What do I do on this road Dublin?

actuallylike

Hello all,

Disclaimer: I've been driving for nearly twenty years but this section of the road has me stumped :P. Thought this would be the correct forum for it

It's on the road in the link here, outside of Rathgar in Dublin. As you can see, a new lane starts to appear in the middle of the road and continues as a three lane road for around 200m and fades back into 2. All lanes are separated by broken lines and there are no arrows or indicators on who goes on what lane. No double yellows on either side. There is a bus stop on both sides as far as I know but no indication that any lane is a bus lane. Cars are usually parked on both sides, meaning the only lane completely free is the middle one.

So what's going on? Which direction gets the middle lane? I don't think I'm the only one that's confused as every time I drive on it, everyone's driving a little nervously

Thanks guys

spurious

I wonder are they temporary markings to allow for the presumably large numbers of heavy vehicles accessing that building site?
Using the slider to look at previous Google Streetviews, those building works seem to have been going on years. Are they finished now?

I see mention of the road markings in resident's association dealings with Dublin City Council. I suppose they will have to find some way to let them all out of that estate (I bet they wouldn't like it to be called an estate ).

Alanstrainor

Yeah they are totally bizarre and really Irish. I mean god forbid they follow any kind of standard that motorists will understand, and worse still no signage to show what it's all about.

dennyk

From Street View archives, it appears that lane used to be a hatched area surrounded by broken white lines, back when that new construction was still the old driving test centre. If you look closely you can still see the hatch markings there, just mostly faded and worn off, so it's still a hatched area. Technically, as it's surrounded by broken lines, you should not enter it unless you need to do so in order to clear the through lane while waiting to make a right turn or to navigate around an obstacle in your lane. I don't think either direction would automatically have priority; presumably you'd be expected to use common sense and drive with due consideration there as you would on any very narrow stretch of road with two-way traffic.

Stephen15

Ironically enough that road is on a test route so maybe it's there to catch you out. Perhaps the RSA or previously the DoT requested the council to do it in order to catch test applicants out.

GrumpyMe

When originally painted it was a hatched area leaving one lane in each direction.
Here's more or less the same Google view but from 2009
https://tinyurl.com/ybyomrqs

actuallylike

Thanks for the responses guys. Yeah, it looks like it'a still a hatched area, probably removed to allow access to the site and to allow for parking while construction is going on. The construction is complete now though I think so hopefully they'll update the road markings soon. Might send an email to the council about it. But until then, I'll just hold my breath, close my eyes and put my foot down while going through it :pac: