Motorway in full upto M50

veryangryman

If we look at the N3, N4 and N7, they all despite having long motorways more or less upto the Dublin County border but back to N roads before they touch the M50.

May be pedantic but can one see them ever being fully M. Shouldn't be a need to slow traffic down prior to inside the M50 ring. I get that they'd need better junctions and telling various golf clubs to go and sh1te but it is surely achievable.

roadmaster

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058264435/motorway-in-full-upto-m50

Is not done to allow suburbs such as lucan and blanch etc access to the the city as only certain class of vechicles and drivers can use a motorway

Del2005

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058264435/motorway-in-full-upto-m50

We've 120km/h N roads so the slow speed on the approach to the M50 is for safety due to traffic volumes or revenue raising. Most of the M50 is 100km/h and a good bit is 80km/h.

AugustusMinimus

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119653528#Comment_119653528

If a new M7 had been built the. Presumably this would have been motorway all the way to the M50 as you’d have to continue your journey on the M50 (No direct city access).

veryangryman

On the speed limit, no issue having a motorway decrease said speed limits. Doesn't the M1 goto 60 near the airport(or used to anyway)

KrisW1001

... the entire M50 is under 100 km/h limits. But what would you actually gain by re-classifying? Blue signs?

Reclassifying N7 as M7 would cost a lot of money and make no improvement to anyone’s life. It would still be under 100km/h limits, but now some people who relied on it to get to and from their work would be forced to take long detours, and a number of businesses that directly accessed the N7 would be forced to relocate or close. That’s a lot of disruption - for it to be worthwhile you need a lot of benefit, and I don’t see any.

AugustusMinimus

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119654479#Comment_119654479

There was a plan to do this. It would have required building roads to the side of the current N7 to deal with local and non-motorway traffic.

Flinty997

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058264435/motorway-in-full-upto-m50

To what aim? It makes very little difference to journey times.

https://mindyourdecisions.com/blog/2011/09/30/how-much-time-does-speeding-save/

KrisW1001

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119654508#Comment_119654508

... what they call Frontage Roads in Texas. They’re a pain in the ass to navigate, and they take up a lot of space.

Incidentally the original plan for M7 was for it to completely avoid the Naas Road. It was to have diverged from N7 northward at Naas, and join M50 north of the Red Cow interchange at what would have been Junction 8, but that idea was scrapped in the 1980s in favour of upgrading the Naas Dual Carriageway. The only remnants of the original plan are an undeveloped strip of land between the Kildare Rail Line and Grand Canal, and a missing junction number on M50.

brianc89

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119654879#Comment_119654879

That is sooo interesting. There really is a strip of undeveloped land between the canal and railway and junction 8 really is missing.

I fully doubted both of your statements.

Maybe it'll be turned into a park in future, or even better ....a strip of high rise developments. One can dream.

AugustusMinimus

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119654879#Comment_119654879

Correct. Mentioned it above.

however that was only scrapped in advance of the Ryder Cup at the K Club. It was decided the money would be better spent on widening the N7 to 3 lanes. A new M7 wouldn’t have been ready for the Ryder cup.

hans aus dtschl

On that note, has the ship completely sailed for a new M7?

dontmindme

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119653562#Comment_119653562

Where is this 120KM/h N road?

the entire M50 is under 100 km/h limits

Incorrect.

L1011

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119665904#Comment_119665904

N1 across the border, N25 in Cork. The section of N2 that became M2 was 120km/h also.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119665838#Comment_119665838

Never going to happen now.

loyatemu

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119665904#Comment_119665904

N2 and N25 have 120km/h sections I think.

The M50 is 100km/h on the sections that connect to the N7, N4, N3 - some of the junctions have 30km/h limits on them as well. The benefits of upgrading those N roads to motorway would be negligible.

hans aus dtschl

N22 has 120kmh too.

As others have said, N25 has 120kmh.

What's now M8, previously was 120kmh N8 also, south of Watergrasshill I believe.

KrisW1001

N20 Ballincollig Bypass west of Cork city is also under a 120km/h limit. And on the other side of the coin, M8 south of Glanmire in Cork is under 100km/h limits but is still a motorway.

Speed limits are set according to the type of road, and any Type 1 DC can be operated at 120km/h if conditions allow.

Motorways in Irish law are created by an Act that excludes certain categories of road-users from that route. There's nothing about speed limits. In theory, a single-carriageway road at any speed limit above 50 km/h could be designated a Motorway, but there would be no reason to do so.