Saturday, December 30, 2006

Tesco drivers, Mahon Point and general muppets.

Ah yes the old chestnut of Mahon Point traffic again ! I was waiting this afternoon to turn right into the retail park so having missed the lights I sat back and watched the muppetry that was sure to unfold. I wasn't disappointed. Across from me was the queue to turn right into Mahon Point Centre. This queue was held by a redlight and the folks there were waiting patiently. But then a muppet decided that joining the queue was for fools so he started his own one - in the Straight-ahead lane. He was shortly followed by another duo of a**holes thus nicely blocking one of the lanes. When the lights changed they nipped across without any shame. A few minutes later another car decided that the straight lane was actually for turning right and turned in as well. Worst of all was when a Tesco Artic barrelled down the straight-lane and forced his way in on top of the right-turning cars - so much for professional drivers but then again every little helps when you're delivering stock to the worst stocked Tesco in Ireland.

9 comments:

  1. I'm just back from mahon point. I was driven by a driver who wouldnt let even his own reflection join the queue turning right, but enough of that. Like yourself, there we were parked up waiting for the lights to change when suddenly I heard a screech of tires beside me. Yeah you guessed it, someone decided to stop up dead on the middle lane waiting for a space to appear, ignorent of any green lights for his lane. About 4 people did this while we were waiting. They didnt stay there for long though, probably after seeing the guard directing traffic. The guard might as well have been doing 32 fouettes in the middle of the junction because nobody paid attention to him anyway.

    Oh btw, is it just me or are the sales really shit this year?

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  2. Not to be harsh (or to sound like my parents) but we were driving past the Mahon exit on the South Ring yesterday and saw the massive tailback. Our immediate reaction was "have they not bought enough?".

    I'm sure there were some Tesco grocery shoppers caught up in it but as for the rest of them - no sympathy here.

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  3. Sales are rubbish most years now - it seems they just buy in stock rather than reduce the real stuff.

    My excuse is that I was buying cable ties (B&Q is nearer than Woodies). Another packet to add to the packets that I can never find when I need them (just like those chocolate block wire connectors).

    I nipped into Currys as well and the large LCD tvs seemed to be walking out of the place so there's still a whole lot of money around after Christmas.

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  4. It's not surprising that people do stupid things to try to get into Mahon Point. Basically, that whole junction is really badly designed. To have ALL traffic come out at the same point as passing traffic was always a recipe for disaster. The finger should be pointed at the designers of this debacle.

    Coming from Blackrock, there should at least be a dedicated slip road leading into Mahon Point so that traffic going onto the South Ring can get through quicker. This backs up traffic to Skehard Road most rush hours.

    Coming from the tunnel, I would say that a dedicated fly over going into Mahon Point is needed. Traffic backs up down the slip road, all because of Mahon Point.

    Rant over, time to go sales shopping...

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  5. I've seen the exact same thing as this myself when the right-turn lane into Mahon point is full. I agree with Donal - its a badly design junction. You're better off driving straight, and doing a U-Turn near the NSC, and approaching it from the other side.

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  6. I think it pays to blog the reg numbers of the muppets at times like these. A little Google Juice never hurt a Mahon Muppet.

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  7. In reply to James's tip about turning right into maho point:

    In my experience, the best option is to turn left into the retail park, and do a 360 around the mini-roundabout and double back on yourself and the go straight across into Mahon Point (traffic lights permitting of course)

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  8. Yep I agree it's a badly designed junction - too short of a holding point for the volumes that build up . But that doesn't excuse muppetry and ignorance i.e. the "my time is too important for me to wait in line" merchants.

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  9. The junction is attrocious. What were the corporation thinking. I bet they wanted to come back and spend millions on redesigning it.

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