M50 madness , Outer Ring needed

supermilk1 · 06-10-2016 11:39am #1

Maybe I just can't find the thread, surely one exists and there are thousands of people on boards who have the same issue as me and are at breaking point with ..The dreaded M50.
The supposed main artery of this country which is blocked everyday by the smallest of incidents. If it's not a breakdown, it's a collision, if its not collision it's 5mm rain, if it's not rain it's low lying sun , school kids back etc, etc.
It's simply not able to cope. Poorly designed, not enough lanes where there's slip and ramps. Bottle necks in the same places every day and no room to widen as all bridges would have to be upgraded.

My commute from Athlone to Sandyford everyday is a nightmare because of this road.

Anyway, rant over.

My point of this thread is to find out if there will ever be and outer ring road. Surely the politicians and councils see this is required.
It is impossible to put a figure of lost productivity by the the thousands of commuters sitting in a tailback on a daily basis and with Dublin getting busier everyday ,surely it is in their plans?????

Would love to hear something positive from someone in the know.

From a disgruntled commuter,

Supermilk1

Carawaystick · 06-10-2016 11:47am

I'm not sure how a road south of the Wicklow mountains would help your case? There's no room north of the mountains.

ThisRegard · 06-10-2016 11:48am

There's already plans for one, if it will ever happen is another story. But you'll still have to contend with the M50 as it was suggested to take in Navan and Naas.

There's nowhere else to put it within Dublin itself, and your commute from Athlone exasperates your problem.

techdiver · 06-10-2016 11:48am

Unfortunately we don't live in a country where we forward plan. Roads and infrastructure are built to cater for the needs as they currently exists as opposed to looking at future growth and requirements. This is mainly due to the political culture in this country whereby they will get criticised for building something that is "not needed" or "underutilised" (remember when the Luas was built?).

This leads to a fear to plan ahead due to the threat of losing a seat for "wasting taxpayers money".

Odelay · 06-10-2016 11:51am

In fairness, I don't think the M50 was built was built to allow people commute daily from Athlone to Sanyyford.

trellheim · 06-10-2016 12:10pm

It was built as a parkway originally IIRC.

But OP raises an issue - I see no simple map for serious capacity increases from Firhouse to Sandyford , as said above there just simply is not room unless we doubledeck the M50 !

Perhaps tolling to take the sting off the rise but the whinging from the userbase will mean only a strong Transport minister will take this course

One answer might be screens on the median to avoid rubberneckers

Not sure though Athlone to Sandyford is a journey the NTA are thinking about prioritizing though

techdiver · 06-10-2016 12:33pm

trellheim wrote: »

It was built as a parkway originally IIRC.

But OP raises an issue - I see no simple map for serious capacity increases from Firhouse to Sandyford , as said above there just simply is not room unless we doubledeck the M50 !

Perhaps tolling to take the sting off the rise but the whinging from the userbase will mean only a strong Transport minister will take this course

One answer might be screens on the median to avoid rubberneckers

Not sure though Athlone to Sandyford is a journey the NTA are thinking about prioritizing though

Well successive governments has ensured that housing is not affordable even for professionals in well paying jobs, so the only choice for many of us was to move out of Dublin and commute as there is no other choice.

trellheim · 06-10-2016 1:01pm

Well successive governments has ensured that housing is not affordable even for professionals in well paying jobs, so the only choice for many of us was to move out of Dublin and commute as there is no other choice.

I accept that but my point was that the NTA wouldn't be thinking about it.

savagethegoat · 06-10-2016 1:02pm

a link from the M7/8/9 to north of the airport might remove enough traffic from t he M50 to make it tolerable perhaps

supermilk1 · 06-10-2016 1:06pm

Kind of going of the point here. There will always be commuters folks for many different reasons. If I own a house in the midlands and take a 24 month contract in Sandyford do I sell my house, move to Dublin for 2 years and then move back again???
Also, someone living in Maynooth/Leixlip/Lucan has the same issue travelling southbound as someone travelling from Athlone. Are they classed as commuters if they drive on the M50? If it wasn't built for people travelling to work on a daily basis what was it built for?the school run?
The point is this is the most important road in Ireland and it is not able to cope.
Imagine 5 years time...

kona · 06-10-2016 1:09pm

We need to look at the planning of the country. A lot of business and services should be moved out into the country.
It would adress a he'll of a lot of issues in the country.

schemingbohemia · 06-10-2016 1:36pm

Ok, so we build this at a cost of probably a billion euro, then as with every road in the history of roads, it becomes congested too, what do we do then? Another ring road outside that?
Sure let's just concrete over the whole country.

Macstuff · 06-10-2016 1:37pm

I use the M50 everyday to travel from North County Dublin to Dundrum and it's really gotten bad in the last few months. I typically leave my house at either 6:20 or 6:40 and am on the M50 10 minutes later. I have been doing that for the last 3 years. However, in the recent past I find myself getting caught in tailbacks even at that time. Currently my journey time is about 50 mins - without any traffic, late at night for example it would take 35 mins.
Like most M50 users I don't believe I have any real alternative. Using public transport for the same journey would involve a 2 hour trip each way and would cost at least as much. I broke it down below in case you don't believe me.
Journey using public transport
1) A 5 minute drive to my train station. Paying €3 for parking
2) A 5 minute wait then a 45 minute train ride to the city centre.
3) A 20 minute walk to St. Stephens Green
4) A 5 minute wait for the Luas
5) A 25 minute (approx.) Luas journey
6) A 5 minute walk to the office for the same

There have been some discussions about increasing the toll and tolling it at all exits/entry points - rather than just in a single location. That might have some effect. However I am not sure that that will happen as for most users (like me) there are few alternatives. I could see a lot of backlash from commuters if this was imposed.
Overall I have no idea what the answer is. It's probably better, faster public transport but that costs money and takes too much time for a single govt. to invest in it.

porsche boy · 06-10-2016 1:43pm

kona wrote:

We need to look at the planning of the country. A lot of business and services should be moved out into the country. It would adress a he'll of a lot of issues in the country.

Are you suggesting some sort of decentralisation???

porsche boy · 06-10-2016 1:51pm

In reality what we need is for motorway driving to be part of the learning & testing for drivers. More often that not drivers do no know which lane to be in and can cause havoc trying to get over to slip roads. Mythbusters done an experiment where they had a Constand flow of traffic and had one car jam on the brake for a second and then drive on. The effect it had on the remaining traffic was amazing. One car doing that can cause a tailback for miles.
Another suggestion I would have is for drivers to have polorized sunglasses with them, the benefits when driving with low lying sun or on wet roads with the sun shining has to be seen to be believed.

intheclouds · 06-10-2016 1:56pm

trellheim wrote: »

.....as said above there just simply is not room unless we doubledeck the M50 !

This is exactly what they should do. Build another M50 on top of the existing M50. Get rid of the meridian strip and have the lower deck northbound and the upper deck southbound. Immediately more than double the current capacity. Would also solve the low sun issue on the bottom deck. There are engineering issues around bridges (go over them? under them?) and slip roads on and off for the upper deck but these are smaller individual issues than that of a whole new ring road.

I too am sick of the constant problems in the same places on it daily and the terrible design of some parts of it.

supermilk1 · 06-10-2016 2:00pm

schemingbohemia wrote: »

Ok, so we build this at a cost of probably a billion euro, then as with every road in the history of roads, it becomes congested too, what do we do then? Another ring road outside that?
Sure let's just concrete over the whole country.

You sound like you enjoy sitting in traffic...Who said anything about concreting the country? 1 outer road would undoubtedly alleviate traffic congestion from the M50 and adjoining roads.

Well what is costing the economy in lost productivity having thousands late for work every day??
A billion euro would be well spent . Employment generated, local suppliers also benefitting. And if it costs a billion quid now , what will it cost in 10 years when it will actually be too late. Dublin won't stop growing so

JaMarcusHustle · 06-10-2016 2:05pm

porsche boy wrote:

In reality what we need is for motorway driving to be part of the learning & testing for drivers.

Unfortunately that's a bit naive. There's plenty of elements to driving that ARE in the test yet people continue to make a balls of. See roundabouts, indicating, positioning etc.

magicbastarder · 06-10-2016 2:08pm

the issue is not with the M50 itself, but with the fact that public transport in dublin needs a hell of a lot of work, and that we should not have to build roads with 260km return commutes in mind.

supermilk1 · 06-10-2016 2:19pm

magicbastarder wrote: »

the issue is not with the M50 itself, but with the fact that public transport in dublin needs a hell of a lot of work, and that we should not have to build roads with 260km return commutes in mind.

Yes, but if driving 220km of the 260km commute is taking less time to travel then the other 40km on the M50 alone don't you think that there is something not quite right about that???

trellheim · 06-10-2016 2:22pm

Yes, but if driving 220km of the 260km commute is taking less time to travel then the other 40km on the M50 alone don't you think that there is something not quite right about that???

OP is driving into the busiest bit of it , so yes, sounds about right. Face it folks theres no budget for massive cap-ex to fix this , we're only going to see sticking plaster like the NAAS/M7/M9 tripling .

After that probably M20's time has come if we're talking about road building thats needed

pajero12 · 06-10-2016 2:25pm

Odelay wrote: »

In fairness, I don't think the M50 was built was built to allow people commute daily from Athlone to Sanyyford.

What a ridiculous point to make, I commute from Clondakin to Sandyford and I'm affected by the issues mentioned above :rolleyes:

kirving · 06-10-2016 2:31pm

It's not even about the money, it's the complete and utter lack of imagination when it comes to infrastructure.

I would genuinely love to see statistics on how many of our TD's have visited London for example.

Infini · 06-10-2016 2:31pm

magicbastarder wrote: »

the issue is not with the M50 itself, but with the fact that public transport in dublin needs a hell of a lot of work, and that we should not have to build roads with 260km return commutes in mind.

I'd agree with this tbh. Rail and Tram lines aren't getting anywhere near the investment they should be getting in Dublin which would take a hell of a lot of pressure off the roads. Triple/quad tracking connolly-clongriffin, Dart Underground, dart spur to the airport and maybe swords, expansion of the m3 line to navan, are things that should have been done as well as more expansions of the luas into north dublin and more spread into the south. Only thing I would rather see different is an actual dart line instead of metro north as its somewhat of a glorified luas as currently proposed and I dont know if its up to capacity not to mention the lack of sense in building another segregated rail network.

supermilk1 · 06-10-2016 2:33pm

trellheim wrote: »

OP is driving into the busiest bit of it , so yes, sounds about right. Face it folks theres no budget for massive cap-ex to fix this , we're only going to see sticking plaster like the NAAS/M7/M9 tripling .

After that probably M20's time has come if we're talking about road building thats needed

Fair enough,but it's not like Sandyford is the city centre. It's an industrial hub which is nearly 12km from the centre.

Folks don't get me wrong I would prefer to have an option to commute by train but it's simply not a practical option.

whippet · 06-10-2016 2:38pm

I have been commuting on the M50 for 15 years now and it is worse than I ever recall now southbound in the morning .. even before the upgrade and toll-free.

Most mornings now it take approx 45-60 mins from Ballymun to clear blanch ...

I don't know the answer, I don't have any real solutions but all I know is that the company I work for based in Ballymount now is loosing staff and finding it very difficult to recruit due to the painful commute. Quite a few have joined and left within a month due to the traffic.

Unfortunately the transport strategy around dublin is full focused on giving more real estate to cyclists rather than the obvious - create cycle ways (no just steal from the already depleted roads) and a proper orbital public transport network.

To get public transport to anywhere in the commercial zones around the M50 almost always requires a journey in to the city centre and then a journey back out to the orbital road in already congested traffic.

For instance, I come in the M1 in the morning .. so if I wanted to take public transport to ballymount i'd have to get a train / bus in to the city centre and then bus to ballymount . .probably a 2hour journey.

Alun · 06-10-2016 2:46pm

supermilk1 wrote: »

Fair enough,but it's not like Sandyford is the city centre. It's an industrial hub which is nearly 12km from the centre.

I'm struggling though to imagine the route of such a hypothetical outer ring road that would help your particular situation in any meaningful way. There's no major route from the south that connects with the Sandyford junction that such a road could connect with, and the terrain to the south of there (foothills of Dublin Mts.) is not really suitable.

magicbastarder · 06-10-2016 2:46pm

whippet wrote: »

I have been commuting on the M50 for 15 years now and it is worse than I ever recall now southbound in the morning .. even before the upgrade and toll-free.

the M50 is operating at nearly twice its nominal capacity.

kona · 06-10-2016 2:48pm

porsche boy wrote: »

Are you suggesting some sort of decentralisation???

Suggesting a bit a cop on. The current model is absolutely horrendous.
It's not fair on people having to either commute large distances or buy / rent in Dublin.

Get some investment in towns and cities around the country and maybe save some from extinction.

magicbastarder · 06-10-2016 2:50pm

kona wrote: »

Get some investment in towns and cities around the country and maybe save some from extinction.

a bit OT but a clamp down on one off housing which is essentially decentralising those rural towns would be interesting.

Caliden · 06-10-2016 2:53pm

No need for more roads as cars will simply fill them to capacity again. Increase public transport options with orbital bus routes.

I live in D14 and I've got a lot of options when it comes to getting into the city centre.

All well and good if I work in town but I work in Citywest so my option is either a 20-30 minute drive or 90 minutes of public transport with 3 transfers.

M50 madness , Outer Ring needed

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