Blanchardstown shopping centre 1.5million visits this X mas

handlemaster

As title goes it seems the run up to Christmas according to the sunday indo the blach centre will have 1.5million visits. .. There will be lots of traffic jams. .. I guess shop early is the answer.

I Didnt realise there were 180 outlets in Blanch centre ....

OldMrBrennan83

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handlemaster

Patww79 wrote: »

I avoid it like the plague from the middle of November until the middle of January. Thank God for Amazon!

Not shopping local Pat ?

OldMrBrennan83

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e.r

Patww79 wrote: »

With the free for all that is trying to get in or out of a Blanch carpark, not a chance. Most of the shops are big international owned companies so there's not much value to the local bit anyway.

Apart for local staff keeping their jobs.

OldMrBrennan83

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A Shaved Duck?

Patww79 wrote: »

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Traffic isnt helped by the lads manning the roundabouts and their "traffic management". Was over in the centre last wednesday at lunch and was stopped by one of them letting a cars come from the left at a roundabout that wasnt even busy....the mind boggles.

Toto Wolfcastle

Traffic was backed up to the roundabout by Coolmine before 10 this morning. Unless I can get in there first thing or just before they close I don't bother. I picked up any presents I needed to buy there in early November and bought everything else online. (Much cheaper anyway!) It's not worth sitting in traffic and driving around looking for parking, but from the queues of cards I've seen over the last couple of weeks other people don't agree with me.

stargazer 68

A Shaved Duck? wrote: »

Traffic isnt helped by the lads manning the roundabouts and their "traffic management". Was over in the centre last wednesday at lunch and was stopped by one of them letting a cars come from the left at a roundabout that wasnt even busy....the mind boggles.

This!! I was there last week and was stopped at the roundabout for ages - there were absolutely no cars coming from the other roads!!

jeffk

I dunno what is worse

The traffic management
Or
I want the space beside the door

I go the upper level in multistorey or over the far side of carparks. I remember when I had no car, so the walk from car to centre is nothing to my house to the centre

January

Have been down the last two days ordering glasses. Yesterday between 3 and 5 and today between 1 and 2. It's not mental. Busy but not mental. I'd avoid the weekends for sure.

ThisRegard

jeffk wrote: »

I go the upper level in multistorey or over the far side of carparks.

The problem is getting out of that carpark when it's at its worse, you could find yourself queueing from the very top just to get out.

jeffk

ThisRegard wrote:

The problem is getting out of that carpark when it's at its worse, you could find yourself queueing from the very top just to get out.

Very true

Suppose its down to basic manners on the person on the next level to let a car out, repeat etc

dodzy

It's probably the best centre in the country. And it's on our doorstep, pretty much negating the need to travel to the city centre while employing hundreds of locals. Best thing ever to happen to D15. This time of year always promotes a good aul traffic 'moan'.

rolion

what is " X mas " !?

Zaph

rolion wrote: »

what is " X mas " !?

Comes just after W mas and just before Y mas. If you need to know anything else, just holler.

benjamin d

rolion wrote: »

what is " X mas " !?

Xmas is a popular, widely known, and legitimate English alternative to the word Christmas.

Smartarse.

http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2011/12/the-x-in-xmas-doesnt-take-the-christ-out-of-christmas/

uck51js9zml2yt

handlemaster wrote: »

Not shopping local Pat ?

Some of my Amazon deliveries came from Dublin

Zaph

benjamin d wrote: »

Xmas is a popular, widely known, and legitimate English alternative to the word Christmas.

Smartarse.

http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2011/12/the-x-in-xmas-doesnt-take-the-christ-out-of-christmas/

Less of the name-calling please, it's Xmas, which we all know is a time for peace and goodwill to all.

Thanks.

benjamin d

Zaph wrote: »

Less of the name-calling please, it's Xmas, which we all know is a time for peace and goodwill to all.

Thanks.

Sorry, meant no harm

ongarboy

I find the centre itself not a problem as regards the crowds. It's the bloody car parks and the 30 minute queues to get out of the TK Maxx car park at weekends in December that are a nightmare! Saying that, I popped in on last Monday at about 5:30pm and it was fine. It's just the weekends that need to be avoided!

rolion

Thanks for the kind and warm replies.

Now it makes sense why Christmas spirit has dissappear ed and X shopping took over:we are afraid to use the proper name for Christmas.

Enjoy traffic X guys.

December2012

Park near the bank or the spar. Be grand.

uck51js9zml2yt

December2012 wrote: »

Park near the bank or the spar. Be grand.

And instead of turning left down to the Main Road, take a right as far as Power City, take a right and right again down to the top of Blanchardstown Village )comes out at the Chinese!

beauf

dodzy wrote: »

It's probably the best centre in the country. And it's on our doorstep, pretty much negating the need to travel to the city centre while employing hundreds of locals. Best thing ever to happen to D15. This time of year always promotes a good aul traffic 'moan'.

In fairness its normal for it to be bad at weekends, at normal times of the year. So you can't say its just xmas.

The road layout is so poorly designed it can't handle any sort volume of traffic.

Also its not just the shopping times. The whole area around the centre is bad for normal commuting peak aswell. It can't handle that either.

Its a problem for a lot of D.15 poor traffic design, and too much traffic caused by over development.

athtrasna

The key is to head there an hour before closing. Posters in this forum are local enough that if it takes two such trips to complete your shopping it's not that big a hassle. Did it last Saturday and Sunday and had no problem getting good parking or even leaving the car parks. Centre pretty calm too

handlemaster

Any new additional shops in the pipeline for the Blanch centre ?

LostinBlanch

handlemaster wrote: »

Any new additional shops in the popeline for the Blanch centre ?

Not a prayer. Sorry couldn't resist.

ThisRegard

They might have done this since I was last there, but this afternoon I noticed they have put up that stupid no right into and around the centre again.

That car park always worked well because of the pedestrian lights beside it. Lights go red for traffic coming both ways, several cars will get out of that car park because traffic is stopped and away they go out of the centre.

I just don't get the logic at what sort of traffic management scheme they run there at all.

beauf

I was there the other morning and even when traffic was very light. But they had someone stopping traffic on the roundabouts for some bizarre reason causing a queues.

ThisRegard

Yeah, they had a guy at the entrance to the multi story today, he was loading the traffic into that car park to the point that no more cars could get in because I guess they were stopped waiting for cars to either park or come out of a space, but because he was holding traffic back to do so, it was causing queues elsewhere. There's no joined up thinking.

January

ThisRegard wrote: »

They might have done this since I was last there, but this afternoon I noticed they have put up that stupid no left turn upon exit restriction at the car park beside the gym. Hey, you know what will really ease traffic congestion, lets force all cars coming out of that carpark into and around the centre again.

That car park always worked well because of the pedestrian lights beside it. Lights go red for traffic coming both ways, several cars will get out of that car park because traffic is stopped and away they go out of the centre.

I just don't get the logic at what sort of traffic management scheme they run there at all.

Surely having a no right turn sign there would be best? They turn left out of the red car park, go up to the roundabout and back around it if they want to head towards other parts of the centre... It makes more sense than having traffic crossing other traffic.

ThisRegard

It's not the red carpark, it's the one opposite, the one beside the gym with Heatons and Argos over the fence behind it. By forcing you left you have to either go up to the roundabout at KFC and come back, or else do a u-turn at the service yard.

With the traffic lights there for the pedestrian crossing, they turn red regularly for pedestrians so traffic is often stopped so turning right is never a hindrance, the vast majority of people leave the entrance/exit clear for you to turn right towards the roundabout at liberty building. They're as good as having a right turn traffic light for coming out of that carpark. In fact if they thought about this logically, a yellow box there would make much more sense.

It's this exit here, so look at the nonsense you have to do if you want to exit towards Blanchardstown Village or the N3.

https://www.google.ie/maps/place/53%C2%B023'30.0%22N+6%C2%B023'12.4%22W/@53.3916748,-6.3873505,143m/data=!3m2!1e3!4b1!4m2!3m1!1s0x0:0x0

(I realise I put "no left" rather than "no right" in my initial post, I meant no right turn, I corrected that.)

January

Oh I get you now. That's ridiculous given that it's relatively easy to get out of that carpark. It's like they have no clue what they are doing.

A Shaved Duck?

ThisRegard wrote: »

It's not the red carpark, it's the one opposite, the one beside the gym with Heatons and Argos over the fence behind it. By forcing you left you have to either go up to the roundabout at KFC and come back, or else do a u-turn at the service yard.

With the traffic lights there for the pedestrian crossing, they turn red regularly for pedestrians so traffic is often stopped so turning right is never a hindrance, the vast majority of people leave the entrance/exit clear for you to turn right towards the roundabout at liberty building. They're as good as having a right turn traffic light for coming out of that carpark. In fact if they thought about this logically, a yellow box there would make much more sense.

It's this exit here, so look at the nonsense you have to do if you want to exit towards Blanchardstown Village or the N3.

https://www.google.ie/maps/place/53%C2%B023'30.0%22N+6%C2%B023'12.4%22W/@53.3916748,-6.3873505,143m/data=!3m2!1e3!4b1!4m2!3m1!1s0x0:0x0

(I realise I put "no left" rather than "no right" in my initial post, I meant no right turn, I corrected that.)

There is no right turn on that exit...solid white lines and the arrow indicates traffic should be going left. Always been that way but people happily ignore it to suit themselves.

beauf

That car park shouldn't be allow to exit there at all. Why its not an entrance only and exit via the car park behind I have no idea. You can't even walk through to the shops behind. They should have a car park that exits and enters directly from the N3 and that you can't exit that car park into the other roads. Like a park and ride.

At the moment all traffic that is coming from different directions is forced to merge before entering and leaving.

ThisRegard

A Shaved Duck? wrote: »

There is no right turn on that exit...solid white lines and the arrow indicates traffic should be going left. Always been that way but people happily ignore it to suit themselves.

It suits everyone.

beauf wrote: »

That car park shouldn't be allow to exit there at all. Why its not an entrance only and exit via the car park behind I have no idea. You can't even walk through to the shops behind. They should have a car park that exits and enters directly from the N3 and that you can't exit that car park into the other roads. Like a park and ride.

At the moment all traffic that is coming from different directions is forced to merge before entering and leaving.

Why? As I said the exit causes no hindrance to any traffic, it's the best car park over there in terms of ease of exit and entry coming from the N3 side.

There's a reason why there's never queues to get out of it.

A Shaved Duck?

ThisRegard wrote: »

It suits everyone.



Why? As I said the exit causes no hindrance to any traffic, it's the best car park over there in terms of ease of exit and entry coming from the N3 side.

There's a reason why there's never queues to get out of it.

When the traffic is busy you have people illegaly turning left waiting to get into the far lane and they hold up the flow of people coming up towards the multistory. It doesnt suit everyone in fairness.

ThisRegard

Illegally turning left? If you mean right I already explained why it doesn't hold anyone up.

A Shaved Duck?

ThisRegard wrote: »

Illegally turning left? If you mean right I already explained why it doesn't hold anyone up.

Sorry i meant right, it clearly does hold people up and your explanation doesnt really hold up in my opinion as there is a reason for the solid white line and the large painted arrow on the ground.

ThisRegard

Because there's a white line does not necessarily mean it makes logical sense. Is there one outside the gym, which causes more inconvenience? (genuinely question, I can't remember)

If the pedestrian lights are red for traffic how do people turning right inconvenience any traffic that is already stopped?

The exit at the gym, where people aren't forced to turn left, brings people right into traffic queuing at the roundabout, where there isn't always room for them to cross over, so they potentially block traffic coming into the centre.

beauf

ThisRegard wrote: »

It suits everyone.

Why? As I said the exit causes no hindrance to any traffic, it's the best car park over there in terms of ease of exit and entry coming from the N3 side.

There's a reason why there's never queues to get out of it.

The reason is, it jumps to the top of the queue of the traffic coming down past the multi-story. That does indeed backup, even just for commuting traffic. You just don't see it as you skip out in front. If you are in front, some else is behind. There's potentially 5 car parks using that road.

Personally I avoid that side. I think it is queued far more often than the other side. Same with the lights at Snugborough. Really long change time.

beauf

The solution of course is to go as off peak as you can. Which is when its closed.

ThisRegard

You're not skipping anything, you are part of traffic, and have no entitlement to be ahead of anyone. It's that mentality that makes traffic worse, people blocking junctions and refusing to let people in or out because they feel they're skipping.

What about people coming out of the red carpark, the service yard or the gym, by that logic they're also 'skipping'.

I don't think that carpark is closed any more than the others, it operates the same hours.

beauf

ThisRegard wrote: »

You're not skipping anything, you are part of traffic, and have no entitlement to be ahead of anyone. It's that mentality that makes traffic worse, people blocking junctions and refusing to let people in or out because they feel they're skipping.

What about people coming out of the red carpark, the service yard or the gym, by that logic they're also 'skipping'.

I don't think that carpark is closed any more than the others, it operates the same hours.

I meant when the centre is closed, not the car park

Jeezz I wasn't making a moral judgement. Just pointing out that its obvious why its seems " easy to exit and entry as its physically closer to the roundabout that some of the other car parks.

On the flip side its the further-est away if you follow permanent road markings. The both the gym and other red car park actually have markings that seem to allow a turn to the far lane.

I'm not really interested in that car park specifically. I was making a more general point about having so many junctions and exits, that aren't direct to the exit routes is what slows it down. There is no flow.

I think Iffy Alley flows much better.

fletch

Just a suggestion, not sure if it would work. Why not make all traffic flow in a clockwise direction around the centre? Have one way entrances and exits to each car park. Most of the roads are wide enough to fit 3 or 4 lanes so the outside lanes could be used as merging lanes (entering and exiting the car parks) and the middle 1 or 2 lanes could be for driving around. It would remove problems with queues of cars waiting to turn right/breaking no-right turn restrictions.

beauf

The main problem is they have traffic coming up from different directions all crossing each other at the roundabouts. There is no single flow and and out.

chucknorris

A good image from Sunday

https://twitter.com/CllrMcGuinness/status/678673991335354368

Larbre34

Stuff of nightmares.

I did my entire Christmas gift shopping in Blanch on Monday night between 9-10pm, just enough of a crowd in to make a nice atmosphere, not too busy to be frazzled. Ideal.

jeffk

Was there this morning,madness doesn't sum it up

None or very little resonaiblity taken by the management company, stick loads of turn left signs(people ignore) and send lads who haven't a clue out with lollipop stick stop and go signs

Once the €ssss keep coming in let them battle it out to get in and around our shopping center

fletch

Ah it could be worse
http://www.thejournal.ie/frustration-anger-shoppers-stuck-in-traffic-2517202-Dec2015/