Planned roadworks on Coolagh RAB and Briarhill Junction

Iwannahurl

KevR wrote: »

What I really don't understand is why there are no traffic counts available for Galway City. The City Council undertake a massive traffic counting exercise on almost every road in the city every October/Novemeber but never publish the results.

I have written to them asking for figures but I got back some rubbish response saying the voulme of data was too great and I wouldn't be able to get anything useful from it :rolleyes:

Yes, I believe they have also refused to give that data to elected representatives, which is the height of arrogance IMO.

The cryptocracy in City Hall doesn't like information to get into the wrong hands, ie anyone else's but their own.

Don't take no for an answer.

I have been advised on good authority to try the Access to Information on the Environment (AIE) route when such basic info is not forthcoming.

http://www.environ.ie/en/AboutUs/AccesstoInformationontheEnvironment/

Worth a try?

yer man!

KevR wrote: »

What I really don't understand is why there are no traffic counts available for Galway City. The City Council undertake a massive traffic counting exercise on almost every road in the city every October/Novemeber but never publish the results.

I have written to them asking for figures but I got back some rubbish response saying the voulme of data was too great and I wouldn't be able to get anything useful from it :rolleyes:

I know the person that extracts the information and puts it into excel, he said the council are really weird about the whole thing, he's not allowed disclose any of the information to anyone..... he did say it's really easy to understand anyway.

Iwannahurl

yer man! wrote: »

I know the person that extracts the information and puts it into excel, he said the council are really weird about the whole thing, he's not allowed disclose any of the information to anyone..... he did say it's really easy to understand anyway.

In which case ask for the collated Excel data under AIE.

yer man!

Iwannahurl wrote: »

In which case ask for the collated Excel data under AIE.

Well he had to sign a non-disclosure, just to know how embarrassing Galway city's road network is.... NUIG use the information a lot, a few of the engineering students are given projects to do with Galway traffic every summer. They've come up with some good ideas but they fall on deaf ears....

Sponge Bob

Need to go back a few years, they do this every year and 2009 was the last year before the SQR road job and the junctions.

Cleahaigh

yer man! wrote: »

Well he had to sign a non-disclosure, just to know how embarrassing Galway city's road network is.... NUIG use the information a lot, a few of the engineering students are given projects to do with Galway traffic every summer. They've come up with some good ideas but they fall on deaf ears....

Go on, name a few.

yer man!

Cleahaigh wrote: »

Go on, name a few.

They aren't major infrastructural solutions now but just small things like designing bike lanes on certain routes into and out of the city and redesigned taxi ranks, bus stops and bus lanes.

Iwannahurl

Sponge Bob wrote: »

Yeah but obviously you never leant in the window of the ambulance and offered the patient the lend of your bike Kev...so you will never know whether it could have solved the issue on occasion or not.

antoobrien wrote: »

Based on this, best not to be living in town.

Link to full study

A very large number of non-emergency hospital admissions are due to non-communicable diseases.

The risk factors for the major diseases in that category are well known, long established and largely preventable. Policy and structural measures, including those related to the built environment, are of great importance, since preventable diseases are a major social and economic burden on the state.

Obesity costs E1.1 billion a year

Overweight and obesity costs the country over €1.1 billion every year, a new study has found.

Some two-thirds of these costs are related to absenteeism and lost productivity, while the remainder - almost €400 million - is spent on direct healthcare costs, such as hospital care, GP care and drug costs.

The study, which was carried out by University College Cork (UCC) on behalf of Safefood, marks the first to estimate the costs associated with overweight and obesity in Ireland. It noted that while €1.1 billion is spent in the Republic, a further €510 million is spent in Northern Ireland.

The researchers involved looked at 18 weight-related conditions and found that the main drivers of healthcare costs were heart disease, colorectal cancer, type 2 diabetes, stroke and a number of other cancers, including cancer of the breast and oesophagus.

Overall, obesity, rather than overweight, cost the most.

Meanwhile weight-related lower back pain was found to be a major cause of work absenteeism and lost productivity.

"Excess body weight is associated with a significant burden of chronic disease, with negative effects on overall life expectancy, disability-free life expectancy, quality of life, health care costs and productivity," commented Dr Cliodhna Foley-Nolan of Safefood.

Also commenting on the findings, Safefood chief executive, Martin Higgins, pointed out that these are conservative figures and do not fully reflect the human and social costs of excess weight.

However, despite this, they show ‘a compelling case for obesity prevention, based on changes in our food environment and physical activity levels', he added.

Physical activity includes active travel to school and work, and there is a substantial body of evidence demonstrating the causal links between regular mode of travel, body weight, chronic disease risk factors and long-term health status.

Or to put it another way, there is a direct link between chronic car dependence, chronic disease and chronic pressure on the health services.

Facilitating active travel, such as by replacing Galway's sick roundabouts with a junction type that is (hopefully) safer and easier, is an example of how the built environment can be made more conducive to cycling and walking.

biko

Any post not directly linked to these particular roadworks will be deleted and the poster smacked.
On topic from here on please.

yer man!

Is 150m of an extension enough for the left turn lane to ballybrit? would have been handy if the thing nearly went to the roundabout.

Different side of the junction, on the M6 inbound lane

dloob

yer man! wrote: »

Is 150m of an extension enough for the left turn lane to ballybrit? would have been handy if the thing nearly went to the roundabout.

It's the right turn towards the airport.
It used to block one of the straight ahead lanes at times if too much traffic built up in it and had to queue in the straight ahead lane.

yer man!

dloob wrote: »

It's the right turn towards the airport.
It used to block one of the straight ahead lanes at times if too much traffic built up in it and had to queue in the straight ahead lane.

ya sorry meant the right turn lane. :P

The extended lane is now open

Still bollards around but work seems to be completed