Conflicting Junctions

MJohnston

I'm going to engage in a bit of road ranting, with no real purpose other than to get it off my chest

I've noticed a number of (long standing) junctions in Dublin city that make basically no sense in terms of priority, or arrangement. I'm wondering if I'm missing a simple explanation for why they haven't ever been adjusted (other than just being purely overlooked). A couple of examples:



This one is at the junction of Leeson and Pembroke streets, where, bizarrely, both marked flows get green lights at the same time. This is extra strange to me because a good amount of the traffic coming from Leeson street tends to head north at Stephen's Green, and most of the traffic from Pembroke Street wants to head west at Stephen's Green, so we have two competing flows meeting at a sharp junction, and then trying to cross over on an already poorly marked street. There are ostensibly two non-bus-lanes here, but no separation marking. How I'd fix it? Probably split these two into separate green light phases, and sort out the markings on that "merge" with the bus lane.



This one is right around the corner from where I live (corner of Western Way and Mountjoy Street), and has very little traffic, but still makes little sense to me. Both flows get a green at the same time, but the slight offset of each street, along with the green lights, really confuse the right of way here. I always presume that Western Way traffic has it, but I've had numerous other vehicles cut out in front of me from St Mary's Place. How I'd fix it? Turn the green light on the St Mary's Place part of the junction into a flashing green, or whatever the "go, but give way" version is.

Andru93

Your not the only on! I've been flicked off in the junction even though I was perfectly in the right.

I think the reason why this setup happens is due to the bus routes that use this junction.
38, 39, 39a etc from Pembrooke street
11, 46a, 145 etc from Leason street upper,

Public transport has a higher priority level than private transport so they just want to get the buses out of there ASAP therefore both lights are always green together.

ardmacha

There is nothing particularly wrong with the Pembroke Street junction, except perhaps the road markings.

MJohnston

ardmacha wrote: »

There is nothing particularly wrong with the Pembroke Street junction, except perhaps the road markings.

Yeah, it'd work a lot better if it was marked and laid out properly, but the main problem is that you get a green light and don't really expect competing traffic flows (especially perpendicular ones) to *also* have a green light (plus you can't see whether they do anyway because their lights aren't visible), so I think a lot of people blaze through there without checking.

Then the way that it's marked out basically suggests there's room for one lane of regular traffic, so everybody gets annoyed.

Maybe I should have called this thread "Annoying Merges" really, I have more...

hmmm

MJohnston wrote: »

Yeah, it'd work a lot better if it was marked and laid out properly, but the main problem is that you get a green light and don't really expect competing traffic flows (especially perpendicular ones) to *also* have a green light (plus you can't see whether they do anyway because their lights aren't visible), so I think a lot of people blaze through there without checking.

I can vouch for that one personally - herself was driving when we came up to that junction and got the shock of our lives as a bus coming from the side kept going through what we (assumed) was a red light. It's a bit mad Ted to have green lights on two sides of a junction.

Sam Russell

MJohnston wrote: »

I'm going to engage in a bit of road ranting, with no real purpose other than to get it off my chest

I've noticed a number of (long standing) junctions in Dublin city that make basically no sense in terms of priority, or arrangement. I'm wondering if I'm missing a simple explanation for why they haven't ever been adjusted (other than just being purely overlooked). A couple of examples:



This one is at the junction of Leeson and Pembroke streets, where, bizarrely, both marked flows get green lights at the same time. This is extra strange to me because a good amount of the traffic coming from Leeson street tends to head north at Stephen's Green, and most of the traffic from Pembroke Street wants to head west at Stephen's Green, so we have two competing flows meeting at a sharp junction, and then trying to cross over on an already poorly marked street. There are ostensibly two non-bus-lanes here, but no separation marking. How I'd fix it? Probably split these two into separate green light phases, and sort out the markings on that "merge" with the bus lane.



This one is right around the corner from where I live (corner of Western Way and Mountjoy Street), and has very little traffic, but still makes little sense to me. Both flows get a green at the same time, but the slight offset of each street, along with the green lights, really confuse the right of way here. I always presume that Western Way traffic has it, but I've had numerous other vehicles cut out in front of me from St Mary's Place. How I'd fix it? Turn the green light on the St Mary's Place part of the junction into a flashing green, or whatever the "go, but give way" version is.

The Leeson St and Pembroke St is made worse by the fact there is a conta-flow buslane and a buslane, and the road narrows as it approaches St Stevens Green, so at the junction there are two traffic lanes and two bus lanes. A few hunded metres, this has narrowed to two bus lanes and one traffic lane, with no merge signs.

vickers209

Junction onto Pearse street from west-land row and Lombard street both get a green light to enter Pearse street at the same time seen many a near miss at this junction.

MJohnston

vickers209 wrote: »

Junction onto Pearse street from west-land row and Lombard street both get a green light to enter Pearse street at the same time seen many a near miss at this junction.

Yes! That was the other big one that I couldn't remember. It's really bizarre.

(side note: you should give the Snipping Tool built into Windows a go - hit Start, type Snipping Tool - it'll let you grab areas of your screen and save them in one go)