Limerick improvement projects

pigtown

Reports in Limerick's Life paper that the O'Connell Street redevelopment project has been delayed by Councillor John Gilligan who is demanding a comprehensive traffic management plan for the city before it goes ahead. This is definitely needed and has been called for by the Georgian Society aswell.

Then he goes and calls for the old Dunnes site on Sarsfield St. to be bought by the council as it is a 'prime location' and to build a ....... multi-story carpark:eek::(
Meanwhile other cities are charging businesses for employee parking and building tram-lines with the revenue http://www.citymetric.com/transport/why-other-cities-should-copy-nottinghams-revolutionary-parking-levy-2382

Mc Love

Wouldnt expect much more from Giliigan

zulutango

That's bizarre stuff out of John Gilligan. It's also a strange article. One councillor can't hold something like this up. He can oppose it all he likes, but I doubt he'll get much support.

The notion that we should build more car parks in Limerick is ridiculous. There's plenty of parking in the city to begin with, but in any case, building car parks just incentivises driving, which isn't a good thing.

marno21

zulutango wrote: »

That's bizarre stuff out of John Gilligan. It's also a strange article. One councillor can't hold something like this up. He can oppose it all he likes, but I doubt he'll get much support.

The notion that we should build more car parks in Limerick is ridiculous. There's plenty of parking in the city to begin with, but in any case, building car parks just incentivises driving, which isn't a good thing.

It would be fantastic if there was some sort of cohesive public transport plan for Limerick. The current one is a mess, especially with regards to the Castletroy/UL area.

zulutango

marno21 wrote: »

It would be fantastic if there was some sort of cohesive public transport plan for Limerick. The current one is a mess, especially with regards to the Castletroy/UL area.

Absolutely. There are very bad plans because there is very bad management. Until that changes, not much will change.

Gilligan is wrong to look for a multi-storey in the old Dunnes site. Anyone with half a brain can see that its value to the city is far greater than as a parking lot.

But he makes a good point about the consultation and planning. As usual, the Council is ploughing full steam ahead, hiring consultants and developing plans, with very little (if any) early stage consultation. This is why we have had the footbridge fiasco, and so many others. You'd think they'd learn their lesson.

vkid

Cityslicker1 wrote:

Would be great if they could light up Riverpoint at night - even lights around the border to show it's there.

Would be far better use of lighting than the cheap fairy lights across the Shannon bridge. Lighting of buildings along the river front should be encouraged. Lyon in France is a good example of where this works well...obviously a much larger city though

Johnny_BravoIII

As an outsider, I must say, there's a weird fascination with limerick people and inner city parking. I've never spent more that 5 minutes looking for somewhere to park in the city centre (day or night).

There is no shortage of city centre parking. For example, the top floor of Harvey's quay is rarely full.

What is it?

frozenfrozen

it's a pain in the arse looking for parking in Limerick, not all day parking, just to go into somewhere for 10 minutes, doing laps and laps until you eventually find a spot, people driving up your arse as you're trying to parallel park, cars abandoned every which way by people with the hazards on as they just give up or don't want to walk 200 metres back to where they need to go.

I don't know what the answer is or if it's better anywhere else but it is a reason to not bother going into the city centre when while you're already in the car you can go to the crescent, jetland, or tesco at coonagh with zero trouble ever finding a handy parking spot.

The city needs people from the massively sprawled area to come in, but with a reason like annoying parking it's a reason to just only go in when you have to

zulutango

Johnny_BravoIII wrote: »

As an outsider, I must say, there's a weird fascination with limerick people and inner city parking. I've never spent more that 5 minutes looking for somewhere to park in the city centre (day or night).

There is no shortage of city centre parking. For example, the top floor of Harvey's quay is rarely full.

What is it?

People want to live in the suburbs or further afield and drive into the city and park for free preferably. Ideally they want to be able to park outside whatever shop or take-away they are going to (double-parking is fine) and rush in and get whatever they want.

Because most of the people with money live in the suburbs and beyond, they've huge clout and the Council panders to them more often than not, even though it doesn't make a whole lot of sense.

Silentcorner

Johnny_BravoIII wrote: »

As an outsider, I must say, there's a weird fascination with limerick people and inner city parking. I've never spent more that 5 minutes looking for somewhere to park in the city centre (day or night).

There is no shortage of city centre parking. For example, the top floor of Harvey's quay is rarely full.

What is it?

A parking problem in this city is one where you can't park your car a 2/3 minute walk from the shop/office you are calling to....and it's a disgrace to suggest that people use multi story car parks (all of which are much cheaper than other cities by the way)....of course, many ignore the double yellow lines in a brave and noble stance against this injustice...Parnell St/William St are the epicentre of this resistance movement!!!

zulutango

frozenfrozen wrote: »

The city needs people from the massively sprawled area to come in, but with a reason like annoying parking it's a reason to just only go in when you have to

It needs them to move into the city, not just to come in to do their shopping. Obviously a hell of a lot has to happen to the city before a significant number will be prepared to do that.

Johnny_BravoIII

frozenfrozen wrote: »

it's a pain in the arse looking for parking in Limerick, not all day parking, just to go into somewhere for 10 minutes, doing laps and laps until you eventually find a spot

What's the expectation?

cars abandoned every which way by people with the hazards on as they just give up or don't want to walk 200 metres back to where they need to go.

This is another Limerick phenom. Can you imagine stopping in the lane in Eyre Square, Galway or Oliver plunket street in Cork and putting the hazards on to "nip in" somewhere?

zulutango

They do it because they can. Part of the reason they can do it is because we have a lot of on-street parking in Limerick, much more in our centre than Galway or Cork city centres I would say. Having on-street parking obviously encourages people to use it, but it also encourages double-parking, because you know you can pull up tight enough to the parked cars and the cars behind you can just about get around. If we had narrower spaces for driving, and two-way streets, we probably wouldn't have this phenomenon.

In Limerick we have to massively reduce on-street parking, we have to do away with the one-way system, and we have to restrict cars from a lot of the city centre (as they have done in Cork and Galway).

Silentcorner

Johnny_BravoIII wrote: »

What's the expectation?



This is another Limerick phenom. Can you image stopping in the lane in Eyre Square, Galway or Oliver plunket street in Cork and putting the hazards on to "nip in" somewhere?

Ah now...having lived in Cork, Merchants Quay, McCurtain St, South Mall and plenty more streets all have similar double parking/hazards issues...we are all Irish, we don't pay attention to the little laws we don't agree with...

vkid

Galway is not an example of traffic management to he followed in any shape or form. The traffic setup in galway is one of the worst in the country.

zulutango

vkid wrote: »

Galway is not an example of traffic management to he followed in any shape or form. The traffic setup in galway is one of the worst in the country.

It's not so simple. Galway has done things right in the city centre (i.e. pedestrianising certain streets), and that's one one of the myriad of reasons it's such a popular place. The traffic chaos up there is a different issue and is due to the sprawling nature of the city and the poor infrastructure linking the suburbs and the centre.

frozenfrozen

zulutango wrote: »

It needs them to move into the city, not just to come in to do their shopping. Obviously a hell of a lot has to happen to the city before a significant number will be prepared to do that.

I can't imagine how that would work. Every street would need to have 5 stories added on to house enough people to make that viable.

Johnny_BravoIII wrote: »

What's the expectation?



This is another Limerick phenom. Can you imagine stopping in the lane in Eyre Square, Galway or Oliver plunket street in Cork and putting the hazards on to "nip in" somewhere?

There's no expectation. I was answering what the obsession with parking in Limerick is

zulutango

frozenfrozen wrote: »

I can't imagine how that would work. Every street would need to have 5 stories added on to house enough people to make that viable.

There's ample space for modern residential development in or near the city centre that could comfortably house tens of thousands or more in quality, spacious residential accommodation. What can't continue is this situation where the vast majority of people that the city depends on for survival live far outside it.

wigsa100

The scumbags outside Chicken Hut are the most frequent offenders. Usually a passat of some description with stupid boy racer licence plates

Mc Love

On the topic of parking, it would be great to see the parking garages offer a 1 hour goodwill free parking and then charge after it.

Special Circumstances

Mc Love wrote: »

On the topic of parking, it would be great to see the parking garages offer a 1 hour goodwill free parking and then charge after it.

Some kinda outside the box thinking is needed alright. The "cars lumped up on footpaths on a regular basis" (Patrick street any afternoon/evening) is a bit of a joke.

Even some "package" that allowed X "short stays" a month or whatever, rather than 3 short 20minute jobs costing the same as 3 hours.

Mc Love

I know of a shopping center in Dublin, that offers 2 hours free parking and charges after that. So it's not an impossible thing to do, most people stay longer than an hour but if you are just popping in for a few things, it can be a blessing not having to pay. I'm sure 1 hour free parking on the streets would be a good idea too

zulutango

Considering the massive tax breaks that developers of multi-storey car parks get something like this should be required of them in return. A free half hour would be about right so as people wouldn't take the piss.

johnnyryan89

Mc Love wrote: »

On the topic of parking, it would be great to see the parking garages offer a 1 hour goodwill free parking and then charge after it.

I think the strand hotel is the only place in or around the city centre who offer that. Could be an hour or hour and a half free parking and then 1.80e for each hour afterwards.

riverrocked

I always laugh when I see the question of parking in Limerick city centre come up as I wonder if any of those complaining have ever tried parking in our other cities. The parking we see here is not unique though our mulistorey parking is much cheaper than Cork and Dublin and just as convenient. Limerick people either just don't want to pay for the service or are too lazy to walk more than 50 meters. It has very little to do with lack of places to park are there are plenty.

Garry123

If you are to believe the posts on here Limerick is a total kip with nothing to do after 6pm, streets similar to Aleppo, no parking and worst of all no M&S and no Nandos. Why does anyone live here?

Jose Maria

vkid wrote: »

Would be far better use of lighting than the cheap fairy lights across the Shannon bridge. Lighting of buildings along the river front should be encouraged. Lyon in France is a good example of where this works well...obviously a much larger city though

Agree Those fairy lights are cack, invest in Shannon bridge and light up the the roundabout on front of riverpoint as its the entrance to the city for visitors, I always thought Kurilpa Bridge in brisbane or something similar could be done quiet reasonably and could be self sustainable for energy.

mart 23

pigtown wrote: »

A planning application has been submitted for work on the old ESB building and the Bishop's Palace on Henry Street to include;

Demolition of ESB building and various outbuildings on the site.
Conversion of Bishop's Palace to 7 apartments.
Conversion of surface carpark to public plaza (front of Bishop's Palace)
Conversion of coach house to cafe/restaurant (facing the new plaza)
Construction of new 15 story office building fronting Bishop's Quay and Lower Cecil Street, to include 2 cafes and over 14,000sq/m of space.
Construction of new 7 story apartment building fronting Bishop's Quay with 35 apartments.

All sounds exciting to me, I hope it's not just a glass tower though.

Hi I would like to ask as to where you saw this application. At the moment it does not appear on the Council planning site . Thanks.

dave 27

I'd be very surprised if this was true without any newspapers mentioning it Or having some renders floating around.

Almost like reading for plans to the riverpoint project from years back!

Vanquished

mart 23 wrote: »

Hi I would like to ask as to where you saw this application. At the moment it does not appear on the Council planning site . Thanks.

It appeared in the Limerick Leader last week. They've essentially given notice that they intend to apply for planning permission. After which they have two weeks to formally submit the application.