Commuting north on M50 - how long?

theLuggage

Hi before the pandemic began, anyone commuting north on the m50 in the morning?

From the Firhouse Junction to the M1 (or near enough to these junctions), about how long would it take going northbound in the morning? And also southbound on the return journey in the evening?

Muppet Man

20 mins to 2 hours.

theLuggage

Muppet Man wrote: »

20 mins to 2 hours.

Care to elaborate for a more helpful answer? Assuming no major disasters or incidents on the m50 I'm wondering how long on average it takes in the morning.

Muppet Man

Depends on:
* what vehicle: car, motorbike, bus, truck or tractor
* your willingness to break the speed limit
* your willingness to abide to lane discipline
* the weather: rain, snow or dry
* daylight or darkness?
* the time you leave your house
* the time of year
* lockdown or not?
* Road incidents?

So for example.
If you leave at 5 am on a bright sunny morning in a car when the schools are off, and you're willing to put the boot down, then 20 mins to 30 mis

Alternatively if you leave at 7:30 am, pi55ing rain, november, people brining kids to school, something will have happened to someone else on the road (see below). Trucks heading north on M50 to the tunnel and port. This is a two hour journey. In these cases it can be difficult to get from the slip road on to the M50.

On average if you are lucky, I'd say 64 minutes if averaged over a year of travel.


(Something happens to someone else on road: puncture, minor accident, major accident all require two or three lanes to be closed, someone stopped on hard shoulder to take a phone call - traffic stops because of rubber nickers. something fell off a lorry, someone runs out of petrol, a blue light flashing ahead... all of these cause people to STAND on their brakes).

Muppet man

salmocab

theLuggage wrote: »

Care to elaborate for a more helpful answer? Assuming no major disasters or incidents on the m50 I'm wondering how long on average it takes in the morning.

Unfortunately muppet mans answer wasn’t as glib as it seems, you didn’t give a time but assuming 7:30 getting on you would probably be on it for an hour, it doesn’t take any major issues to slow the m50 down.

crosstownk

I commuted on that section for almost 10 years on my commute from Terenure to Swords. I left around 0810 and returned around 1730. I joined at J11 and left at J3.

Muppet Man wrote:

20 mins to 2 hours.

^^This is about as accurate as it gets - before Covid anyway. Best in summer months with schools off but in winter it's Russian Roulette. The southbound journey in the evening seemed to suffer from incidents/tailbacks/God knows more often than the morning journey - or maybe it seemed that way as I was always more eager to get home than to get to the office.

After a few (5ish) years I took to cycling instead except for the really sh1tty weather days. 50 mins each way no matter what through the city centre. I'm not suggesting you cycle - it just suited me better and I'd had enough of the M50. Nor am I suggesting you drive through Dublin City - that'd be torture.

Thankfully my work location changed in 2019.

You can't plan for every eventuality on a busy road like the M50 but on average based on my experience, I'd say allow an hour - most days you'll be grand, some you may be early and others you'll definitely be late.