Ballycullen traffic issues

Anyone doing a journey like this?

I just recently moved jobs to the Baggot street area. While I like the job my journey is none too pleasant to be honest. I don't want to drive but right now I'm driving to Rathfarnham and getting a 15B into town. I start work at 8:30

My options as I see them....

1) 49/A - Takes ages and goes to Eden Quay. Not great. Long walk to and from work.

2) Drive to Terenure area and grab any bus passing through. Problem with this is I'm driving and buses can well be full by the time they reach Terenure.

3) Drive to Churchtown road and grab the LUAS.

4) Cycle. Not an option right now due to weather.

5) Buy a moped/motorbike. Not sure about this. Not too into the idea.

Anyone doing this journey shed any light on it?

Note: thread title changed from "Ballycullen to Baggot street area journey" to reflect the fact that the discussion is about traffic issues in the Ballycullen area in general now. ClubMan.

Re: Ballycullen to Baggot street area journey

Hi Gabriel,
1. Sounds like it's too slow.
2. I generally cycle through Terenure in the mornings from the Templeogue area. The build up of traffic at Terenure X and coming into Rathmines can be awful. I would never drive through Terenure. If I drive I head down the Dodder and cut back into Rathmines via Orwell Park and Dartry. It is far quicker.
3. If you get parking sounds like a good option. Ask someone from the Dundrum area re parking options.
4. Cycling seems too tough from where you are unless you are young or extremely fit. I don't think weather should stop someone cycling from reasonable distance, but yours might be too long. With a waterproof panier, cycling gear, proper breathable waterproofs and a change of clothes, cycling can be a very sensible option except in very wet, windy weather.
5. Sounds like the best option to me with appropriate training and taking safety precautions.
Best of luck,
Gearoid

Re: Ballycullen to Baggot street area journey

In the bad old days I used to live in Firhouse (not too far from ballycullen) and work in baggot street. I used to drive to harolds cross, where there's parking, and walk to Baggot street down the canal.

The bus never really worked out, and I value my safety too much to cycle.

(I wouldn't work in central Dublin again because of traffic, even if you paid me )

Re: Ballycullen to Baggot street area journey

Ahhhh I have just left this all behind me but I drove into Baggot street from Ballycullen for the last 2 years...the quickest route I found was as follows: (Being a northsider I'm not sure of all the road names so you'll have to bear with me)

Down the Ballycullen road, right onto Firhouse road, left after Ballyboden/St Endas to the Spawell Roundabout. Straight through the roundabout, straight on passing the entrance to the spawell on your left and Rossmore on your right.

Straight through the next roundabout (Wellington?) and straight on through the next one, which leads you past The Pines pub which is on your right.

Straight past the row of shops and at the next set of lights (Kimmage Manor is on your right) turn left into a housing estate. At the T junction turn right. Straight throught the next set of lights which brings you onto Stanaway Road.

Straight all the way to the T junction at the bottom of Stanaway Road. At the lights turn left onto Sundrive road. Straight to the next lights and turn right onto Clogher Road(the church is on your right when your at the lights). Straight on down this road and over the canal.

Turn right onto South Circular road and straight on through Leonards Cornor. Take the next right into Portobello and to the end of the road (you will be facing the canal).Turn left and straight down as far as the road will take you and follow the road around which will bring you out at The Lower Deck pub/Portobello College. Take a left (think its Richmond Street), through the lights which will bring you onto Camden street. Around by the Bleeding Horse pub and take the next left onto Harcourt street and swing right.

Straight to the next lights at Deloitte & take a right. Left onto Adelaide Road and cross Leeson Street onto Fitzwilliam Street. Right or Left as appropriate onto Baggot street.

It took on average an hour....depending on the chaos on the Ballycullen Road at Woodstown...

The other option worth considering might be to walk to Scholarstown road and catch the 15 (near Superquinn)...it will leave you in Leeson Street (near the Sugar Club) and is fairly quick as there are bus lanes most of the way and the service is fairly reliable and frequent.

Re: Ballycullen to Baggot street area journey

Thanks for all the replies guys.

Hi Gearoid,

I'm reasonably fit. Was very fit about three months ago. Wouldn't take me too long to get back again and cycling 11k to work everyday would certainly do that. Again...rain gear would cover me etc. But there's no shower in here and I sweat a lot when I exercise so I'm not sure I like the idea of stinking in work. I'll give it some thought though...not ruling it out just yet.

Hi Kiddo,

That's an interesting route. The problem is I don't have parking in here. Well...there's some free spaces occasionally but no guarantee I can get one.

The 15 option sounds interesting. I'll look into that further. If I could drive down and park near there that'd be great. Dreadful I know but I don't really know where the Scholarstown road is in conjunction to Superquinn

Re: Ballycullen to Baggot street area journey

Is there still parking in Harolds Cross? Or Portobello? or Ranelaigh?

Any of these areas would be okay...

Actually, what'd be better would be Ballsbridge.

Re: Ballycullen to Baggot street area journey

Gabriel said:

The 15 option sounds interesting. I'll look into that further. If I could drive down and park near there that'd be great. Dreadful I know but I don't really know where the Scholarstown road is in conjunction to Superquinn

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If you are standing in the Superquinn Carpark with your back to the row of shops then Scholarstown road is the road straight ahead. The bus stop is on the right hand side....the Beverley estate entrance is beside the bus stop.

heres a map from the AA website...might help you get your bearings

http://www.aaroadwatch.ie/popmap/map.asp?action=panup&x=312019&y=226586.5&id=56120&zoomlevel=9&width=750

I don't know where you could park though...don't know how vigilent they are in the Superquinn car park....it takes me about 20 mins to walk down, at a steady pace, to the bus stop from Hunterswood..

Re: Ballycullen to Baggot street area journey

That's brilliant Kiddo. I know exactly where that is. That will make a world of difference to my travel plans I think. Thanks a lot

Re: Ballycullen to Baggot street area journey

Gabriel said:

That's brilliant Kiddo. I know exactly where that is. That will make a world of difference to my travel plans I think. Thanks a lot

Click to expand...

No probs...

Re: Ballycullen to Baggot street area journey

I commute from Firhouse to Baggot St:

Go to M50, travel southbound.
Get off at Leopardstown Exit
On big roundabout in Leopardstown, take Brewry Road exit
Travel straight down Brewry Road, till you get to N11 junction.
Take left there.
Travel down N11, and park on any side roads there (near Stillorgan Hotel is best)
Go to bus stop on N11, take the No. 10 bus - this goes to Baggot St.

On a 'good day' it could take me about 30 min to go from home to work.
On 'bad' day, can take about 1 hr.

If you want to be 'healthy', when catching bus on N11, you could take a 46 (there a heaps of those), and get off at Leeson St, and then walk to Baggot St.

-soc

Re: Ballycullen to Baggot street area journey

That is good timing from Firhouse - it often takes me nearly 20 mins to get past the Woodstown roundabout alone

Re: Ballycullen to Baggot street area journey

loughquinn said:

That is good timing from Firhouse - it often takes me nearly 20 mins to get past the Woodstown roundabout alone

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I'm the same... it all depends on the traffic. I try to leave home as late as possible... 8:15-8:30am is my preferred time. I tried leaving earlier (7:45am), but find that I end up getting to work at the same time, despite leaving earlier! I remember back in the days when getting to the Woodstown roundabout would take me max 4 minutes! The explosion of houses in the Ballycullen area has made that area TERRIBLE now!

On a 'good' day - I can get onto the motorway in 3 minutes! On a 'bad' day, it takes 20-25 minutes. Today it took me 8-ish minutes to get to motorway (I left home at 8:45 this morning).

If it wasn't for the Woodstown roundabout I would make even better timing to work!

Re: Ballycullen to Baggot street area journey

Soc...30mins to get to Town via that route . Do you not find that the slip road at the Leopardstown exit is a nightmare. Usually takes me at least 15 minutes to clear that alone.

I'm working in Sandyford now and I leave home at 8.20. It usually takes me 15mins to get onto the M50 but it has taken me up to 30mins. Sometimes if the traffic is backed up on the Ballycullen Road I take a right and go via Kilakee and down to Knocklyon and onto the M50 that way...almost always takes 10 mins but its guarnateed, whereas at the Woodstown roundabout your relying on the good nature of another driver to let you out.....and I have noted that 9 times out of 10 its a man.

All in all my journey to work normally takes 35/40 mins.

Re: Ballycullen to Baggot street area journey

Generally I avoid the woodstown roundabout altogether. I just head over to Knocklyon via Kilakee. Much quicker.

Something needs to be done about that roundabout. Woodstown needs another entrance/exit.
Also...we need more public transport up here. I can't wait for the local politicians to start canvassing me. I've so many things I will want to pin them down on.

Re: Ballycullen to Baggot street area journey

I don't think its just Woodstown thats the problem. You have a backlog of traffic from Firhouse/Old Bawn direction all trying to get to the M50. Someone suggested in a thread in "Let off steam" that the back-up of traffic getting onto the M50 in the mornings via Firhouse/Ballycullen could be down to some northbound M50 users coming up the Firhouse exit only to re-enter the M50, stay in the lane for tallaght do the same at the Tallaght sliproad and hey presto they save themselves maybe 15/20 minutes.

The last 2/3 mornings the guards have been on point duty and the traffic was flowing much better...maybe that roundabout at the M50 needs traffic lights?

Where would an additional entrance/exit to Woodstown be situated?

The problem will only get worse as there are at least another 100 units to be sold in Hunterswood and then Ellier will be developing the site beside Woodstown...I don't know how many units they are planning to put in there.

Re: Ballycullen to Baggot street area journey

They might be able to stick an entrance down by the football pitches in Woodstown...no?

Re: Ballycullen to Baggot street area journey

Gabriel said:

They might be able to stick an entrance down by the football pitches in Woodstown...no?

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Don't see how that will help... everyone coming out of Woodstown will have to turn right then to get onto the M50, so unless they put lights in it will be more chaos..even without lights it will be chaos...and you'll have everyone using Woodstown as a rat-race...can't see it happening. If I lived in Woodstown I'd be kicking up a stink if that was proposed.

Its not going to solve anything just move the problem to another location. I vote for traffic lights on the roundabout onto the M50...

Re: Ballycullen to Baggot street area journey

Well...I'm not sure. You could be right though.

If you're coming out of woodstown to head towards Tallaght though you face the same bottleneck as those turning right heading towards the M50. makes sense that they somehow dream up another entrance/exit somewhere.

Right now you've got three estates converging on that one woodstown roundabout...and as you said Hunterswood is only growing.

I'm in Hunterswood so I have a choice. I can go right when I come out of my estate. But it doesn't solve the problem for those living in Woodstown. I know the guy who runs the Offie in Rathfarnham whose son lives in Woodstown and he's talked about 25 minute waiting times to actually make it out of woodstown itself (ie past the gates).
That's crazy. People need more than one exit point to their estate. They need some slip road or something to head up the Old Court road. At least that's what I'd be thinking if I were a resident there. That way they could get access to the new road they're building which would bring them down to stocking lane and so they could approach the M50 from a different side.

Re: Ballycullen to Baggot street area journey

Kiddo said:

Soc...30mins to get to Town via that route . Do you not find that the slip road at the Leopardstown exit is a nightmare. Usually takes me at least 15 minutes to clear that alone.

Click to expand...

Bare in mind that I was referring to a 'good' day. There have been times when I've left here at 8:45, and sat at my desk by 9:15-9:20. Actually yesterday Leopardstown exit was empty... I can't think what time I hit it... Only real thing that let me down yesterday was waiting for the bus.

The problem with Firhouse is that it has become a bottleneck. Everyone from Firhouse, Ballycullen, Woodstown are trying to get onto this tiny roundabout, ad exiting at the same point - which isn't moving much at all. I think that the Gardai directing traffic at the M50 has alleviated a good bit of the backlog that was happening in Firhouse.

I can't understand the planners didn't put an extra slip road onto/off the M50 between Dundrum and Firhouse??

Actually I've noticed that the traffic coming from Knocklyon direction onto the M50 is ALOT quieter! It just shows where the population explosion is happening! I think Firhouse has become over-developed. I was thinking about it the other day when sitting in traffic... I remember before the M50... it was only a couple of years ago. And everyone from Firhouse only had 2 ways to get to town, either down the Ballycullen Road, or Firhouse road...and I thought that was busy. Now we have an additional route... but oh my god, traffic is WAY worse. Maybe its not just the additional housing that has contributed to the problem, but the fact that more people are driving to work. I just think that it is interesting to see, on this thread how many people from Firhouse have to DRIVE to work (be it all the way or partial) due to lack of infrastructure. I think the bus service to Firhouse is pathetic, particularly the fact that the 49 has to sit in traffic to the Woodstown area, to pick up some folk, only to turn back around again and hit the same traffic back on Woodstown roundabout! :mad:

-soc

Re: Ballycullen to Baggot street area journey

I live in this area and I wouldn't dream of using public transport to get to work, it's a joke. The 49, as mentioned above does the most ridiculous of loops up to Ballycullen and then back to the Firhouse Road and takes an age to get to town. The 15F is a little more reliable but has become unusable (in my opinion) because of the Woodstown roundabout. I got it about 3 weeks ago and it took 20 minutes to make it down the Ballycullen Road. Besides this bus only runs twice each morning (I think). The Luas is a good 25 minute walk away, and that's before it takes its round the world route to the city centre, which takes approx 50 minutes. I used to drive to the Ranelagh area, park in free spaces and walk to town however now I cycle every day, it was tough enough at the start (especially on the windy days when coming home) however now I'm used to it and I find it is great exercise.

On the issue of Woodstown, it just seems farcical to me that these developers can build more and more units without a thought in the world for how they will affect the area. Am I naive to think that an environmental impact study should have to be done before getting planning permission and part of that would be how the extra cars on the road will affect the area? Maybe the days of brown envelopes are still alive and well. The exact same thing is happening on the Kiltipper Rd where they seem to have crammed more houses than you'd have thought possible into the side of the mountain.

Anyway, rant over!