature Dreamer wrote: »

What was going on with the M50 southbound this morning at 8.00?
Traffic in the overtaking lane was at a standstill while the other 2 lanes moved freely.

Its like that most mornings and evenings, everyone wants to get into "the fast lane" seemingly blind to the driving lane one and two.

dar83

What Cisk said. I joined it at that exact time this morning also and I bailed at the Ballymun exit because everything was starting to stop. By the time I had actually gone down around Ikea and was on the flyover road things were clearing up already and the Northbound lane looked to have a similar issue emerging from the M1 end of things.

It's generally one person braking for no real reason (other than maybe tailgaiting, or someone pushing in in front of them) followed by the next person doing so slightly harder etc... you end up with a complete stop and a jam until it clears, but for no explainable reason. That looks to be what happened this morning.

I'm only surprised it took until October for the M50 to start having these issues again. It's usually the start of September, for obvious reasons...

uck51js9zml2yt

I'm on it again next Thursday at the same time. Interesting to see if it recurs.

traco

Its a mad road, on it most days from when the opened the bridge on day one and really developing a hate for it - at the risk of getting flamed I wonder would dynanmic speed limits help. ie Drop the speed limit to 90 / 80 / 70 / 60kph to suit traffic conditions.

They do this in Germany and in my experience of seeing it the process helps, it stops the flying along and then sudden braking leading to all that accordian effect and would reduce rear endings etc.

Given the length of the road dropping from 100 to 60 wouldn't add a huge amount of time from one end to the other (10 mins) but might make the travel times relaible and predicable. Of course it would only work if enforced and this is Ireland.

It may upset the undertaking brigade but in the evenings i drive in lane 1 from before Ballymount to just before the Palmerstown merge and regularly pass hundreds of cars on a good day. I may have to deal with cars merging onto the M50 at each on ramp but they love to fly into lane 2 or 3 leaving me to continue on my way.

Caliden

cisk wrote: »

It may upset the undertaking brigade but in the evenings i drive in lane 1 from before Ballymount to just before the Palmerstown merge and regularly pass hundreds of cars on a good day. I may have to deal with cars merging onto the M50 at each on ramp but they love to fly into lane 2 or 3 leaving me to continue on my way.

I do the same as you, lanes 2 & 3 go slower during rush hour because some people wait until they actually see the exit before moving to exit.

Only last week I saw an SLK merc come to a complete stop in lane 2 and had to wait for lane 1 to stop before taking exit 12.

Before anyone jumps to conclusions about the driver, he was male and in his mid to late 30's.

C.M_jc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=goVjVVaLe10

As dar83 said. It's quite interesting really.
When looking for the video it seems it's also known as a 'Shockwave Traffic Jam'.

Edit: I misread the post . Thought it was all lanes. It's been said, too many people clogging one lane and probably a bit of Phantom Traffic Jam as well.

ironclaw

cisk wrote: »

Its like that most mornings and evenings, everyone wants to get into "the fast lane" seemingly blind to the driving lane one and two.

This and only this. Often occurs between Tallaght and the N7 northbound.

Also, Ballogan / Carrickmines northbound a completely lack of merging ability is beginning to choke it as people just cannot seem to grasp the fact that the overtaking lane does not need to be jumped into as soon as possible.

Even this morning, I have two people undertake me on the Bray north on-ramp to cut in just before Enniskerry. The saving? 10 cars. I caught them by the M11/M50 merge.

Most mornings I can be in the driving lane, swap to the overtaking and merge back, only to have 100s of metres ahead of me free with all the traffic to my right. Do people not realise you are actually making a road slower by sitting in the over taking lane?

People just have no patience, cop on or driving etiquette in this country.