What Happened On Headford Road

confuseddotcom

confuseddotcom wrote: »

Out of curiousity what would a taxi with a fare do sitting in this traffic 4 however many hours compared to the staple 10minute fare ..... :eek:

They charge by time if they aren't moving:
http://www.taxiregulator.ie/consumer/for-consumers.html

challengemaster

JONJO THE MISER wrote: »

Does anywhere do a free pizza offer if it takes more than 30mins to deliver:p

Pizza places USUALLY have small motorbikes for deliveries though, especially ones that would be inner-city drop offs....

Seriously though, 1 road causing an entire city gridlock.....madness...

harryd2

Just travelled across the city from Mervue to Salthill through the city centre.
Never saw the traffic this bad.
Took me 15mins on the bike

BornToBe?

Deleted User wrote: »

It's thirty years of planning, investment, objections etc - it's not just one person's fault.

I'm sure the city engineer has great plans but without the cash...

I'd normally would agree, but they managed to find the cash to resurface the Thomas Hynes road, which, of all roads, was perfect, but yet, when the colleges start, schools are back, they decide to dig it up and resurface it. so if its to do with previous mistakes over a 30 year period, then, isn't that alot of lessons learned? narrowing down to the right outcome and decisions? and as the city engineer, wouldn't you be embarressed to state your title, to the thousand of people who had to sit in traffic today? one accident should not, nor ever should, bring an entire city to a stand still.
It's thier job, they've got the qualifications and experience that got them the job, I hope, to design a system that works, not just on an normal day, but when things go wrong.
All I ask of my council, is that they'd be intelligent, and who ever appointed them, picked the best person for the job, and then, stood by thier decisions, and went ahead with the changes, for the good for its people.
They argue they don't have enough money? How much money was wasted today? how much enviormental impact of thousands of cars sitting there burning petrol? Someone asked recently why repaired pot holes magically re appear? broken water mains, yet they want to bring in water charges? who's gonna pay for that wasted water?
If it's so hard to run a big town / small city, how the hell does cities like Paris, London, New York even exist?

galah

is i still bad, or getting back to normal?

I wanna go home...
Is the Headford Road inbound (from Tuam Road/Eastern Bypass towards Terryland and Tesco) open?

Average-Ro

How are things looking now? I'm out in Tuam at the moment, but I'll be heading back in soon, not looking forward to it if it's still hectic.

Newport81

Have just been stuck on st marys road for an hour!!!!

dr.bollocko

The road is now open. Just back from Dunnes and it opened about 10-15 mins ago by the looks of it.
Good luck getting home folks.

Babalons

Average-Ro wrote: »

How are things looking now? I'm out in Tuam at the moment, but I'll be heading back in soon, not looking forward to it if it's still hectic.

My house-mate just arrived home, to Dun Na Coiribe on the headford road from the Tuam road direction. he said the traffic aint too bad getting in. Must be calming down by now, or else its ok coming towards the city.

Fey!

A lot of the problems coming off the bridge are the people who speed past the row of left lane traffic on the right, then force their way into the left lane near the roundabout.

Worse are the people who let them force their way in. I say leave them stuck blocking the right lane; once it happens to them a few times they might use the left lane from the start, and then the left lane will start to move quicker as there will be noone forcing their way in at the roundabout.

A few Gardai there to ticket the people crossing the solid white line at the roundabout, a couple at the Marriot roundabout for the people entering the roundabout in the left lane heading to the right, and a couple more at the fire station for the red light jumpers and yellow box blockers would generate a LOT of revenue for the state coffers, and speed up traffic in the process!

I hope that the lady who got hit is OK, and that everyone made it home in one piece.

schween

I left NUIG at 19.00. and got home at 20.45... I live 10 minutes past Oranmore.

galwayrush

When are we getting the ****ing by pass?:mad:

bagels

Many people here don't seem to realise that its Official Policy to close a road after a serious accident and leave it closed for an excessive period of time so as to cause maximum inconvenience for motorists.
The thinking behind it is that it might convince motorists to take more care.
As far as i'm concerned it achieves little good.
It creates road rage.
It encourages some people to drive even faster to make up for time lost, thereby creating even more danger on our roads.
It causes long delays for public transport passengers, amongst others.
Its a form of group punishment but group punishment is actually banned by law, eg barrack damages being imposed upon a group rather than on an individual.
I believe its far better to open the road as soon as possible (after the injured are cared for of course) but allow the traffic to pass at a crawl so that motorists can view the terrible scene, wreckage, etc.
This might bring home to drivers the seriousness of the situation and encourage them to cop on.
Best wishes to the lady who was injured.

Mollie Breathna

The Guards shut the roads after an accident - not the City Engineer. Maybe they are trying to make a road safety point but I doubt it.
What they could and should do is set up a contra -flow on the opposite side of the road and not allow the city descend into grid-lock allegedly in the name of accident investigation.
Of course, the Guards, if they even bother to answer any query, will claim that they have to close the roads and that's that.

bagels

Mollie Breathna wrote: »

The Guards shut the roads after an accident - not the City Engineer. Maybe they are trying to make a road safety point but I doubt it.

I can't supply a link to support my comment but i've seen/heard it on the media that its official policy to close the road for an unnecessarily excessive period of time to inconvenience motorists.
Have you ever come across the scene of an accident where the road is still closed even though the clean-up is completed, all vehicles have left the scene and a lone garda is left behind twiddling his/her thumbs with boredom?
Have you ever come upon the same scene hours later to discover the road is still closed?
I have, lots of times.

epgc3fyqirnbsx

bagels wrote: »

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I can't supply a link to support my comment but i've seen/heard it on the media that its official policy to close the road for an unnecessarily excessive period of time to inconvenience motorists.
Have you ever come across the scene of an accident where the road is still closed even though the clean-up is completed, all vehicles have left the scene and a lone garda is left behind twiddling his/her thumbs with boredom?
Have you ever come upon the same scene hours later to discover the road is still closed?
I have, lots of times.

It's policy to inconvenience motorists????

C'mon,accident like that are a potential crime scene, evidence needs to be gathered, this is similar in every country.
Perhaps sometimes it could be done quicker but then Gardai are under resourced as it is and there are lots of readings that need to be taken from a scene.

Or else Gardai will have failed to collect enough evidence, which would be complained about aswell...

ronnie3585

bagels wrote: »

Many people here don't seem to realise that its Official Policy to close a road after a serious accident and leave it closed for an excessive period of time so as to cause maximum inconvenience for motorists.
The thinking behind it is that it might convince motorists to take more care.
As far as i'm concerned it achieves little good.
It creates road rage.
It encourages some people to drive even faster to make up for time lost, thereby creating even more danger on our roads.
It causes long delays for public transport passengers, amongst others.
Its a form of group punishment but group punishment is actually banned by law, eg barrack damages being imposed upon a group rather than on an individual.
I believe its far better to open the road as soon as possible (after the injured are cared for of course) but allow the traffic to pass at a crawl so that motorists can view the terrible scene, wreckage, etc.
This might bring home to drivers the seriousness of the situation and encourage them to cop on.
Best wishes to the lady who was injured.

Well there we have it folks, the most ridiculous post ever on Boards. That is utter tripe. Were you in the Ardilaun last night too?

As the above poster said, a road is closed after a serious accident in order for the Gardai to gather evidence.

Mollie Breathna

ronnie3585 wrote: »

As the above poster said, a road is closed after a serious accident in order for the Gardai to gather evidence.

I don't doubt that they have to collect evidence - my point is the inordinate time that take to do it and the fact that they seem to be unable/unwilling to put in any sort of alternative traffic management plan to simply closing the road. They could very easily have opened a contra-flow today with a couple of guards at each roundabout.

challengemaster

Mollie Breathna wrote: »

I don't doubt that they have to collect evidence - my point is the inordinate time that take to do it and the fact that they seem to be unable/unwilling to put in any sort of alternative traffic management plan to simply closing the road. They could very easily have opened a contra-flow today with a couple of guards at each roundabout.

Normal gardaí probably aren't allowed to collect evidence, they aren't qualified and don't have the equipment (if needed) at hand, especially if it's a 1 car initial response.

All they can do is close off the area to protect whatever evidence might be there, call in the CSI's and let them at it. Also, the only forensics lab in the country is in phoenix park.... each major branch probably has their own 1 or 2 qualified people for certain circumstances, but they're hardly at the station 24/7, so they might have to come from home... otherwise, it's a dispatch from Dublin. Sure, it might take an inordinate amount of time, but you have to take into account what else is going on.

I've no idea, but I'd imagine in a situation like this.... something like the following occurs - I may be completely wrong, but this is just what I think makes sense...

Go from the point where it happened
- Someone saw, called emergency services, other emergency services contacted as ambulance is dispatched, and nearest patrol car responds.
- Gardaí at the scene need to figure out what's going on and decide what to do, while trying to direct traffic around the immediate area
- More gardaí arrive on scene and block off the area
- At the same time, some gardaí have to try find witnesses/talk to people, and someone probably had to go to the hospital to talk with the injured person, get a statement if possible. Also there still has to be people in the station - they all can't leave and lock up the place....

That's a lot of gardaí - how many are actually on duty at any one time in galway? It might be an inconvenience for people, but I doubt the emergency services were delighted to hear about someone being knocked down.

doubleglaze

ronnie3585 wrote: »

Well there we have it folks, the most ridiculous post ever on Boards. That is utter tripe. Were you in the Ardilaun last night too?

Ronnie, that simply is not true. You have completely over-reacted and are being censorious.

RolandIRL

traffic was absolute mad walking across the bridge from the college this evening. normally go up dyke road but had to do shopping in dunnes. was wondering what was happening. i thought traffic was going a lot slower than normal, but thought that was just rush hour.

best wishes to the lady. hope she recovers well.

Anima

As the above poster said, a road is closed after a serious accident in order for the Gardai to gather evidence.

I don't see why that takes half the day though. Car hits woman, woman falls down, woman is taken to hospital. What evidence is left at the road? The woman is taken away and the car is long gone or else it stuck around and the police investigate.

They're hardly dusting prints at the roadside. It just makes no sense to close the road off as far as I can see. Not trying to sound insensitive.

soundbyte

2 lanes closed in one direction was it? Why didnt they introduce a contraflow system in the other 2 lanes. The guards were there to do point duty anyway.

charlie_says

Hearing the horror stories today. Wow.

the keen edge

When are you people going to listen.
Theres only one solution to Galway's worsening traffic problems.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again,






Monorail.









Monorail,











Monorail!

ronnie3585

There's nothing on earth like a genuine, bona fide, electrified, six-car monorail. FACT!

the keen edge

ronnie3585 wrote: »

There's nothing on earth like a genuine, bona fide, electrified, six-car monorail. FACT!

It put Brockway and North Haverbrook on the map, thats for sure.

Robbo

Speaking of monorails, there's been nothing of late on fanciful-at-the-height-of-the boom GLUAS, has there?

kodute

ronnie3585 wrote: »

There's nothing on earth like a genuine, bona fide, electrified, six-car monorail. FACT!

I hear those things are awfully loud

bubbaloo

Ronnie - you obviously weren't sitting in the traffic last night or you would never say that this thread is tripe!
The road was closed - okay, there was an accident and according to one poster here, thankfully the woman involved is okay.
If there was a need to still close it 5 hours after the event, why did the Gardai not have a back-up plan in place?
They could have, as other posters mentioned, set up a contra-flow on the other side of the Headford Road.
The traffic was in good(ish) flow after the Wellpark junction.
Why couldn't the Gardai stand at the junction and direct the traffic, letting some through even if the lights were red. They could have got people moving a lot quicker.
I travelled from NUIG to Craughwell and it took 2.5 hours (45 mins just to get out of the campus!). I rang Mill St when I got as far as the Terryland roundabout and had a massive row with a Garda because he told me there were 5 Gardai out directing traffic but couldn't tell me where they were.
I saw one at the closed end of the Headford Road and she was standing looking at everyone, doing absolutely nothing to help!
The same thing happened last year after the floods. Everyone sat in traffic for 4 hours trying to get through Craughwell village - all it would have taken was a sign or a Garda on a bike to go down the queue and tell people to take a different route.
They're a pack of eejits! :mad::mad::mad::mad:
Thank you- rant over!!