Quincentary bridge and University Rd roadworks

antoobrien

snubbleste wrote: »

So, then this many posts later, what is your position on the removal of the right turn markings at that junction?

For one house, are you serious? I'm the one who suggested instead of traffic lights at Briarhill removing access to the Monivea road.

Moreover there's precedence for making them go the hundred yards to turn - no right turn onto the Monivea road from Ballybane Rd.

what_traffic

churchview wrote: »

I know the owner well and I'll put money on his continuing to turn right regardless of what any sign says.

Agree - as will most of the cyclists using the University.

galwaycyclist

There is a turning lane, 100m up the road.

OK we're all a bit tetchy about this at this stage but this comment actually a useful opener to illustrate an important point that sometimes gets missed.

In planning for walking and cycling, the "destination" is not the "campus", or "business park" or "district" etc. The "destinations" are the places within these locations that people are trying to get to.

So to take the University example, if someone is trying to access bike racks** behind the Martin Ryan Institute, the current trip length from the Wards shop junction is circa 165m. If they have to use the other entrance to the campus then the trip length is 465m.

If someone is accessing Aras Na Mac Leinn, the Biochemistry Dept, Micro, IT etc they are also likely to perceive this as 300m diversion not a 100m diversion.

An extra 300m of physical work vs waiting here for a gap in the cars? I know what I'd do.


** I don't know if there are any bike racks there its just where the parking is.

snubbleste

Anyone know what happened to the Galway Transportation Unit? This would appear to be within their remit. They are far too quiet.
This is from their 2008-2012 business plan

The objectives of the Galway Transportation Unit are:
• To ensure that Galway has the necessary transport infrastructure and services to support it’s continued growth and development as a gateway and a regional centre
• To improve availability and potential usage of all modes of public transport.
• To develop other travel modes i.e. cycling and walking
• To influence public behaviour in relation to choice of travel mode & encourage the increased use of an appropriate and efficient public transport services both within the city and to and from the city.
• To engage in a marketing strategy that will promote a public awareness of the strategies being implemented and facilitate public acceptance of new measures being introduced.
• To improve journey times both within the city and to and from the city for all modes of transport.
• To effectively integrate different transport modes with particular emphasis on public transport.
• To minimise traffic congestion within the city.

extraice

The objectives of the Galway Transportation Unit are:

• To ensure that Galway has the necessary transport infrastructure and services to support it’s continued growth and development as a gateway and a regional centre.
Airport to closed , trains are over priced slow and dont arrive on time

• To improve availability and potential usage of all modes of public transport.
still think on that one ... Gluse (galway ligth rail .. no money are space for it in 500 year old town )

• To develop other travel modes i.e. cycling and walking
it windy and wet in the west alot ... i pay road tax for what ? to walk

• To influence public behaviour in relation to choice of travel mode & encourage the increased use of an appropriate and efficient public transport services both within the city and to and from the city.

• To engage in a marketing strategy that will promote a public awareness of the strategies being implemented and facilitate public acceptance of new measures being introduced. ya city hall please tell us when you doing road works like few weeks befor that happen not on the day , O sorry what the kids buy books and the 20,000 students coming back to galway ( Money pays rent and rates ...Pay wages ...

• To improve journey times both within the city and to and from the city for all modes of transport...... mmmm some one eles please fill it in

• To effectively integrate different transport modes with particular emphasis on public transport . Bus want come on time , there no where to stand if it cold and raining , salthill you get blow in twon , dont need the bus shelters (as the open to the weather )

• To minimise traffic congestion within the city. outher ring road is need , not more bus and Bike lane there no car lane left

Main roads , sould not have road works 8am - 7pm , as the paper say about dominick be closed for 6 weeks at no raod work to be cary out in the summer months of July and aug due incress Trafice use in the city

Mrs OBumble

snubbleste wrote: »

Anyone know what happened to the Galway Transportation Unit? This would appear to be within their remit. They are far too quiet.

They're still there. The folks behind the replacement of roundabouts with traffic lights (which I thoroughly approve of, btw). They take credit for organising the Christmas P&R (thought I think it was happening before they started). They are behind the roll-out of bus-shelters around the place (and in fairness, they did stop BE from getting shelters that were only for them).

They told me in mid 2009 that the public transport website that was in their workplan for the year was "still under development, but would be available shortly". And they announced http://galwaycitybus.ie/ in 2010. (It cost me a tenner to get www.galwaycitybus.com, just in case )

I think a lot of work went into a major Smarter Travel bid: they had grand plans for getting a huge amount of the E50m allocated to it, but I think weren't so realistic about Galway's likely share.

the realpigiron

Is the Quincentennial bridge still being worked on, need to head over that side of town on Monday morning.

galwaycyclist

JustMary wrote: »

I think a lot of work went into a major Smarter Travel bid: they had grand plans for getting a huge amount of the E50m allocated to it, but I think weren't so realistic about Galway's likely share.

The final proposals were a fairly cynical exercise and much of them represent worst practice. The community forum came close to formally withdrawing support. There's few fingers crossed that the GTU never sees a penny of this money.

Iwannahurl

extraice wrote: »

The objectives of the Galway Transportation Unit are:

• To develop other travel modes i.e. cycling and walking
it windy and wet in the west alot ... i pay road tax for what ? to walk

• To minimise traffic congestion within the city. outher ring road is need , not more bus and Bike lane there no car lane left

I'm a motorist, and to avoid suffering from -- and adding to -- traffic congestion I cycle, walk or take the bus whenever possible and feasible.

Curiously enough, I also escape paying this "road tax" that you seem to be saddled with, but which (correct me if I'm wrong) seems to confer some sort of motoring entitlement. Should I feel hard done by?

Iwannahurl

the realpigiron wrote: »

Is the Quincentennial bridge still being worked on, need to head over that side of town on Monday morning.

Was down that neck of the woods this very evening, as it happens. Took us an hour to get from Joyce Roundabout (junction of Tuam Road and Sean Mulvoy Road) to the Browne Roundabout (Newcastle, back of UHG).

By far the biggest obstacle was the combined effect of the utterly appalling Bodkin Roundabout (near Tesco) and the utterly appalling driving of the many motorists who seem not to know how to navigate it.

Travelling this route to the West in such conditions, you are left in no doubt about what country you're in. P:ssing rain, rivers of water pouring past blocked drains, large numbers of cars (single occupant, many of them) with no lights on despite the poor visibility, buses pointlessly and uselessly stuck in car traffic, a few bedraggled cyclists going the wrong way on poor quality cycle paths while trying to get past the wandering pedestrians, very few of whom, incidentally, were properly dressed for the weather despite rain being one of the most common excuses given for not walking or cycling.


These are the kinds of human folly I muse upon, as it takes me 60 minutes to drive 2.5 km, a journey that Google Maps assures me should take half that time on foot!

EyeSight

just a heads up that things are jam packed again last week i found there to be no traffic except for the usual friday jam. but for some reason today its gone back to being terrible

snubbleste

Anyone heading to City Hall for the special Council meeting requested by the Mayor on traffic? Should be lively and entertaining for a wet autumn monday.

snubbleste

Just to add to the fun, the AA have reported a fuel spill at the Headford Road roundabout.

KittyeeTrix

What a lovely Galway evening for a bike ride home from work:D

Malice

Iwannahurl wrote: »

Curiously enough, I also escape paying this "road tax" that you seem to be saddled with, but which (correct me if I'm wrong) seems to confer some sort of motoring entitlement. Should I feel hard done by?

Surely there's no need to be that pedantic? I think you know full well that they meant motor tax.

Iwannahurl

Malice wrote: »

Surely there's no need to be that pedantic? I think you know full well that they meant motor tax.

Do they know what they meant?

Iwannahurl

fluffyorganic1 wrote: »

What a lovely Galway evening for a bike ride home from work:D

Wave while you pedal!

galwaycyclist

Malice wrote: »

Surely there's no need to be that pedantic? I think you know full well that they meant motor tax.

With regret in my view on this occasion your accusation of pedantry is not supported. It is quite clear that the person who made the original post was of the view that they had purchased some form of special entitlement. It is also clear that in their view this "entitlement" superceded the right of other road users to have their needs recognised in the mangement of the roads network.

Successive roads acts have clearly stated that roads authorities are required to consider the needs of all road users in the performance of their functions. Nowhere do they state that they are to allocate shared public resources on the basis of anyone's personal sense of entitlement.

And yes my car is fully taxed there is no road tax.

Iwannahurl

galwaycyclist wrote: »

OK we're all a bit tetchy about this at this stage but this comment actually a useful opener to illustrate an important point that sometimes gets missed.

In planning for walking and cycling, the "destination" is not the "campus", or "business park" or "district" etc. The "destinations" are the places within these locations that people are trying to get to.

So to take the University example, if someone is trying to access bike racks** behind the Martin Ryan Institute, the current trip length from the Wards shop junction is circa 165m. If they have to use the other entrance to the campus then the trip length is 465m.

If someone is accessing Aras Na Mac Leinn, the Biochemistry Dept, Micro, IT etc they are also likely to perceive this as 300m diversion not a 100m diversion.

An extra 300m of physical work vs waiting here for a gap in the cars? I know what I'd do.


** I don't know if there are any bike racks there its just where the parking is.

Well, this is the whole point, isn't it?

Provision for cycling ought to take into account that cyclists like -- and deserve -- maximum convenience.

Simply stating that there is another entrance 100 metres up the road completely misses this fundamental point.

In any case, cyclists will have to contend with oncoming traffic no matter where they turn right. Are we supposed to believe that reducing their route choices makes conditions safer and more conducive? I suspect this is the usual roads engineering priorities at play: introduce a new arrangement for the benefit of traffic flow, and then either ignore cyclists' objections or justify the decision retrospectively by claiming that it either makes no difference for cyclists or even improves things.

Malice

Iwannahurl wrote: »

Do they know what they meant?

Why don't you ask them yourself instead of quoting my post?

galwaycyclist wrote: »

With regret in my view on this occasion your accusation of pedantry is not supported.

The on-thread evidence would suggest otherwise but hey, believe what you want .

antoobrien

Malice wrote: »

Surely there's no need to be that pedantic? I think you know full well that they meant motor tax.

Unfortunately we do need to be pedantic because the 1.023 billion euros raised by paying motor tax is not for use on roads (which would benefit all road users not just motorists), it's used to pay for services (like the the approximately 24m litres of water galway city council waste every day).

I wonder if anyone can tell us how much vat was paid by cyclists on cycling equipment (sales & servicing) last year?

Iwannahurl

Malice wrote: »

Why don't you ask them yourself instead of quoting my post?

Why don't you let them answer for themselves instead of quoting mine?

Iwannahurl

antoobrien wrote: »

Unfortunately we do need to be pedantic because the 1.023 billion euros raised by paying motor tax is not for use on roads (which would benefit all road users not just motorists), it's used to pay for services (like the the approximately 24m litres of water galway city council waste every day).

I wonder if anyone can tell us how much vat was paid by cyclists on cycling equipment (sales & servicing) last year?

Like other taxes, Motor Tax is also an instrument of public policy, not just a source of revenue for the state.

The money raised from Motor Tax falls far short of the cost of constructing and maintaining the roads network.

What relevance does VAT on cycling equipment have? Mind you, now that you mention it, I hope it's zero.

I wonder if anyone can tell us what are the current and potential costs to the State due to (a) road fatalities and injuries, (b) preventable morbidity and mortality, and (c) excess CO2 emissions?



BTW and OT: "it's used to pay for services (like the the approximately 24m litres of water galway city council waste every day). How does Galway City Council waste that much water?

ei.sdraob

Iwannahurl wrote: »

Like other taxes, Motor Tax is also an instrument of public policy, not just a source of revenue for the state.

The money raised from Motor Tax falls far short of the cost of constructing and maintaining the roads network.

What relevance does VAT on cycling equipment have? Mind you, now that you mention it, I hope it's zero.

I wonder if anyone can tell us what are the current and potential costs to the State due to (a) road fatalities and injuries, (b) preventable morbidity and mortality, and (c) excess CO2 emissions?

You again, do you take some perverted pleasure out of people of Galway being stuck in traffic?

BTW the motor tax, excise, carbon tax, insurance duty, vat and so on more than pay for the road network, and this was covered extensively in infrastructure forum

ei.sdraob

Iwannahurl wrote: »

Wave while you pedal!

Just shows that you are not from Galway, yesterday evening the rain was coming down in sheets with roads turning into rivers.

What are you exactly doing in 2 threads now on subject of Galway traffic?

Sponge Bob

Iwannahurl wrote: »

The money raised from Motor Tax falls far short of the cost of constructing and maintaining the roads network.

Rubbish, motorists more than pay their way.

What relevance does VAT on cycling equipment have? Mind you, now that you mention it, I hope it's zero.

I wonder if anyone can tell us what are the current and potential costs to the State due to (a) road fatalities and injuries, (b) preventable morbidity and mortality, and (c) excess CO2 emissions?

Time to chip cyclists like we do dogs so we can charge the cnuts €80 a pop for crashing traffic lights. :cool:

Iwannahurl

ei.sdraob wrote: »

Just shows that you are not from Galway, yesterday evening the rain was coming down in sheets with roads turning into rivers.

What are you exactly doing in 2 threads now on subject of Galway traffic?

1. If so, what of it? http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=74225463&postcount=221

2. Roads turning into rivers. That would be at least partly due to blocked drains. But hey, we've loads of money from motoring-related taxes to pay for clearing them! Don't we?

dubhthach

Iwannahurl wrote: »

Like other taxes, Motor Tax is also an instrument of public policy, not just a source of revenue for the state.

The money raised from Motor Tax falls far short of the cost of constructing and maintaining the roads network.

Here is the break down of taxes charged on motorists from 2002 to 2007.



Totals going to Central Gov. (excluding motor tax)

• 2002: €3 billion
• 2003: €3.2 billion
• 2004: €3.6 billion
• 2005: €4 billion
• 2006: €4.4 billion
• 2007: €4.8 billion (estimate)

Totals going to Local Gov. (Motor tax)

• 2002: €581m
• 2003: €680m
• 2004: €747m
• 2005: €802m
• 2006: €880m
• 2007: €944m (estimate)

I heard figures of €16billion been spent on road construsction over the last 10 years. From 2002-2007 the state took €23billion in taxes from motorists in the forms of Excise duty on Fuel, VRT and VAT (on fuel and car purchases). If you factor in 2001 and figures for 2008-2011 you are probably looking at €32billion in taxes.

During the same 2002-2007 timeframe €4.6billion was paid in forms of "Motor tax" which went into the Local goverenment fund.

The expected motor tax for 2011 in the Budget is: €953m

We can extrapolate then that the motor tax collected for 2008-2011 will come to at least €3.6billion (I went for average of €900m a year), if you factor in a figure of at least €500m for 2001 then you get a total "Motor Tax" take of circa: €8.7billion which went into Local goverenment fund over the last 10 years

Looking at the details from Budget you see that when it comes to "Local Goverenement Fund" that "Gross Motor Tax receipts" predicted for 2011 are:
€953m, the predicted expenditure on "Non-National Road payments" in the same Fund is €397.5m. In other words for vast bulk of roads (90,000 km) are funded out of Fund made up of "Motor tax" receipts.

Ther income of which exceeds spending on non-national roads by close on €550m per year and probably has so for most of the last 10 years.

In total the take from motorists is about €40billion which is at least a factor of 2 on what was spent on road infrastructure (2.5x if you go on figure of €16billion)

antoobrien

Iwannahurl wrote: »

BTW and OT: "it's used to pay for services (like the the approximately 24m litres of water galway city council waste every day). How does Galway City Council waste that much water?

It's well known that about 50% of the water produced by Galway City is wasted (they'll even admit it, while claiming it's property owners fault). Given that they produce 48m liters each day 24m sounds about right.

Iwannahurl

antoobrien wrote: »

It's well known that about 50% of the water produced by Galway City is wasted (they'll even admit it, while claiming it's property owners fault). Given that they produce 48m liters each day 24m sounds about right.

I know this is OT (though clearly tax related, which is clearly infrastructure related) but who is doing the wasting. You originally said it was the Council itself.