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Here's how the new M50 variable speed limits will work

The new system is expected to take full effect on the motorway by early 2023.

LAST UPDATE | 17 Sep 2021

TheJournal.ie / YouTube

A PHASED INTRODUCTION of different speed limits on the M50 will begin to take effect over the next few weeks, the Transport Minister has announced. 

Under new plans for the motorway, operators will be able to better slow traffic in response to crashes, roadwork, poor weather conditions and congestion. Drivers will be notified of changes through new digital signs.

It is aimed to keep drivers better informed about incidents ahead and how these might affect their journey. It is also aimed to improve safety on the road.

The new system will mean that different lanes may have different speed limits at different points along the motorway depending on whether an incident may be up ahead. 

There are to be 19 new gantries over the roadway to keep motorists informed with a total of 386 lane control signals.

Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII) communications director Sean O’Neill said today that the new system would make for a “safer and more efficient” M50. 

O’Neill said the motorway is perhaps the most critical part of Ireland’s road infrastructure and is “an Achilles heel for the country” in that “it has to function well”. 

TII said the new system will improve journey time reliability by reducing the number of times vehicles need to stop and start on the motorway, and reduce the need for drivers to brake suddenly when traffic comes to a stop. 

TII says the new system will improve traffic flows because tailbacks are often caused by the “accordion effect” of motorists slowing speed suddenly in response to an incident or blockage up ahead.

The new system should instead bring motorists down to an appropriate speed long before they come upon an incident, avoiding the need for sudden breaking and the tailbacks this causes.   

Transport Minister Eamon Ryan was today present at the launch of the plans, which will see the new speed limits apply on an advisory  basis before laws will be passed by Christmas to make them “mandatory and enforceable”. 

“It’s starting on an advisory basis which is right, it’s appropriate test to make sure the whole system works. But myself an Minister Naughton will be introducing legislation or due to introduce legislation in the Dáil this term which would put it into statute, into law,” he said. 

O’Neill from TII said gardaí will enforce the new variable speed limits and that M50 traffic cameras will be used only to monitor road conditions and not used to catch speeding motorists. 

“What this is for is for implementing a safe environment, the enforcement elements will be still carried out by an Garda Síochá on site. These cameras will not be used for that. They’re for monitoring, for data collection, so that if an incident occurs, we can respond immediately with the information to the driver in real time, that’s what they’re for,” he said. 

O’Neill added limits may be as low as 30 km/h if required. 

The new system will have a five-phased rollout, with the first phase beginning in the coming weeks. 

  1. Autumn 2021 - J4 Ballymun to J6 Castleknock
  2. Spring 2022 - J6 Castleknock to J9 Red Cow
  3. Summer 2022 - J9 Red Cow to J12 Firhouse
  4. Autumn 2022 - J12 Firhouse to J14 Sandyford
  5. Winter 2022 - J14 Sandyford to J17 M11 and J3 M1 to J4 Ballymun

TII chief executive Peter Walsh said today that new system will also make it safer for emergency services to response to incidents on the motorway. 

It’s all about safety, you’ve seen the incidents and anyone who uses the M50 will be aware of just how hazardous it can be. And the men and women of the motorway operations, the fire service, gardaí, the ambulance service go out there and deal with those incidents. So this system, which will advise drivers of the appropriate speed to be driving at when an incident occurs is one that will make it safer or all of those people involved. 

“We have 400,000 trips a day on the M50 and where you see levels of congestion it is very that’s disruptive. And you get this with a wave of  stop-start start driving, it does affect efficiency.” 

Busy

M50 traffic levels are now back to around 95% of the levels in September 2019, figures show. 

Trips on the motorway rose by 40% between 2011 and 2019 and before the pandemic, there were approximately 400,000 journeys taking place each day. 

The busiest section of the M50 was between the N2 interchange at Finglas and the N3 interchange at Blanchardstown.

The phased approach to the new system is aimed to help drivers get used to the new system and adjust their driving in advance of regulatory speed limits. 

The system is expected to take full effect on the M50 by early 2023. 

- Additional reporting by Orla Dwyer.

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    Mute Yun Wyn
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    Jul 10th 2020, 1:20 PM

    Very true especially when they decide who and what to censor. Joe rogan has a podcast with Twitter exec and pushes them on the issue

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    Mute Richard Russell
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    Jul 10th 2020, 4:32 PM

    The campaign has started to shut down free speech and citizen journalism We can have free speech as long as it is nuj free speech only the voice of the selected few will be heard

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    Mute Michael Patrick Newell
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    Jul 10th 2020, 3:24 PM

    And you really think our own government haven’t used misinformation or bots for their own use esp during elections…..i agree social media needs dealing with, but when you have countries where people have little faith or trust in their own governments, its hard then to trust them in turn to do what’s right when it comes to social media

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    Mute AOL
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    Jul 10th 2020, 7:06 PM

    Never mind social media. Not a true journalist left in any country. Every article is a copy and paste job. We should be holding all media to account

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    Mute Gary Sheahan
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    Jul 10th 2020, 3:52 PM

    Well, and I know this won’t be popular – but I feel well equipped to discern (most) of what goes online and practise a healthy level of cynicism and, on that basis, I say leave them at it. Take and keep the jobs they bring and generally promote ourselves as the safe and primary destination for FDI in the EU.

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    Mute Dáibh
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    Jul 10th 2020, 2:29 PM

    Misinformation is one of the biggest scourges in the world. Especially the last five years with Trump and Brexit. It needs to be dealt with it and the government should take the lead on that for the exact reasons laid out in this article.

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    Mute Bob Rock
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    Jul 10th 2020, 3:04 PM

    @Dáibh: Couldn’t agree more. It’s not been taken seriously enough by many governments around the world in my opinion. the only ones seemingly taking it seriously are countries like Russia and China and they’re using it with devastating results.

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    Mute The quite man
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    Jul 10th 2020, 5:57 PM

    @Bob Rock: yes we should start Defunding RTE the state broadcaster is a prime example of an institution which pushes a certain narrative. I can’t remember the last time the news, prime time or any radio interviewer actually pushed any minister or official for the truth. Now that the state has bailed out the broadcaster and Denis O Brian owns a large chunk of local radio stations I think it’s imperative that citizen journalists keep asking the important questions such as asking the new minister for children his stance on lowering the age of consent for children, or should under 16,s be allowed to remove parts of their bodies without parents knowing.

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    Mute The quite man
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    Jul 10th 2020, 6:03 PM
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    Mute Tony Humphreys
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    Jul 10th 2020, 6:57 PM

    @Dáibh: I believe Brexit and Trump happened because of the media and social medias attempts to scilence views that do not followed a center left agenda. When views are scilenced and not listed too, or simply dismissed as an ist, the scilenced vote.

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    Mute The quite man
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    Jul 10th 2020, 7:14 PM

    @Tony Humphreys: it’s the tip toe of totalitarianism

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    Mute Mikhail Ramendik
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    Jul 10th 2020, 6:08 PM

    While a certain amount of regulation might be necessary, I think this article actually showcases the dangers of the idea – because it repeatedly mentions Libya and the author is Paul Tweed.

    Paul Tweed is known to dislike Libya’s pre-2011 government because of its links to the PIRA, one of the sides of the well-known civil conflict in Belfast where he is based. https://www.irishnews.com/news/2015/10/21/news/belfast-lawyer-urges-britain-to-back-ira-libya-victims-301570/

    For all I know, somehow he never seems to talk about the government behind the other, equally vicious side of that civil conflict.

    In 2011, the government of Libya was overthrown by unprovoked invasion of a coalition of Western countries. The result of this action was massive suffering in Libya, including outright slave markets on the streets.

    Thankfully, Ireland did not directly participate in that deplorable invasion.

    Libya is in the middle of a civil war now between the GNA and the LNA. Should Ireland break its neutrality now by telling social networks which side of that civil war should have a voice and which one should not?

    I would hazard a guess that Mr. Tweed supports the GNA. I might be wrong here. But in any event, judicial participation, by censorship, in Libya’s civil war is exactly what Ireland should NOT be doing.

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    Mute James Gorman
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    Jul 10th 2020, 6:30 PM

    We need to ban anon SM accounts

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    Mute David Van-Standen
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    Jul 10th 2020, 7:24 PM

    @James Gorman: in the context of individual users, that choose to not use their actual name on social media, there is zero real anonymity.

    The manipulation of public opinion or the dissemination of propaganda by private groups for profit, or government agencies to push an ideological or political agenda, is carried out not with anonymous users but non-existent ones, that are farmed on a massive scale using computer networks of virtual machines and or thousands of mobile phones on they use software to simultaneously publish, share or like whatever message the client wants spread in realtime.

    That said, the answer is not the type of blanket censorship that the author or others are suggesting, which it basically the same logic as cutting down forests to prevent the activities of arsonists.

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    Mute Tom Keenan
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    Jul 11th 2020, 8:06 PM

    The people who run the world are worried about ordinary people finding out about how things really are on the internet hence the calls for censorship. The internet must become like the mainstream media,keep people ignorant so they can be manipulated.

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