Roadworks: Font & Morris Roundabouts

Leonard Hofstadter

Apparently the lights at the Tuam road have now indeed been switched on!

antoobrien

Lights on since 4pm

Just got a phonecall from my brother, who's been caught in traffic at the lights. Aparrently the current reports/issues are:

• 45 minutes from The Galway plate to the lights
• 45 minutes from the Trappers to the lights
• 4 vehicles allowed to turn right from Ballybane rd onto Tuam Rd
• left slip off the Ballybane Rd (to head towards the Trappers) is Red when the straight on lights are green (wtf? somebody tell me that's not true)

My brothers comment was that "it looks lethal to cyclists".

Lets hope it improves lively.

what_traffic

antoobrien wrote: »

Tuam Rd lights due to be turned on today (no mention of the Ballybane lights).

From GalwayCityCo twitter feed today @ 11h17 they say:
"N6 PHASE 3 WORKS: Traffic Lights will be switched on at Ballybaan Road junction on Monday June 11th"

antoobrien

what_traffic wrote: »

From GalwayCityCo twitter feed today @ 11h17 they say:
"N6 PHASE 3 WORKS: Traffic Lights will be switched on at Ballybaan Road junction on Monday June 11th"

Personally, if what I'm hearing about the Tuam Rd is right I hope they delay it until 10am on Tuesday morning.

what_traffic

antoobrien wrote: »

My brothers comment was that "it looks lethal to cyclists".

Your brother is right - would not advise any cyclists to use the N6 section.

Leonard Hofstadter

That's not good to hear at all. Hopefully it won't be long before they sort out the timings for the lights - they definitely are a more efficient way of dealing with traffic, as the Briarhill junction shows - I remember what it was like before they got rid of the roundabout there, and it is much better now!

antoobrien

Just listening to GBFM now, apparently some of the delays are due to the fact that they had to stop the traffic to turn on the lights and traffic backed up because of this.

There seems to be some confusion as to what lanes people should be in (quelle surpise) and ignoring or not seeing the filter lights.

So the message from GBFM is approach slowly, be ready, watch the lights and go when you're supposed to go .

L'prof

antoobrien wrote: »

Lights on since 4pm

Just got a phonecall from my brother, who's been caught in traffic at the lights. Aparrently the current reports/issues are:

• 45 minutes from The Galway plate to the lights
• 45 minutes from the Trappers to the lights
• 4 vehicles allowed to turn right from Ballybane rd onto Tuam Rd
• left slip off the Ballybane Rd (to head towards the Trappers) is Red when the straight on lights are green (wtf? somebody tell me that's not true)

My brothers comment was that "it looks lethal to cyclists".

Lets hope it improves lively.

I was wondering why traffic was so heavy today, turned off before the lights. Hopefully tomorrow will be better.

antoobrien

Current status - Tuam Rd outbound from Bohermore is bumper to bumper (also affecting Sean Mulvoy Rd). They seem to be prioritizing the flow along the N6/BNT until they have a better indication of how the traffic is flowing.

KevR

It should settle down in a few days when people get used to the lanes and the timings are optimised.

GalwayGaillimh

If it doesnt settle down have they a Plan B I wonder?

L'prof

GalwayDotCom wrote: »

If it doesnt settle down have they a Plan B I wonder?

It's all down to perfecting ye timing of the lights really and I'm sure they'll get there eventually.

galwaycyclist

antoobrien wrote: »

My brothers comment was that "it looks lethal to cyclists".

I would share this concern. There were several safety issues pointed out regarding the treatment of cyclists in these designs.

Doc Ruby

GalwayDotCom wrote: »

If it doesnt settle down have they a Plan B I wonder?

...bulldoze them and build roundabouts?

sgthighway

The lights won't be right until the other junction at Ballybane is sorted. Then they can sync all 3 consecutive junctions; Brierhill, Ballybane & Tuam Rd.

snubbleste

I almost got creamed by a friggin female in a silver car - you know who you are!! after the lights. Some backed up traffic were doing u-turns at the bottom of the hill returning to the Terryland roundabout, I was flying it down the hill on my well-oiled trusty two-wheeler and with no warning she just yoked her ginormous guzzling contraption out of the traffic line directly in front of me leaving a tiny margin for me between the kerb and the horrible dirty edifice of her vehicle. She then proceeded to drive off without a care. I still don't know how I did'nt hit her.

rain on

What's the deal on the Tuam road inbound with the second straight ahead lane that appears before the junction and disappears straight after it? Is it just to wreck people's heads trying to merge back in in no space at all?

WallyGUFC

rain on wrote: »

What's the deal on the Tuam road inbound with the second straight ahead lane that appears before the junction and disappears straight after it? Is it just to wreck people's heads trying to merge back in in no space at all?

Saw this, absolutely incredible. 2 lanes merging into one right outside Fleming's Garage. Recipe for disaster.

kevin65

Went through it tonight after 10pm. Very little traffic, so everything was fine. Be interesting to see how it is tomorrow morning after 8am.

paulgalway

WallyGUFC wrote: »

Saw this, absolutely incredible. 2 lanes merging into one right outside Fleming's Garage. Recipe for disaster.

Noticed this earlier, it is going to cause huge problems.

GalwayGaillimh

The man in the control room for the traffic lights could potentially develop a "God complex" giving the power he now wields over the traffic lights.

The control room could become a place of pilgrimage or a shrine of some sort in future years with people leaving offerings outside and sacrificing animals and burning incense to appease the Traffic God!

paulgalway

Caught the tail end of an interview with C. Hayes (I think) on GBFM this morning.

He said he had been told by the contractor that all of the work on SQR would be completed by "next Friday"

I think this shows how ineffective these city council people are, obviously he has not left his nice warm office and driven over there to have a look at what is going on.

He also said lights at circular rd would be turned on next Monday.

BTW: John Mulholland is taking bets on the completion date.

GalwayGaillimh

Sure it would take him half the day to drive over there and back with the traffic! He would want a helicopter or something to do an Aerial Reconnaisance of it.

antoobrien

paulgalway wrote: »

He said he had been told by the contractor that all of the work on SQR would be completed by "next Friday"

I think this shows how ineffective these city council people are, obviously he has not left his nice warm office and driven over there to have a look at what is going on.

In fairness he has to go on what the contractor is telling him (whether or not he believes it).

A minor bonus for him is that if they miss the deadline, it's Coffey's responsibility, not his for missing the deadline. The blame for the original deadline - and any subsequent deadlines based on incomplete knowledge supplied by the council would be more the councils fault than the contractor.

paulgalway wrote: »

He also said lights at circular rd would be turned on next Monday.

Ballybane Rd?

01NANA

JESUS....come on moaners....give it a chance.

Im stuck in traffic too but it wont be a miracle cure until the bypass is done (not in our lifetime i think).

Give it a chance... Im not a co official/engineer but I dont think they get up in the mornings and say..."lets see what changes we can do in the city today to make traffic worse etc etc"

Ive lived in Dublin for a time.... its lights all the way into the city....look at Cork...its lights all the way in. There must be a reason for it. Im sure they are not all brain-dead in the Co and are not there to create problems for the people of Galway. Maybe, just maybe they might be trying to improve things....and no, Im not a co official or have any association.

The lights at briarhill are excellent..... dont see too many posts complementing them so here I go -GREAT JOB BOYS AND WELL DONE.


Just give it a chance until all the lights are up and signals co-ordinated etc. If its a mess then I will be the first one on here to join the moaners.

Until then give it a few weeks/months to settle and see how it goes. Cant really base it on yesterday/today/or next few days with the weather.

paulgalway

antoobrien wrote: »

Ballybane Rd?

No, definately said Circular rd.

antoobrien

01NANA wrote: »

Give it a chance... Im not a co official/engineer but I dont think they get up in the mornings and say..."lets see what changes we can do in the city today to make traffic worse etc etc"

For a first post, you've shown a remarkable ignorance of what has gone on here over the past year wrt the debates" to solving the traffic problem

Pedestrian footbridges instead of crossings where possible -certainly would have fit here and briarhill - have been suggested.

01NANA wrote: »

Ive lived in Dublin for a time.... its lights all the way into the city

I work in Dublin, coming home at the weekend - the lights do not help traffic flow at all.

01NANA wrote: »

The lights at briarhill are excellent

Are you for real? The council have announced the figures they had previously refused to reveal - that a whopping 300 extra vehicles per hour go through the junction (5 per minute) in the morning, about 400 per hour in the evening (about 6.5 cars per minute). Not worth the effort to put in what amounts to a set of pedestrian lights that they;'ll probably have to turn off for the races anyways.

Personally I don't like them for several reasons. Unless I'm using the N6 out of town (not often) they make a right turn into a 2/3 minute wait, if I'm not lucky enough to arrive just as the filter comes on (same is true for getting across the N6 or turning into Doughiska from N6 outbound).

I spent years cycling to town through Briarhill - never again, the new layout is dangerous - more so than the roundabout ever was.

The right turns are badly laid out - it's far too easy to drift into the wrong lane (against traffic) due to the way it's been set up.

01NANA wrote: »

Just give it a chance until all the lights are up and signals co-ordinated etc. If its a mess then I will be the first one on here to join the moaners.

Yeah that's helped in Dublin. Or has it had more to do with the fact that Luas, the M50 upgrade and recession have hit traffic levels? Time will tell ultimately. For what it's worth I don't drive around Dublin, because of the excessive number of lights - on my way to work (5km on the rood) there are 14 sets of traffic lights & pedestrian crossings. It takes (with no traffic) 10-15 minutes to get to the office.

01NANA wrote: »

Until then give it a few weeks/months to settle and see how it goes. Cant really base it on yesterday/today/or next few days with the weather.

We can (and will) lambaste idiocy and incompetence - which has been shown in the "planning" of the turn on. To do it at 4pm on a Thursday - the start of rush hour on one of the busier days of the week shows a distinct lack of cop on.

The fact they they're "studying" the traffic flows and set the lights up in a "dumb" configuration shows up the models they used to justify the junction changes were nothing more than animations based on perceptions not real world numbers.

Padkir

antoobrien wrote: »

We can (and will) lambaste idiocy and incompetence - which has been shown in the "planning" of the turn on. To do it at 4pm on a Thursday - the start of rush hour on one of the busier days of the week shows a distinct lack of cop on.

The fact they they're "studying" the traffic flows and set the lights up in a "dumb" configuration shows up the models they used to justify the junction changes were nothing more than animations based on perceptions not real world numbers.

I can see where you're coming from with most of your post but this part is just wrong. Regardless of how much they've studied the traffice volumes, etc. they're never going to get the timing spot on when first switching them on, until they see how traffic flow reacts.

In that case, there's little point turning them on when there's low volumes of traffic and have everything seem ok, only for it to be mental when rush hour hits. I passed through there about an hour after they were on and there were large numbers of people surveying the traffice flow from all directions to see how it can be improved!

I agree with a poster above that it won't be at it's best until the other one is done too and they can all be synced but for the time being they needed to get an idea of how traffic would react to it at peak times.

Also, for the record, I think the Briarhill lights are a massive success for traffic flow in general (maybe not for cyclists and pedestrians but I've never cycled or walked there so I wouldn't know), but as regards traffic flow it has been a success. Of course it's going to be hard to turn right across the N6, the whole point of the lights are to maximise flow on the busiest routes, and that is the busiest by a country mile at that junction!

antoobrien

Padkir wrote: »

I can see where you're coming from with most of your post but this part is just wrong. Regardless of how much they've studied the traffice volumes, etc. they're never going to get the timing spot on when first switching them on, until they see how traffic flow reacts.

I never said they'd get it right first time, I question the "models" used to justify the junction changeovers (and timing of turning on lights).

I'm looking at this from an engineering pov (being a software engineer dealing in systems that process high volume database transactions, the same principles apply). When designing systems like this you need to know where traffic is coming from and going to. They should have had a preliminary model - not a "dumb configuration" ready to go.

The fact that they don't have one ready looks....suspicious (especially given the amount of criticism they got over the moneen).

Padkir

antoobrien wrote: »

I never said they'd get it right first time, I question the "models" used to justify the junction changeovers (and timing of turning on lights).

I'm looking at this form an engineering pov (being a software engineer dealing in systems that process high volume database transactions, the same principles apply). When designing systems like this you need to know where traffic is coming from and going to. They should have had a preliminary model - not a "dumb configuration" ready to go.

The fact that they don't have one ready looks....suspicious (especially given the amount of criticism they got over the moneen).

Ok I take your point, but I'm assuming it wasn't a "dumb model" that they had set up the first time. They had a fair idea of how things would work but needed to view it at peak times in order to make any necessary adjustments.

I would imagine it will take a week or so before it will be clear exactly where and at what volumes the traffic is coming from. Some days are different to others. I go out from town out Lough Atalia at half 5 every Wednesday evening and it tends to vary greatly from one week to the next, sometimes I'd be in Renmore by quarter to, other times it could be after 6, it just depends.

So give them a bit of time and wait until the other junctions are synced with it before everyone starts lambasting it as a disaster and a waste of time and money!