New speed limit on Chapelizod Bypass

highdef

Noticed the other day that the speed limit on the Chapelizod bypass has been dropped from 80 to 60. It was also completely resurfaced recently and is a pleasure to drive on. They made the bus lane slightly wider so now the buses have a lane that is actually wider than a bus!

Both driving lanes have been very slightly narrowed and it really does not make any difference but have a feeling that someone will say that is the reason for the drop in the limit.

The local roads in my own area are so narrow that in most parts, two cars cannot pass each other yet 80kmh seems to be fine there yet a beautifully smooth road with nicely proportioned lanes, excellent road markings, excellent lighting and no junctions is deemed to be too dangerous for cars to be travelling at 80kmh. :mad:

Banjoxed

highdef wrote: »

Noticed the other day that the speed limit on the Chapelizod bypass has been dropped from 80 to 60. It was also completely resurfaced recently and is a pleasure to drive on. They made the bus lane slightly wider so now the buses have a lane that is actually wider than a bus!

Both driving lanes have been very slightly narrowed and it really does not make any difference but have a feeling that someone will say that is the reason for the drop in the limit.

The local roads in my own area are so narrow that in most parts, two cars cannot pass each other yet 80kmh seems to be fine there yet a beautifully smooth road with nicely proportioned lanes, excellent road markings, excellent lighting and no junctions is deemed to be too dangerous for cars to be travelling at 80kmh. :mad:

60 km/h? Bit mad, Ted.

highdef

Completely agree. I set my cruise control to 80kmh when I use this road (as normally only use the road in the dead of night so no worries using cruise control then) and have no issues. Sometimes drive it during the day as well and again, it is fine at 80 so can't understand why they needed to drop the limit.
The other night (and yesterday around lunchtime), I was by far the slowest car...literally every car was shooting past me.

If speed detection is put in, there are a lot of people who will be getting fines.
Having said that, it would appear that people are driving in autopilot mode and are not looking at the signs, assuming that they have not been changed so it's not really an excuse to say that you didn't notice the number on the speed limit sign had changed - but that's a different argument :rolleyes:

GM228

highdef wrote: »

Noticed the other day that the speed limit on the Chapelizod bypass has been dropped from 80 to 60. It was also completely resurfaced recently and is a pleasure to drive on. They made the bus lane slightly wider so now the buses have a lane that is actually wider than a bus!

Both driving lanes have been very slightly narrowed and it really does not make any difference but have a feeling that someone will say that is the reason for the drop in the limit.

The local roads in my own area are so narrow that in most parts, two cars cannot pass each other yet 80kmh seems to be fine there yet a beautifully smooth road with nicely proportioned lanes, excellent road markings, excellent lighting and no junctions is deemed to be too dangerous for cars to be travelling at 80kmh. :mad:

The speed limit was dropped to 60 when the work was being done, perhaps they simply havn't got around to changing them back?

Even at 80 there were regular speed checks (and manu people caught) so a 60 will catch even more out!

GM228

highdef

The speed limit signs were 80 last week. I was a passenger in a car on the road on Monday and I mentioned to the driver that it's great that they didn't decide to drop the limit because of the tiny narrowing of the driving lanes.

Should have kept my mouth shut!

cgcsb

Most of the boreens around the country with grass growing through the centre of them have an 80km/h limit.

highdef

cgcsb wrote: »

Most of the boreens around the country with grass growing through the centre of them have an 80km/h limit.

I know...I live amongst them, hence my confusion with regards to this new limit

Thinkingaboutit

Gardai and speed vans love those places with unexpectedly low speed limits. Easy prey.

highdef

Easy prey are the same who do not pay attention :-)

Speaking of speed vans, there are no safe areas for them to park or for any vehicles to stop. There are no hard shoulders and the bus lane is 24 hour. I've never seen a speed van on the Chapelizod bypass before so wonder how anyone could be caught, apart from a Garda also travelling along the road?

GM228

highdef wrote: »

Easy prey are the same who do not pay attention :-)

Speaking of speed vans, there are no safe areas for them to park or for any vehicles to stop. There are no hard shoulders and the bus lane is 24 hour. I've never seen a speed van on the Chapelizod bypass before so wonder how anyone could be caught, apart from a Garda also travelling along the road?

Under the footbridge towards Islandbridge is where they usually wait parked in the bus lane and they are there fairly regular!

Got a new BMW a while back and first day I got it got caught there 7km over the limit! (please no BMW jokes!).

GM228

Thinkingaboutit

There are points where a Garda could hold up the old hairdryer, but I'm talking in general about how unexpectedly low speed limits can catch people out badly.

OldMrBrennan83

This post has been deleted.

StreetLight

highdef wrote: »

They made the bus lane slightly wider so now the buses have a lane that is actually wider than a bus!

I hope that's not being seen as a problem.

For years, buses couldn't use the bus lanes there because the bus lane width was EXACTLY the width of a bus, excluding mirrors. It gave absolutely no room for the natural sway of a bus in motion to clear the hedging on the nearside and high-sided vehicles in the general lane on the offside.

I wouldn't expect car drivers to drive in lanes that are EXACTLY the width of a car!

Peppa Pig

highdef wrote: »

Easy prey are the same who do not pay attention :-)

Speaking of speed vans, there are no safe areas for them to park or for any vehicles to stop. There are no hard shoulders and the bus lane is 24 hour. I've never seen a speed van on the Chapelizod bypass before so wonder how anyone could be caught, apart from a Garda also travelling along the road?

I've seen one on the footpath beside the garage near the M50 heading outbound. It's not too far inside the 60km zone.

Patser

Peppa Pig wrote: »

I've seen one on the footpath beside the garage near the M50 heading outbound. It's not too far inside the 60km zone.

Was there last night, common spot for it. But that section has always been 60kmh, a justifiably as it's an exit from a busy petrol station near a bend and close to lights.

It's the wider section that's always been 80 and now has dropped, while the surface has been upgraded, that there's an issue. They've done it cheaply too. Was looking at the limit signs yesterday and noticed they'd just put 6 stickers over the 8 on the previous 80 signs.

Greenmachine

Ridiculously low limit. They have widened the path on the slip road too and put in traffic calming. Regularly ride the bus on along there and rarely see pedestrians along there. I assumed they were putting a cycle lane in, but it has been months and there is no markings.

alentejo

Did the City Council not have to advertise this or did this get discussed at the council?

I did not think county councils could simple change speed limits without consultation.

highdef

alentejo wrote: »

Did the City Council not have to advertise this or did this get discussed at the council?

I did not think county councils could simple change speed limits without consultation.

Yeah, I heard nothing about it at all. Even more interestingly is that it was repeatedly being mentioned on Live Drive on Dublin City FM this evening. The presenter said that the limit will be 60 for the next year as road widening work is about to begin. This statement has made me very confused, not least because they have just finished resurfacing the vast majority of the bypass.

Spanish Eyes

highdef wrote: »

Yeah, I heard nothing about it at all. Even more interestingly is that it was repeatedly being mentioned on Live Drive on Dublin City FM this evening. The presenter said that the limit will be 60 for the next year as road widening work is about to begin. This statement has made me very confused, not least because they have just finished resurfacing the vast majority of the bypass.

That's mad! I wonder where the scope to widen will be though it's quite tight as it is. You just have to look at the bus lanes to see that.

But however, I have to say it's a great road, and in Autumn, the planting and the tree colours are amazing, you'd never think you were only a few kms from the city centre. The view over Chapelizod going West is great (when the leaves are gone admittedly!).

I suppose the lovely planting along the verges will have to be sacrificed somewhat to widen that road. Needs must and all that.

PeteK*

I think it's going to be 60km for one year and back up to 80km after they complete works.

highdef

Anyone see any details of the work that is planned?

uck51js9zml2yt

I came in on the bypass this evening.
I counted 3 speed displays between palmerstown and the bypass in addition to 7 speed signs on the bypass as far as the next set of lights.
No one has an excuse for not knowing the limit on the road.

MGWR

highdef wrote: »

Noticed the other day that the speed limit on the Chapelizod bypass has been dropped from 80 to 60. It was also completely resurfaced recently and is a pleasure to drive on. They made the bus lane slightly wider so now the buses have a lane that is actually wider than a bus!

Both driving lanes have been very slightly narrowed and it really does not make any difference but have a feeling that someone will say that is the reason for the drop in the limit.

The local roads in my own area are so narrow that in most parts, two cars cannot pass each other yet 80kmh seems to be fine there yet a beautifully smooth road with nicely proportioned lanes, excellent road markings, excellent lighting and no junctions is deemed to be too dangerous for cars to be travelling at 80kmh. :mad:

It really is retrograde for a motorway/dual carriageway to have its speed limit reduced to 37 miles per hour. I suppose that the government wants everyone to be consuming more petrol and emitting more emissions?

Dub_Jim_Royle

Barbara Slow Smart-ass wrote: »

I came in on the bypass this evening.
I counted 3 speed displays between palmerstown and the bypass in addition to 7 speed signs on the bypass as far as the next set of lights.
No one has an excuse for not knowing the limit on the road.

I think the point moreso is the reduced speed limit itself.
Almost as bad as reducing the M50 limit to 100 after all the major improvement works AND a concrete wall between the oncoming traffic.

GM228

MGWR wrote: »

It really is retrograde for a motorway/dual carriageway to have its speed limit reduced to 37 miles per hour.

It's only temporary (for a year apparently for further works?), the speed limit on the bypass must otherwise normally be 80km/h as per DCCs adopted Bye-Laws.

GM228

trellheim

as far as I know It is dropped because of a risk assessment that in order to carry out the works according to best H&S practice.

A couple of points though

at full speed for approx 3.2km of bypass I calculate dropping to 60 from 80 will lose you 36 seconds ... check my math ... but if so is your day planned with that level of certainty where this is a big thing

GM228

trellheim wrote: »

as far as I know It is dropped because of a risk assessment that in order to carry out the works according to best H&S practice.

A couple of points though

at full speed for approx 3.2km of bypass I calculate dropping to 60 from 80 will lose you 36 seconds ... check my math ... but if so is your day planned with that level of certainty where this is a big thing

A lot of people will probably ignore the 60 seeing as how they regularly ignored the 80!

GM228

Mycro

Dub_Jim_Royle wrote: »

I think the point moreso is the reduced speed limit itself.
Almost as bad as reducing the M50 limit to 100 after all the major improvement works AND a concrete wall between the oncoming traffic.

If you consider the near-daily accidents on the M50 that have caused at least 3 >1 hour delays in the last two weeks, the 100km limit on the M50 is not a bad idea. Remember the M50 lanes are narrower than normal motorway lanes too. With all these accidents, I have come to the view that a further reduction to 80km might be warranted on th M50.

Carawaystick

Mycro wrote: »

With all these accidents, I have come to the view that a further reduction to 80km might be warranted on th M50.

What speed were the vehicles involved in accidents on the M50 travelling at before the accidents occurred?

The main thing is that bicycles will now legally be able to travel faster than motor vehicles on the Chapelizod bypass, so no need for skybridges or the like

magicbastarder

legally, bikes are able to travel faster than cars no matter what the road is. speed limits do not apply to bicycles.

the_syco

Mycro wrote: »

If you consider the near-daily accidents on the M50

How many are not near the badly designed off/on ramps?