M50 Ground works near gantries - smart highway?

jlang

Where's the best place to find out about the current works on the M50, which I have assumed are related to eventually using the overhead gantries with boxes over each lane that went in with the widening. Is it for variable speed limits and/or lane closure information or in any way related to the long rumoured advanced tolling system?


They've been working in the hard shoulder for ages, seemingly building paths so you can walk to the gantries from the nearest safe parking place without getting mud on your shoes. Although the IT engineers that will work on the system will probably appreciate not needing work boots, I'm sure there's more to the works than that.

ryanch09

jlang wrote: »

Where's the best place to find out about the current works on the M50, which I have assumed are related to eventually using the overhead gantries with boxes over each lane that went in with the widening. Is it for variable speed limits and/or lane closure information or in any way related to the long rumoured advanced tolling system?


They've been working in the hard shoulder for ages, seemingly building paths so you can walk to the gantries from the nearest safe parking place without getting mud on your shoes. Although the IT engineers that will work on the system will probably appreciate not needing work boots, I'm sure there's more to the works than that.

Most likely variable speed limits, multi-tolling was ruled out by Shane Ross a few months ago: https://www.irishtimes.com/life-and-style/motors/shane-ross-rules-out-multi-tolling-on-m50-to-tackle-congestion-1.3752565

Last Stop

jlang wrote: »

Where's the best place to find out about the current works on the M50, which I have assumed are related to eventually using the overhead gantries with boxes over each lane that went in with the widening. Is it for variable speed limits and/or lane closure information or in any way related to the long rumoured advanced tolling system?


They've been working in the hard shoulder for ages, seemingly building paths so you can walk to the gantries from the nearest safe parking place without getting mud on your shoes. Although the IT engineers that will work on the system will probably appreciate not needing work boots, I'm sure there's more to the works than that.

They are installing ducts from the M50 variable speed limits. They are also as you rightly pointed out installing maintenance lay-bys

serfboard

ryanch09 wrote: »

multi-tolling was ruled out by Shane Ross a few months ago: https://www.irishtimes.com/life-and-style/motors/shane-ross-rules-out-multi-tolling-on-m50-to-tackle-congestion-1.3752565

Good man, Shane Ross.

Shane Ross wrote:

One of the problems on the M50 is accidents. The evidence is quite clear that variable speed limits reduce the number of accidents which is one of the main causes of delays on the M50

So within two sentences accidents go from being "one of the problems", to one of the main problems, but never of course to the main problem which is volume. Later on he says:

Shane Ross wrote:

Our policy is to get people off the M50 by providing good public transport

and as Shane well knows, people are not going to switch to public transport until a) it is provided, and b) they are forced to. In fact he even admits this:

Shane Ross wrote:

The M50 is going to continue to be pretty overcrowded until we get people out of their cars

Providing the carrot of good public transport is not enough, unless you also provide the stick of, as an engineer once said to me, "batin' people out of their cars". And how do you do that? By either restricting car lanes, or pricing them out. The Port Tunnel provides the perfect template of how it can be done. Use the lane at peak - €12 - use it off-peak - €3.

And Shane either doesn't know that, or knows it well but doesn't want to be the one to have to do it. Kick the can down the road until he is out of Transport.

Chris_5339762

Get him out of transport, regardless. One of the most useless Ministers for Transport I've ever known.

Do it after Brexit though, because we need a stable government at the moment, and the current lot are pulling a blinder compared to the lunacy of the British politicians.

Last Stop

serfboard wrote: »

Good man, Shane Ross.

So within two sentences accidents go from being "one of the problems", to one of the main problems, but never of course to the main problem which is volume. Later on he says:

and as Shane well knows, people are not going to switch to public transport until a) it is provided, and b) they are forced to. In fact he even admits this:

Providing the carrot of good public transport is not enough, unless you also provide the stick of, as an engineer once said to me, "batin' people out of their cars". And how do you do that? By either restricting car lanes, or pricing them out. The Port Tunnel provides the perfect template of how it can be done. Use the lane at peak - €12 - use it off-peak - €3.

And Shane either doesn't know that, or knows it well but doesn't want to be the one to have to do it. Kick the can down the road until he is out of Transport.

As much as I don’t like Shane Ross and think he is brutal at his full role as minister (sport as well as transport), you are misinterpreting his quotes here. He said one of the main PROBLEMS on the M50 is accidents which is one of the main CAUSES of delays. That is completely correct.

After that you are talking absolute nonsense because variable speed limits have been proven to increase the capacity of a road as they prevents the accordion effect of stop start traffic.

The solution to the M50 problem long term is to provides a good public transport alternative (e.g. metro west) and alternative routes for cars (e.g. extension of the outer ring road).

I’m not in full agreement with your assessment that we will have to force people out of their cars as public transport in Ireland is extremely well used (too well in the case of the Luas) so if there was some political will to change things, it would be very successful without punishing those who actually need to use the M50.

Dublin is not the basket case everyone likes to make it out to be. I don’t believe it is sprawled as much as people like to believe, the issue is the lack of public transport. If that was fixed, Dublin could potentially have a very efficient system which serves the majority of the city and allows the M50 to return to its role as effectively a bypass.