Sutton Cross Traffic Congestion - Overhead Pedestrian Bridge

subpar

Traffic congestion and delays of up to 30 minutes to get through the junction are a daily issue and will continue to get worse given all the new developments in Santa Sabina , Techrete and Deer Park.

The high volume of pedestrians needing to get safely across the the junction and the associated activations of the 4 push button pedestrian crossings reduces the green time and traffic flow during daytime hours particularly.

As there is little or no scope to widen the roadways or limit the traffic volumes surely its time for the erection of an oerhead pedestrian bridge at the cross.

does the foot traffic add to the congestion? When I’m there I’m clearly waiting for trafffic north and south to stop but cars are moving (from the station road to the summit road)

The area has a huge population of elderly people - even for the able-bodied, an overhead pass would add significant inconvenience to pedestrians, and that's even if it had a ramp (which I don't think there would be any space for).

I'd hope that the increase in traffic might convince some to ditch their cars. Some of the car usage in the area is absurd.

Atlantic Dawn

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117958008#Comment_117958008

When the pedestrian lights are activated it adds another cycle to the sequence, possibly adds 90 seconds to the wait for all car users waiting each time its pressed.

The potential solutions to alleviate some traffic would be to run a road on the shoreline from Burrow Road to connect just before Burrowfield Road and another from the shoreline at St Fintan's Church to connect to St Fintan's School, neither road would ever happen due to the 'environmental' impact they would have.

https://www.google.com/maps/@53.3894352,-6.1115661,16z

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117971867#Comment_117971867

Why can't cars move from station road to Greenfield road when pedestrians are crossing?

Atlantic Dawn

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117971878#Comment_117971878

This would add another sequence, it's simpler and safer to have all pedestrian traffic going at a single time.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117971885#Comment_117971885

? that's confusing to me, most pedestrian rights at crossroads align to the traffic going in the same direction as the foot traffic. If car traffic is going north-south and car traffic going east-west is blocked, the pedestrian lights can allow north-south foot traffic. In fact I would have assumed that Sutton cross did work like that.

Princess Calla

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117971906#Comment_117971906

I'd imagine the issue is more for turning traffic, rather than traffic going straight.

The traffic going to and from howth will be stopped to allow traffic from station road (baldoyle) and Greenfield road (Sutton ) to flow. However there would be a substantial flow of traffic from greenfield road onto the main Dublin road to get into city centre. So if pedestrian lights are green (as the city centre to howth/howth to city centre traffic is stopped) obviously there's a delay there . Similarly going from baldoyle to howth if the pedestrian lights are green that turn is prevented.

I don't see how they'd fit an overhead bridge though as the pedestrian paths are incredibly narrow on certain sides, plus how many bridges do you fit? Potentially you need 4.

subpar

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117971965#Comment_117971965

The best design for an overhead bridge would be a central hub with 4 radial legs .

L1011

Adding a pedestrian bridge will not lead to the removal of pedestrian sequences from the lights if that's what you were thinking.

Cloudio9

Hilarious entitlement. People who are traffic thinking the solution to traffic is to move pedestrians out of the way.

sdanseo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117981418#Comment_117981418

On a smaller road in a city with lots of alternatives you might have a point, but reducing the traffic is not possible at Sutton Cross. With the exception of Burrow Road which is essentially a laneway, it's the only possible route for vehicular traffic.

Suggesting that pedestrians are otherwise accommodated as a way to free up additional capacity is not unreasonable.

sdanseo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117978885#Comment_117978885

It could, if there was sufficient space on all 4 sides for ramps. But there probably isn't.

Wishbone Ash

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118394280#Comment_118394280

That's not accommodating pedestrians - it's moving them out of the way. The best way of accommodating pedestrians there is to make the pedestrian crossing green lights more frequent and last longer. When are we going to learn that facilitating the drivers of motor vehicles is just going to increase the use of such vehicles?

RobAMerc

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118394640#Comment_118394640

this nonsense thinking is exactly why traffic in Dublin is so bad. There is an intention to frustrate motorists into ditching their cars by increasing green light times for pedestrians that dont exist. Anyone who spends time in their car around Dublin can see light sequences where the longest green is for the traffic that doesnt exist on the footpath while motorists sit at reds or have to shoot through 2 second greens. Ridiculous fundamentalists thinking this is a fix. 🙄