The Westlink and MVA

[Decani]

'We found that the delays on the motorway are caused by congestion on the motorway generally and not the toll plaza'

I'm surprised that nobody's brought this up yet. Can anyone make sense of this statment? Admittedly, a month ago I was brought to a halt shortly after the Red Cow roundabout thinking that the hold up was due to the W'link. Then I saw that people were just rubber-necking a ferris wheel and the W'link was all clear.

But this statment would seem to be a play on words on 'the removal of the toll plaza would not improve the capacity of the M50'. I don't think anyone's complaining about capacity but they are complaining about the throughput. How can they say that the WL doesn't contribute to delays? Surely to God if the thing wasn't there, people wouldn't have to slow down to an average speed of about 2mph and traffic would move along. Why do traffic reports indicate that traffic is backed from the West Link to 'xxx'?

Am I missing something here? They're effectively saying that the West Link doesn't incur any delay in travel.

''The lack of capacity on the existing motorway and the design of the interchanges, combined with high traffic volumes, determine journey time and not the toll plaza". So if they took the toll plaza away it wouldn't reduce the time it takes to get from the southside to the airport?

Did they perform this survey off paper with toy cars or did they actually try it for themselves?

 

[Purple]

Hi Decani,
I go around the M50 from Finglas to Knocklyon every evening between 6.30 and 8.30 and while the toll bridge does cause some delays in my experience their are more hold-ups at the Naas road exit. If the toll gates were removed and the traffic flowed across the bridge I would suggest that the hold-ups further along the road would be worse. Having said all that (as they say) the north bound traffic does always seem heavy from Tallaght to the toll bridge but that could have as much to do with the Lucan exit as it does with the toll plaza.
In a few months we will have the necessary legislation to fine people for driving through a toll gate without paying the fee and at that point eazy pass lanes will have no barriers. This should speed things up considerable.
Why this hasn't been in place for years is another issue.
Why the government signed such a stupid agreement for the second bridge and why the tolls are so high are also questions that need answering.

 

[Decani]

Thanks Purple. I must admit I'm not a seasoned toll bridge user so I appreciate the points you make. I wonder if, as an experiment, they'd consider leaving the bridge open free for a 24 hour period just to see how things would go. However, I'd imagine there'd be problems where the traffic must fan in from 6 or 7 lanes to 2.

Thanks again.