Meanwhile on the Roads...

Seth Brundle

Looking at the likes of Twitter, the amount of moany f**ks giving out because their commute took 90 minutes or whatever because the gardai haven't reopened the M50.
FFS, someone isn't going home this evening and theyre worked up about a delay.

Kaisr Sose

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122150049#Comment_122150049

Agreed!

It is twitter so hardly a good snapshot of society as a whole. A platform for venting etc.

zell12

An RTC on the M50 has gridlocked Dublin City entirely!

“All lanes have closed northbound at J7 Lucan due to a serious collision before J6 Blanch. Emergency services are on scene diverting traffic off at J7. Please avoid the area if possible.”

Beta Ray Bill

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122150049#Comment_122150049

90 mins if you're lucky.

The problem is not that it took that amount of time, it's that road traffic management has been so poorly managed and changed in Dublin in the last 5 years that people are going nuts. Everyone's noticed it. I avoid driving my car now where ever possible as it's just gone beyond appalling.

Obviously they want dissuade cars from going into the city centre and have put controls in place to try and make this happen. But the issue now is that the busiest Road in the country is now a SPOF. If anything happens it at all, the city grinds to a halt. And it's not just cars that are affected, It's buses, cyclists, taxis, pedestrians, commercial vehicles etc which all have fair reason to be in the city centre.

What irritates people more is that no politician cares about the motorist, so people feel they're not being listened to and hence you get all this sh!te on social media.

My condolences to the family of that person.

Paddigol

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122150473#Comment_122150473

I don't get that complaint… pretty much 99.99% of politicians are motorists. Are you suggesting they don't care about themselves? There is no 'motorist' group. 'Motorists' are also left wing, right wing, pro-choice, pro-life, anti-immigrant, welcoming of immigrants, upper class, working class, middle class, unemployed, public service, accountants, finance managers… If you put a cross section of motorists in a room we wouldn't agree on anything.

Beta Ray Bill

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122159990#Comment_122159990

How may of them commute themselves though during rush hour in a car? probably very little.

No one cares, like I am technically a motorist, and it bugs me the traffic is so bad, but I've just learned to accept the roads are always gonna be crap so just don't bother going anywhere unless you're leaving at 6am

De Bhál

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122159990#Comment_122159990

they'd agree on a dislike for cyclists surely

magicbastarder

https://www.irishtimes.com/crime-law/courts/2024/05/20/thirteen-motorists-fined-total-of-154000-for-non-payment-of-m50-tolls/

It's gas the way there's a shrug of the shoulders if motorists don't surrender their driving license in a Garda station or what have you. But if they do something unrelated to road safety yet use the road incorrectly...

CramCycle

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122160034#Comment_122160034

Alot of their Dublin voters do, so they at the very least will pretend to care, and probably do.

AndrewJRenko

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122162097#Comment_122162097

It's gas the way press reports for these particular convictions never name the people convicted, unlike every other press report for traffic issues.

magicbastarder

It's a civil offence rather than a criminal one AFAIK, which may be the difference?

AndrewJRenko

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122162456#Comment_122162456

Don't think so - from the article;

Two defendants showed up to plead guilty, and because of that, Judge Halpin ordered them to pay €350 in fines and costs. He also said that ended the criminal prosecution, but the motorway operator could still seek to resolve the amount owed for the unpaid tolls.

Beta Ray Bill

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122162343#Comment_122162343

I don't even think they pretend to, unless they're a nutter.

Like the Future of Dublin is light rail/trams and to a degree cycling (It's not for everyone), there's been a commitment made to some degree by all the major parties that, that's the way forward.

Dublin roads (Particularly over the south side) are narrow, you can't even get one Bus Lane on a lot of them. A Bus Lane and a cycle lane is far more efficient than allowing cars to use it too, everyone recognises that, including the people who might live on or near those type of roads and have cars, but very few are will to accept that solution.

TII needs to plan, and I mean REALLY plan for infra. Like if a house comes of for sale on a congested narrow road with no bus lane they should buy it and let a rent management company rent it out for the next X years, while they slowly attempt to acquire the bulk of the property on the road, once they have enough, they can then make the changes they need (knock the property or reduce garden space) to make room for Bus lanes, trams lines or Bicycle lanes.

It's a slow process but also one that's painless and will have little or no friction.

loyatemu

Traffic in Dublin was atrocious this morning. I think it's now worse than pre-Covid so all the benefit from having lots of people WFH has been wiped out. I think that this is partially because some people who might previously commuted by public transport have though "I'm only in 2 days a week, **** it, I'll drive". The lack of a part-time taxsaver ticket encourages this.

It's depressing to look at all the buses full of people stuck in lines of traffic and 90% of the cars have one person in them. In the past I've been sceptical of car pooling as an idea but maybe it's time to ban cars with less than 2 people in them from crossing the canals? Bit of high profile random enforcement at entry points to the city centre. Or maybe only odd numbered plates allowed in one week and even numbered the next, enforced by camera?

IBEC were in the news yesterday asking for the relatively minor traffic changes proposed for August to be postponed - they have no alternative suggestions, just leave things as they are. Muppets. We need radical change, and proper enforcement.

CramCycle

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122164114#Comment_122164114

100%, I am moving to a 2 day at home week and the only benefit to the tax saver going forward will be not having to think about it when my days change and booking tickets. Not sure how a part time would work though, give you X amount of trips per week. or even just the ability to put it against your tax at the end of the year might be the only justifiable way to do it.

magicbastarder

the loss of the benefit of the taxsaver has been somewhat mitigated by it (should) only cost €4 a day to get into and home from work for most people in dublin.

for someone in that situation, they're spending €400 a year on PT.

Macy0161

One of my team lives just outside the outer dublin zone reckoned 3 days a week was the cut off for it being worthwhile. The amount of private cars I see in bus lanes on my commutes is ridiculous, and they're inevitably make it more dangerous for the people on bicycles as they're generally all round nobhead drivers too.

loyatemu

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122164214#Comment_122164214

true, I think it's probably people outside the pale who may find it cheaper to drive into the city (assuming you already have a car, which in the commuter belt, you generally would)

CramCycle

Alot of people around me drive until they hit heavy traffic and then pull in, pull a bike out of the boot which I am sure annoys locals but seems reasonable for everyone. Traffic reaches the level they tolerate, they get exercise and it's cheaper than parking/driving the whole way. I get the train from the country so under 3 days travel it costs more but I have to pre-book to get better rates so the taxsaver, on the basis my days from home vary is still economically and mentally more viable. After tax it's €2000 a year which is still exceptional value considering a fortnight's travel is cheaper than one days petrol.

fiacha

Lovely morning for a spin. Approaching the Phoenix monument roundabout in the Park. Cycle lane merges with road so checking over my shoulder and signalling I'll be moving out. Car arrives beside me and I can see both hands holding the phone at the bottom of the steering wheel, txting away. I wave my hand to get her attention, she looks up and immediately brakes and drops the phone into her lap. Pauses for .5 of a second and then looses her ****, sticking up the fingers, screaming and beeping the horn. Follows me through the roundabout and out the other side shouting away. I lied and told her she was on camera at which point she moved off.

Let myself down by returning the hand gesture and never thought to get the plate number. Probably wouldn't have mattered without video evidence of her txting anyway. Was being passed by Garda traffic cars / bikes all morning. Typical luck that there wasn't one handy that I could have flagged down :)

Every week some road user manages to give me a scare. I wasn't in any danger here because I was watching out for poor driving, but the Park is full of tourists / school trips on bikes at this time of year and their road sense is poor at the best of times. I just can't get my head around why people don't think of others safety.

monkeyslayer

I think it's people's attention spans are gone to absolute s##t these days. And when they are paying attention they've got no patience. Cycling demands a certain level of being present and awareness to the dangers all around you but driving however is too comfortable too easy to be distracted. Drivers are just too complacent now, the road and everything going on on it is just another distraction or hindrance to them.

Citizen Six

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122164697#Comment_122164697

Yeah, there's a huge amount of drivers who think it's acceptable to scroll on social media while driving. Zero enforcement just encourages it. And it creates a huge ripple effect for delays, not to mention people who just drive straight through red lights.

at1withmyself

The mind boggles alright some times. I was cycling along a dual lane road towards the junction. Inside lane is specifically for turning left so I filtered to the top of the queue where there is a area for bikes to wait at the red light.

The going straight outside lane for straight on was green. The left lane was red as the pedestrian crossing was green.

In under 60 seconds, 2 cars took a left from the straight on lane and through the red left light. Best part was the car then in the queue behind me beeped at me while the light was red and gestuured I go through the red so he could move on. Basic driving skills are lacking.

magicbastarder

https://www.irishtimes.com/health/2024/05/22/pedestrians-may-be-twice-as-likely-to-be-hit-by-electric-or-hybrid-cars-research-suggests/

...

AndrewJRenko

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122168203#Comment_122168203

I wonder if speed of EVs is a factor, given their faster acceleration?

Doesn't have to be EVs of course

https://www.irishtimes.com/ireland/2024/05/21/girl-13-killed-by-blow-from-wing-mirror-of-van-seemed-to-emerge-from-blind-spot-inquest-told/

magicbastarder

No, but that's a rather redundant comment?

Large bottle small glass

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122168803#Comment_122168803

That's a neighbour's child.

Where I grew up is just over 1km from location of incident.

At likely speeds engine noise is secondary to tyre/aerodynamic noise.

What is relevant but not referenced is traffic behaviour around school buses especially on busy high speed regional roads. A school bus stops should be a red flag/red light.

Are deaths of children the price we pay for ribbon development and free for all on our regional roads.

In 1972 my uncle was killed within a 1km west of location and in December 1999 I was first on the scene of a double fatality within 500m also to the west. A young couple lost control of their car on a wet road following resurfacing and likely blocked gullies. They impacted with a truck driven by her father.

In 1984 Mick O'Brien was walking 500m to east of location when two cars heading west into a low sun overtiok a slower moving car at same time; 3 cars a breast on 7m wide road.

Catastrophic injuries for Mick.

That's one cursed section of road, which I last cycled to do the Brown Stuff 400 in July 2016.

The cycling friendly road runs parallel to the north

https://maps.app.goo.gl/xuYdHfNJSUReYNkr9?g_st=a

Dr_Colossus

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122168803#Comment_122168803

This is tragic and serious sympathies to the van driver having to deal with the consequences when it reads like there was nothing he could do and took all the usual precautions with the oncoming school bus and slowing down etc. You never know when someone can step out between parked vehicles.

20+ years ago I was hit on the back of the head by the wing mirror of a bus. Was standing on the footpath facing the opposite direction when the bus came kerb side to pick up passengers and clocked me with the large overhanging mirrors. Was some clatter and my knees buckled for an instant. My first instinct/thought was that a passing motorcyclist had swung a spare helmet at me for some reason.

magicbastarder

i've seen that happen twice; once in a very smiliar situation to yours, on o'connell street.

i've wondered how much difference putting a rubber bumper on a mirror which is at head height, would make.

CramCycle

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122169355#Comment_122169355

Have to agree, and these reports are hard to read as, what was the actual speed, not that he slowed down. Culturally he probably done nothing wrong but I see cars flying by school buses every day whereas a school bus should be a red flag effectively. Either way a young girl is gone and with great sadness there will be no lessons learned.