NRA have this morning advertised for engineering consultancy to design medium to long term solution to the junction!
:):)
I'm not saying the removal of restrictions will fix all the tailbacks but I believe they will help so am holding judgement until February.
In fact the cones on N25W were finally removed this morning freeing up 750m of new lane and it has made a big difference. Tailbacks still exist but traffic is flowing way better.
Ah right, I get you re traffic to M8N from N25W now.
I hope you're right re Mahon and the speed limit but I dunno TBH!
With the merging lanes you'll have three becoming one in the space of about 50 metres - can't see that being anything less than slow. At least with one merging earlier, it gets one lane going again somewhat before next merge. Again, hope I'm wrong!
I probably worded it poorly re M8N and slip etc. What I mean is that once they open Link....K is it?.... traffic for the M8 North (Watergrasshill and beyond to Dublin) will be taking the offramp from the N25W towards the tunnel and peeling off to the left - rather than continuing straight on to the Tivoli roundabout as present - meaning increased traffic on the offramp.
I disagree about the speed limit not making a difference, traffic is braking hard on N40E due to the speed restrictions as it makes it's way around the bend after the Mahon slip due to the speed limit signs. This is certainly adding to the tailbacks in the N40E in the evenings.
I also think opening that blocked off lane on N25W will help as the merging lane will be shorter. Currently you have cars merging from multiple points along the existing coned off lane.
Also, why will M8N traffic merge to this slip?
Extending the N25W coned off section will make SFA difference - in fact it may make things worse as it merges at almost the same location as the slip from Little Island. Don't forget the M8N / Dublin traffic also has yet to be routed down the 'tunnel slip'. Only a small number are obeying the speed restrictions as well. Basically, it's as good as it's going to get already. Should have spent the cash on another tunnel bore maybe!
Heading south through the tunnel, on N40W, the speed restrictions could be lifted at the top of exit from the tunnel - no need to have them in operation for so long. Very few people are adhering to them anyway.
Agreed both N40E and N25W are big disappointments at the moment.
But both still have speed restrictions in place, while N25W also has 750m of a coned off lane - will need to wait until Feb before we can call it I think.
In ways it is though. N40E in the evenings... well... everyone assumed that would be fixed but no-one realised that the Mahon junction merging was just as much of an issue as the lights at the tunnel exit.
N25W in the morning - there is absolutely no need for two lanes.... that should never have been built. All its causing is an unnecessary merge. The LIttle Island West junction merging into this flow is bad enough, but the 3 into 1 will be an even bigger disaster.
We also don't want traffic passing through the middle of cities where people are trying to live. Competing priorities....
It occurred to me this evening if they had only knocked a extra 20 meters of the old retaining wall as you exit the tunnel on the left heading north, and replaced it with a new one set further back , they'd have have three dedicated lanes exiting the tunnel with a very gradual transition into the slip for the city . As it is , as you exit the tunnel it looks like it widens into a hard shoulder lane but then narrows to a few feet again.
I usually take this rat run as well - it definitely knocks a couple of minutes off. Of course, it's more direct to go straight through town as I did for years (to Western suburbs) but given the new commuter - hostile road layout and traffic light timings along the quays, in tandem with the Dunkettle shenanigans, the longest route is actually the quickest - which would seem to fly in the face of the green agenda given the associated greater carbon emissions.
Indeed. The whole project was sold on the idea that it would eliminate peak hour queues - while the situation has certainly improved on some routes, was it really worth sinking - what, quarter of a billion? - to have little effective improvement to, and even a worsening of in some respects, the East - West corridor which carries the largest volume of traffic? Sticking queueing traffic signs up before they've even finished seems like a case of "sorry lads, it didn't work out". And as you point it, it was predictable really - there's no way to eliminate queues N25W - Tunnel while only giving this route one lane.....but no way to make it freeflow otherwise.
The project has fixed (will fix) many of the junctions but lumping additional traffic (Ibis slip) onto what was already an overloaded junction (N25W) has not helped N25 user's.
I'll continue to access the tunnel from N25W via the Tivoli roundabout at peak times unless there's a dramatic change in how traffic flows N25W to tunnel once the works are fully complete. In fact there should be even less traffic using Tivoli roundabout when N25W to M8N opens.
While that's absolutely true, I think very many people expected that the works would resolve the traffic issues.
I had been telling many people for a long time that this project isn't going to fix everything: the Tunnel is effectively at capacity.
But the upgrade isn't a failure. N25 East and West to the M8 is now free flow. Tunnel to M8 and N25 East and West is now free flow. Little Island to these points either is or will be free flow.
No upgrade can hide the fact that the tunnel itself is the issue, not the junction.
Permanent 'queueing traffic' signs went up at the weekend on the approach to the tunnel from the East - if that's not an admission of failure in the whole point of the upgrade before it even fully opens, I don't know what is.
Dronehawk's latest. With the grass growing and the retreat of the construction equipment, it's starting to take on a "finished" appearance
Variable speed limits work in the UK because they are complimented with fixed speed cameras. One way to stop people ignoring the limit is to hit them in the pocket with fines, penalty points, driving bans and subsequently higher premiums as a result. The M1 in England has quite a few south of Leicester and notably the M6 north of Birmingham has a variable speed limit for about 60 miles. However drivers tend to hammer the accelerator as soon as vehicles leave the section of road with the variable speed limit.
Personally I firmly believe a variable speed limit should be mandatory on all motorways, dual carriageways and any main road which has a high fatality rate. Set cruise control and sit back.
If we're depending on cars and we are more and more then electric cars are no change at all - an EV takes up the same space as a petrol car -
The only soloution is better public transport first , and no politican ever gets thanks for that ,
I don't think it's a question of "less rather than more roads" but a slightly more nuanced "more efficient use of transport infrastructure". It's not just about the environment, it's about wasted time and resources.
Someone living in the countryside near Ballymacoda is going to be difficult to tempt onto more efficient modes of transport. But someone living in Douglas should have multiple transport options and should be heavily incentivised to do so. The only real way you can do that is by having a carrot and stick: make the efficient modes of transport way more attractive and make the car less attractive. You can't just ban people in Douglas from using their car, because some need the car.
Conversely, if we just add more capacity for cars around Douglas, then we'll get more cars around Douglas. You might marginally benefit the journey of the person from Ballymacoda, but realistically you're mostly just going to work against any mode-shift at Douglas.
And before someone says "what about buses, they need roads too", the N40 has absolutely no prioritisation for buses. Even the N27 has very little. So if I have a car and I'm deciding between a bus or car journey on the N40, N27, N8, N25 then at the moment the choice is very simple. And once you're in the car, it's very hard to get you out of the car.
TLDR: investment in car-oriented transport for city-area commuters is a false economy unless it's heavily out-balanced by other modes. Northern and Southern "distributor" roads are a realistic way forward. And bypasses are needed for the people who simply want to get past the city. And multi-mode transport hubs are needed all around the city. So it's not "no more roads" but rather "no more dual-purpose bypass-distributor roads in/near the city because we know they don't work".
Someone went in the back of me several months ago causing one of those miserable days of long tailbacks along the south ring.
The last three mornings I have noticed near misses, witheringly poor driving and brutal merging from Mahon all the way to Douglas. No wonder there are so many accidents. We all know this, but what can actually be done about it? You could put 100 garda cars driving along the south ring and it wouldn't make a difference.
Variable speed limits (which would help with merging issues at the M28) would make a huge difference but would be universally ignored, like the Dunkettle roadwork speed limits. I swear that guy was so close to my rear bumper this morning he was pretty much in the boot.
Ah Mandatory Work From Office - the utopia idea that those that it works well for, smugglingly tell the rest of us that is the best thing in the world and we all need to do it.
Without accepting it doesn't suit a large portion of the workforce.
Ah WFH, the utopia idea that those that it works well for, smugglingly tell the rest of us that is the best thing in the world and we all need to do it. Without accepting it doesn't suit a large portion of the workforce.
The reality is very few people can actually work from home. People working in manufacturing, retail, construction, public facing public and civil servants many others have to and will continue to have to travel to work. That's the vast majority of the working public.
WFH is fine for those that can do it, but it won't do much for traffic volumes.
To me the dystopian nightmare is spending up to 2 hours a day away from my family commuting via the tunnel to do a job I was easily able to do for 2 years fully WFH during covid.
Everyone working at home would be terrible for the economy and quite frankly sounds like a dystopian nightmare.
That's the problem. If we end up on this trajectory, we'll all be housebound, for work, rest and play, by dictat of the Leinster House Mafia.
Niloc is right.
And we need good roads for trucks, buses and cars and for our general prosperity, freedom of movement and even pleasure.
Anyone who denies that is living in a fantasy world.
If working from home was to become widespread, why the need for the projected increased need of public transport.
And, will we see any significant drop in private car use as we transition from fossil fuel vehicles to renewable energy electric vehicles, particularly when population growth is factored in.
How valid is the assumption that less not more roads is the future.
The simplest solution is to reduce traffic. Strengthen remote work / work from home rights from a right to request it to requiring the employer to prove why a job can't be done remotely and traffic levels could drop significantly.
I could work almost 100% remotely but policy means I need to be in the office two or three days per week. I could save those two or three days per week commuting if I could work remotely, with the exception of when a physical presence was essential.
Yep, we've built up a huge demand of car-based commuting using the N40 and we've no easy way out of it.
But building more capacity for car commuting through what is now the city it isn't a solution either. 60-70% of people are commuting by car right now. So any new capacity will become congested again in short order,. The problem is that both long-distance and short distance commuter journeys are being combined on the N40. The solutions are Southern Distributor, Northern Distributor and Northern Bypass and a very large dose of sustainable transport infrastructure.
The biggest reason not to "more N40 south" our way forward is because it's now a single enormous point of failure for the city's transport system.
I've no major issue with a third Westbound lane on the Douglas flyover, but it's only going to have a small net benefit unfortunately. One crash there and the whole city comes to a halt. We need alternatives now quite urgently.
Exactly, the current pinch-point, which is Carrs Hill, will be gone so the free-flowing (faster moving) traffic on the M28 heading to the N40 Jct.9 westbound will only serve to exacerbate the current queueing at Jct9 and the Doughas flyover.
A third westbound lane on the Douglas flyover, connecting the merging lane at Jct9 with the exiting lane at Jct6 should be the last piece of the jigsaw.
I don't see westbound traffic on the N25 heading to the western and southwestern suburbs of the city opting for the circuitous route of the proposed N40 North.
:):)
