Traffic Today

Webbs

JustMary wrote: »

Nope, I'm not joking at all.

Some employers (farmers and rural-services spring to mind), need to be outside large conurbations. For others, the availabilty of a suitable workforce is ALREADY a factor in where they locate their businesses! (Why is Lumension coming to Galway? Oh, that's right, the factors include the availability of skilled workers).

Semi-rural sprawl is a big issue in this country: amazing amounts of land have been used (many say spoiled) in providing one-off housing for people who want to live with a rural aspect - but their very presence there means that the area is no longer rural/natural/wilderness. That's why there are planning controls on it now. IMHO they need to go quite a bit further, and specify that housing should only be built in areas which have (or at least are planned to have) services that the residents will need: schools, medical centres, playing fields and JOBS!

And for whoever said:



I agree, it's crazy to let work dictate where you live, life is for living not working. But think about it s letting where you live dictate where you work. For example, I live in Galway, and am therefore giving up (for now anyway) the opportunity to work in my professional field. That's simply the price I pay.

So for those of us who are losing jobs they according to you have to look for jobs only in their near neighbourhood or if they get a job in another town or area they have to move house, moving kids from schools etc. And what about those households with 2 members of the household working do they both have to get jobs in the same area.
And lucky you you feel able to give up your professional field for a while and have an option to return. Those who work for example in University, hospital, laboratory sectors are usually limited to their work areas they cant work from home etc. if someone leaves their field it moves on rapidly making a return nigh on impossible!
We live in a capitalist society so anyone who owns housing around areas of employment (hospital or university for example) will be able to charge whatever they want for housing (even more than they have in the past) government would have to step in and cap house and rent prices

YOur argument about planning being stricter etc is something I agree with you . All this one off housing will be seen as a disaster for Ireland - and it is a particularly Irish disease there are no other countries that I can think of that have such atrocious lack of planning

Mrs OBumble

Webbs wrote: »

So for those of us who are losing jobs they according to you have to look for jobs only in their near neighbourhood or if they get a job in another town or area they have to move house, moving kids from schools etc. And what about those households with 2 members of the household working do they both have to get jobs in the same area.
....

YOur argument about planning being stricter etc is something I agree with you . All this one off housing will be seen as a disaster for Ireland - and it is a particularly Irish disease there are no other countries that I can think of that have such atrocious lack of planning

Of course there are challenges - and the more rare that a skill is, the more likely that an employer will have to trade off the skill vs the carbon-footprint impact of a particular individual. Ideally we would all have a minimal commute, but the reality of a capitalist society is that most people have some. But I still don't think anyone should be doing Tuam-Inverin every day: there have GOT to be better options.

The problem isn't just one-off housing: hundreds of houses were built in planned estates in Doughiska (one example that I know about) with no consideration about where the children would go to school. Similarly, there are big estates on the outskirts of towns an hour or so drive from Galway: the houses are unsold, partly because there are no jobs within a reasonable commuting distance.

snubbleste

snubbleste wrote: »

Did anyone just hear the raidió? I think I must have mis-heard because..
The council are considering introducing traffic lights on two more roundabouts in the city to ease traffic

Turns out the raidió was correct

A controversial new framework plan to revitalise the Headford Road area of the city is due to be presented to councillors next month. The plan is expected to include proposals to remove the congested Headford Road Roundabout at the Galway Shopping Centre, replacing it with hightech so-called ‘intelligent’ traffic lights systems similar to those newly installed at Moneenageisha Roundabout.
Ciarán Hayes has indicated that the roundabouts at the Headford Road and GMIT would be candidates for the smart junction “in the long term”. Both roundabouts were under severe pressure due to congestion.

Fey!

Any chance they'd work with the gardai with policing the junctions (watching the light dodgers and the people who block the junctions) for a while; if they don't deal with the bad drivers, then spending millions changing the junctions will be of no value.

On the Headford Road roundabout, they could improve it by putting lights on ALL of the entrances onto the roundabout instead of only a few and a half! (Shopping centre exit has no lights, and the Headford Road outbound only has lights on the roundabout itself, not on the approach).

snubbleste

Fey! says we need more lights on the magic roundabout!

I've actually seen motorbike garda there a few mornings circa 8:20 just watching the traffic, presumably as a deterrent to wayward behaviour, maybe they pull people over as well i dunno.

KevR

When the Galway SC Roundabout is upgraded the entrance/exit to the Shopping Centre from the roundabout will be closed and replaced with a LILO junction on the Sean Mulvoy Road.

The Headford Road Outbound will be the biggest beneficary from this upgrade because at present it has no lights for entering the roundabout.

Bear in mind that they have a lot more space to work with at this junction so it will be a lot more high powered than the Moneenagisha junction - there will be dedicated lanes for every movement I would assume, 2 dedicated lanes for many movements.

I look forward to seeing the plans for the junction. My main concern is that the Menlo Park Roundabout isn't being upgraded and this roundabout often has cars tailing back along the Headford Rd and onto the SC roundabout at present. It's safe to assume that the Menlo Park roundabout will still have traffic tailing back into the SC junction post-upgrade. This will limit the Shopping Centre junction's throughput. The Menlo Park RAB needs to be upgraded also.

The plans for the Moneenagisha junction were available for the public to view in the transport office prior to the upgrade. They were encouraging people to come view the plans and give their suggestions which would be considered.
I wonder how many people who are now moaning on the radio and writing letters to the Advertiser complaining about the junction actually went in to view the plans?

skelliser

i heard that the reason they wouldnt upgrade the seamus quirke road at dunnes was that they reckon it would cause a bigger bottleneck at the bridge/magic roundabout

KevR

skelliser wrote: »

i heard that the reason they wouldnt upgrade the seamus quirke road at dunnes was that they reckon it would cause a bigger bottleneck at the bridge/magic roundabout

I think the Council want to go ahead with it. The funding was cut by Central Government because of the economic downturn. It will get done eventually when the money is available (god only knows when that will be though).

I can't see how it would cause a bigger bottleneck on the Bridge/SC roundabout because there are already 2 lanes going onto Browne roundabout in Westside, it will be the same after the Seamus Quirke gets upgraded. Capacity going through the Browne roundabout won't increase so traffic will still be arriving at the bridge/SC roundabout at the same rate as now.

MayoForSam

MayoForSam wrote: »

And the lovely climate we have is hardly conducive to cycling / walking - maybe 'god' could do something here ? (the city is too spread out anyway).

I walk to work and with a good umbrella, jacket and shoes don't get uncomfortably wet very often. I won't pretend it doesn't happen though.

MayoForSam wrote: »

By-pass is a necessity, this would take the pressure off the existing roads and allow more bus and cycle lanes.

I agree - once the bypass is built there should be quality bus corridors from say Westside across the bridge and out the Dublin road.

KevR

By the way, it makes a lot of sense to replace the GMIT roundabout with traffic lights. It's only a simple crossroad. If traffic lights were put in here then all lights along the Dublin Road could be sequenced together or communicate with each other and that should improve traffic a lot on the Dublin Road. The roundabout is too unpredictable to successfully sequence the lights together from Moneenagisha to the lights at Doughiska on the Dublin Rd.

Chris_533976

Both Seamus Quirke and the various roundabouts are the problem.

Contrary to popular belief, all the roundabouts on the N6 can be grade separated, but it would be far too expensive to even dream of it.

Wompa1

JustMary wrote: »

Of course there are challenges - and the more rare that a skill is, the more likely that an employer will have to trade off the skill vs the carbon-footprint impact of a particular individual. Ideally we would all have a minimal commute, but the reality of a capitalist society is that most people have some. But I still don't think anyone should be doing Tuam-Inverin every day: there have GOT to be better options.

The problem isn't just one-off housing: hundreds of houses were built in planned estates in Doughiska (one example that I know about) with no consideration about where the children would go to school. Similarly, there are big estates on the outskirts of towns an hour or so drive from Galway: the houses are unsold, partly because there are no jobs within a reasonable commuting distance.

I don't think your accounting for all the variable and your entitled to your opinion but I have to say I don't agree with your logic at all.

Webbs

KevR wrote: »

The plans for the Moneenagisha junction were available for the public to view in the transport office prior to the upgrade. They were encouraging people to come view the plans and give their suggestions which would be considered.
I wonder how many people who are now moaning on the radio and writing letters to the Advertiser complaining about the junction actually went in to view the plans?

Would it really have mattered if people went in too look? I for one wouldnt know what to look for in a junction if someone just put a set of plans in front of me.

However surely an expert or perhaps even a person in charge of traffic for Galway god forbid may actually have looked at them and thought 'what a rubbish plan, that'll never work'

biko

Well, there seems to be a lot of lay experts on this thread (every traffic thread in fact).

My suggestion, use reserve Garda to control junctions, it won't get you there faster but at least eejits won't get away with eejit things any longer.

Work was taking place on the Moneenagisha junction lights this morning.
There were four lads with stop/go signs letting one side go at a time.

Mrs OBumble

Magnus wrote: »

My suggestion, use reserve Garda to control junctions, it won't get you there faster but at least eejits won't get away with eejit things any longer.

I've come from a place where the intelligent lights really do work, and observation there is that intersections move a lot more slowly under manual control than lights. And that's with the manual control done by full-time police who know how to do it (I can't say much that's polite about the standard of points duty I've been from gardi here.)

galah

so, does it work now?

I couldn't believe the radio this morning - they've been bitching forever about the Moneenageesha junction, how the lanes needed changing, this that and the other.
Now they're going in and changing it, and now they're bitching on the radio AGAIN, this time about them changing the lanes. Idiots.

And yes, intelligent lights do work, but it helps if people know how to drive, as well. Even the most intelligent lights will be hard pressed to deal with idiot Galway drivers breaking red lights, blocking junctions, and general muppetry.

I say install red light cameras (as in, taking pictures when people break the red lights), speed cameras, and any other equipment to keep Galway drivers in check - and up the city's revenue at the same time. It seems that people here don't get it any other way than through their wallets.

KevR

Install cameras to stop people breaking red lights and they could programme the same cameras to snap anyone who hasn't pulled off 2/3 seconds after the light goes green. €80 fine and 2 penalty points for being slow to take off - soon everyone would be paying attention when stopped at red lights and pulling off a lot quicker when they get green. The junction would be a lot more effecient.

?Cee?view

Next time you're (plural!) in New York, have a look at traffic stopped at red lights there.

In Ireland, when a light turns green, what generally happens is that each driver IN TURN lazily takes off the handbrake, puts the car in gear, and moves off.

In NY, lights turns green and amazingly all drivers aren't surprised when this happens. All cars seamlessly move off together! God help the guy who hesitates because he'll be run over

Also, why can't Ireland have an amber when moving off as in the UK? i.e. sequence is red, stop: amber, prepare to move and green, move

KevR

churchview wrote: »

Also, why can't Ireland have an amber when moving off as in the UK? i.e. sequence is red, stop: amber, prepare to move and green, move

Agree that we should have this.

There are temporary traffic lights on the N6 near Aughrim because of the motorway construction and they have a pre-green amber signal. Traffic noticeably moves off quicker from these lights compared to all others in Ireland.

fish fingers

churchview wrote: »

Next time you're (plural!) in New York, have a look at traffic stopped at red lights there.

In Ireland, when a light turns green, what generally happens is that each driver IN TURN lazily takes off the handbrake, puts the car in gear, and moves off.

In NY, lights turns green and amazingly all drivers aren't surprised when this happens. All cars seamlessly move off together! God help the guy who hesitates because he'll be run over

Also, why can't Ireland have an amber when moving off as in the UK? i.e. sequence is red, stop: amber, prepare to move and green, move

Jaysis will ya stop, Some people have enough to be thinking about, without confusing them anymore

?Cee?view

fish fingers wrote: »

Jaysis will ya stop, Some people have enough to be thinking about, without confusing them anymore

and people like me who're red/green colourblind would be completely screwed!.....wait no, the lights are always in the same position.....aren't they?

Webbs

churchview wrote: »

Next time you're (plural!) in New York, have a look at traffic stopped at red lights there.

In Ireland, when a light turns green, what generally happens is that each driver IN TURN lazily takes off the handbrake, puts the car in gear, and moves off.

In NY, lights turns green and amazingly all drivers aren't surprised when this happens. All cars seamlessly move off together! God help the guy who hesitates because he'll be run over

Also, why can't Ireland have an amber when moving off as in the UK? i.e. sequence is red, stop: amber, prepare to move and green, move

Its not just in NY that happens, most of the world manages to move off at traffic lights smoothly and quickly, for some reason Galway drivers havent mastered the skill of looking further than the car in front of them

galah

then again, most of Galway's drivers can't seem to find their indicators either. Or the switch for their headlights.

JohnCleary

galah wrote: »

then again, most of Galway's drivers can't seem to find their indicators either. Or the switch for their headlights.

They were an optional extra on my car

irisheddie85

was driving through the cross from tuam road side last night and making both lanes straight through seemed to speed things up but reintroduced one the most dangerous aspects of the rounabout.
The sudden **** 2 lanes into 1 moment outside the g hotel. I almost got the front of my car taken off by a jeep and the back taken off by a car. neither of them seemed to realise i was there
Then later on i saw a taxi coming from college road direction in the left lane decide he was going to go right. If the taxi driver beside him hadn't been alert it would have been a nasty accident

Discodog

Webbs wrote: »

Its not just in NY that happens, most of the world manages to move off at traffic lights smoothly and quickly, for some reason Galway drivers havent mastered the skill of looking further than the car in front of them

The difference is that, in the rest of the world, drivers are taught to drive & have to pass a test. Then their driving is policed. Here there are so many who have never taken a lesson or a test. The result is a total absence of roadcraft. So when anything occurs that requires an element of judgement, they make the wrong choice.

Every time that I drive into or out of Galway I spot a car, in one of the numerous turnings, waiting to join the main road. They always follow the same routine:

1. They look & see me coming towards them

2. They have a good long think

3. They have another think

4. They pull out in front of me

5. They fail to accelerate causing me to brake

6. When I have nearly stopped they roar away into the distance

There is no comprehension of distance & speed. There is also no understanding of synchronising their speed to the speed of the traffic.

The IAM & Police teach a technique called Defensive Driving which basically means that you assume that everyone else is an idiot & unpredictable. This an essential survival skill in Ireland.

dr.bollocko

At that junction turned traffic light nightmare my main problem is that the light goes green, wait 5 to 10 seconds and the idiot at the front starts moving. So as well as it being crap, it's a bit worse because people are not quick off of the mark to go when the light is green.
Why don't they implement the system they have in the north there? The lights go from red to amber to alert you it's about to go green and then it goes green. Couldn't hurt and might help. It'll at least put my heart attack off for another few months.

KevR

Was coming in the Dublin Road yesterday evening and approaching the Moneenageisha junction there were a few cars stopped at the red light (waiting to head straight on up to Cemetary Cross). Lights went green, cars ahead started slowly pulling off, the woman in front of me then decides she wants to switch lanes to turn left onto Lough Atalia. That lane was full of cars but she was prepared to sit there and wait to get in, with me and everyone else stuck behind her with our light green! I beeped and she slowly pulled off and went straight through up to Cemetary Cross, but she didn't pass up the opportunity to hesitate in the middle of the junction aswell.

What a fucking rehab! Go to the roundabout and double back if you have changed your mind about which direction you are going. And get the fuck out of my way!

• Don't leave it until you are right at the junction before getting in lane - this slows traffic through the junction.
• Don't wait for a green light before deciding/trying to change lane - this slows traffic through the junction.
• Don't hesitate in the middle of the junction - this slows traffic through the junction.
• Don't delay when pulling off at the junction - this slows traffic through the junction.
• Don't pull off slowly at the junction - this slows traffic through the junction.

KevR

dr.bollocko wrote: »

At that junction turned traffic light nightmare my main problem is that the light goes green, wait 5 to 10 seconds and the idiot at the front starts moving. So as well as it being crap, it's a bit worse because people are not quick off of the mark to go when the light is green.
Why don't they implement the system they have in the north there? The lights go from red to amber to alert you it's about to go green and then it goes green. Couldn't hurt and might help. It'll at least put my heart attack off for another few months.

I think it's the drivers who are the problem more so than the actual junction. If you look at Dublin, they have loads of junctions like this. Dublin City Council and the general public would never consider replacing these junctions with roundabouts because it would cause chaos. The difference that makes their traffic light junctions a success is that they don't delay pulling off, don't hesitate in the middle of the junction and drive faster than us.

I would definitely be in favour of using the pre-green amber warning light exactly like the UK.