traffic

Wompa1

Back when the initial plans were made public, I saw who was involved in the planning and figured this would be a f**k up.

We got our teaser when they change the roundabout down by Wellpark. Where the traffic on Lough Atalia gets blocked up due to the lights down by the frame shop not being timed adequately.

Like the Manic Street Preachers sang: "If you tolerate this, then your children will be next"

I love how the city council have sidestepped the complaints. Well...you have to understand, we have narrow medieval streets to contend with blah blah blah. The residents don't want us to change the Headford Rd roundabout, that's a snag blah blah. The damn church didn't warn us about extra cars.

The City council are a bunch of clowns and the people they go to for expert insight are clowns too.

slideshow bob

snubbleste wrote: »

What would the Council have done anyway about Tuesday's traffic if they'd known that a dead man was going to be at a church?

Petitioned the Vatican to make Anthony the patron saint of cyclists?

gordongekko

snubbleste wrote: »

What would the Council have done anyway about Tuesday's traffic if they'd known that a dead man was going to be at a church?
It just smacks of shifting the blame.

they would have done their shopping earlier and not got caught in traffic like the rest of us plebs.

slideshow bob

Wompa1 wrote: »

We got our teaser when they change the roundabout down by Wellpark. Where the traffic on Lough Atalia gets blocked up due to the lights down by the frame shop not being timed adequately.

Like the Manic Street Preachers sang: "If you tolerate this, then your children will be next"

The City council are a bunch of clowns and the people they go to for expert insight are clowns too.

Don't hold back there wompa, just get it off your chest. It might help you chill out when you're waiting for those lights to go green on your way home this evening.

There's some perspective from the city council here.

There was little traction for the merits of making junctions safer for pedestrians and cyclists and even less for providing priority for public transport or easing the ‘rat-running’ issues in local neighbourhoods.

fishy fishy

snubbleste wrote: »

What would the Council have done anyway about Tuesday's traffic if they'd known that a dead man was going to be at a church?
It just smacks of shifting the blame.

a dead mans CHEEKS. CHEEKS ONLY.

Wompa1

slideshow bob wrote: »

Don't hold back there wompa, just get it off your chest. It might help you chill out when you're waiting for those lights to go green on your way home this evening.

There's some perspective from the city council here.

Left Galway before the majority of the junctions were complete. Was back for a couple of weeks when they were completed. Safer would only apply if the lanes in the junctions make sense. The one at the mouth of Ballybrit Business park doesn't.

Drove the Lough Atalia route for 2 years with that stupid junction. It was awful at first and then less awful. Has never been good. Spending months changing the sequence of the lights and creating extra exists and entrances for Wellpark shows the lack of foresight used in planning.

They made a complete sh!t of the junctions. It's also good to know they never planned for expansion of the city. 'Graveyard of Ambition' raises it's head again. All of this makes the fact the EU people have been questioning the lack of investment in the west. I could never understand how a country which experienced an unprecedented meteoric rise in wealth could invest so poorly in infrastructure. Especially when a lot of the road projects were up to 80% funded by the EU anyways!

Bicycles aren't a good answer. That may work for the student population but what about those living outside the city and commuting in? They get d1cked on the Headford Rd, They get d1cked by Newcastle. D1cked on the Dublin Rd.

Before I left there was a Friday, I was driving from work in Ballybrit to my apartment in Salthill. After 2 hours turned off and parked by Nuns Island and walked around the city for a while. I went that way due to the backup on my usual route. No event on, just roadworks, multiple roadworks happening at once. Again, great foresight. They are clowns.

slideshow bob

Wompa1 wrote: »

Before I left there was a Friday, I was driving from work in Ballybrit to my apartment in Salthill. After 2 hours turned off and parked by Nuns Island and walked around the city for a while.

Just goes to show a medieval city is perfect for walking around.

FlashD

gordongekko wrote: »

they would have done their shopping earlier and not got caught in traffic like the rest of us plebs.

Earlier than what?

Traffic was blocked up from about 8am in the morning, with a line of traffic heading kilometres out the Tuam road with little movement. What normally takes 2 minutes to get onto N17 took me a half hour alone that morning. Joke!

WallyGUFC

slideshow bob wrote: »

Just goes to show a medieval city is perfect for walking around.

So people should walk their commute now?

A city should have a basic level of decent infrastructure to cater for all of its occupants. At the moment, there are a negligible amount of cycle lanes, poor quality roads and footpaths, very little cheap parking and an extraordinary amount of bus lanes considering the complete lack of a regular bus service to anywhere (this is true for Claregalway also, never have I seen such idiotic wastage of money as I have with those bus lanes.) A huge amount of the people working in the city live outside the city, and far outside at that. So cycling won't work.
There is no public transport, so there are miles of lanes in or around the city that lie empty most of the time because they can't be opened for public use. People also didn't use the park and ride for whatever reason.

The junctions are a joke, but then so were roundabouts, mainly because people don't know how to use them properly. Also, traffic lights on a roundabout, dafuq?

Whoever it is objecting to the bypass, An Taisce I assume, should be told in no uncertain terms to kindly f**k off. That, and a complete overhaul of public transport services is what might fix the issues.

snubbleste

slideshow bob wrote: »

Petitioned the Vatican to make Anthony the patron saint of cyclists?

You get a little star.

Mrs OBumble

snubbleste wrote: »

What would the Council have done anyway about Tuesday's traffic if they'd known that a dead man was going to be at a church?
It just smacks of shifting the blame.

Told parishes to get busy organising buses.

Mahogany Gaspipe

what_traffic wrote: »

I think the NRA are ahead of you on this one. Is that not why the M18 motorway Gort to Tuam is being built?

I can confirm that rather than ahead; they are at a minimum, 14 years behind.

Iwannahurl

WallyGUFC wrote: »

So people should walk their commute now?

A city should have a basic level of decent infrastructure to cater for all of its occupants. At the moment, there are a negligible amount of cycle lanes, poor quality roads and footpaths, very little cheap parking and an extraordinary amount of bus lanes considering the complete lack of a regular bus service to anywhere (this is true for Claregalway also, never have I seen such idiotic wastage of money as I have with those bus lanes.) A huge amount of the people working in the city live outside the city, and far outside at that. So cycling won't work.

There is no public transport, so there are miles of lanes in or around the city that lie empty most of the time because they can't be opened for public use. People also didn't use the park and ride for whatever reason.

The junctions are a joke, but then so were roundabouts, mainly because people don't know how to use them properly. Also, traffic lights on a roundabout, dafuq?

Whoever it is objecting to the bypass, An Taisce I assume, should be told in no uncertain terms to kindly f**k off. That, and a complete overhaul of public transport services is what might fix the issues.

Walking: you sound indignant. Is there something objectionable about suggesting that people walk to work or education in a small city such as Galway? Travel statistics (Census and Household Travel Survey) show that a significant percentage of the population lives within 2 km of work or school/college. Nationally, almost 40% of all trips to school/college are less than 2 km in length, and half of these trips are by car.

Infrastructure: Galway started to develop as walled town in the 13th Century. If you want to take a tour of the mediaeval city you don't drive, you walk. Unless it is proposed to demolish all the buildings along entire streets in the city centre, then it will never be possible to expand the infrastructure for cars. Given the blindingly obvious fact that the core of the city was developed centuries before the car was invented, it is nonsensical to expect that cars should be catered for to any major degree. Unfortunately that has not stopped successive local and national administrations from trying to do exactly that, with equally obvious consequences.

Roads: where exactly are the "poor quality roads" in Galway City? Can you give specific examples?

Parking: an example of the way in which unsustainable transportation policies are pursued in Galway is the provision of parking. Scarce road space -- a rather obvious characteristic of a mediaeval city -- has been taken over by on-street parking in many areas. Not only that, but several multi-storey car parks (some incentivised by tax breaks iirc) were built in the city centre. To keep the inevitably increased traffic moving, the local authority then creates a system of one-way streets, one effect of which is to significantly reduce the efficiency of cycling in the city. More entirely predictable consequences ensue.

"Complete lack of a bus service": are you saying that there are no bus services in Galway City? Public transport may be inadequate and unreliable at times (due to lack of infrastructure and traffic-related obstacles) but it is simply untrue to say that it is "completely lacking".

"No public transport": are you saying that there is "no public transport" in the Galway City's rural hinterland? Why might that be the case, I wonder rhetorically. Perhaps we might find some clues in Irish "planning" policy. According to Census 2011, there are 433,564 "one-off" houses in the State (26.3% of the total housing stock) with 96% of these oxymoronic units located outside built-up areas. A quarter of these "one-offs" have been constructed in the last decade and since 2001 local authorities across the country have granted "planning" permission for 174,000 new dispersed dwellings. In County Galway, "one-off" houses comprised over 45 per cent of households constructed between 2006 and 2011. Around 63 per cent of households in County Galway are "one-off" houses, the highest in the country, and there was a 45% increase in the County Galway housing stock between 1991 and 2011. Question: how would you go about planning an efficient, affordable and sustainable public transport system for the people living in dispersed housing around County Galway?

Park & Ride: Galway City is allegedly choked with traffic, and parking charges are too high. Yet motorists chose to ignore P&R and drive into the city. What does that reveal about motorists' attitudes to traffic congestion and the real costs of parking in the city?

Bypass: the GCOB as planned was stopped by the Irish Supreme Court, following a ruling on EU law by the European Court of Justice. Should they kindly f**k off too?

galwayrush

Iwannahurl wrote: »

Bypass: the GCOB as planned was stopped by the Irish Supreme Court, following a ruling on EU law by the European Court of Justice. Should they kindly f**k off too?

Wish the professional serial objector who brought the case would **** off. He doesn't even live anywhere close.

kevin65

galwayrush wrote: »

Wish the professional serial objector who brought the case would **** off. He doesn't even live anywhere close.

Totally agree. If the pr*ck had to pay legal costs it might shut him up.

Iwannahurl

galwayrush wrote: »

Wish the professional serial objector who brought the case would **** off. He doesn't even live anywhere close.

kevin65 wrote: »

Totally agree. If the pr*ck had to pay legal costs it might shut him up.

Simple question: did the European Court of Justice (1300 km away in Luxembourg) and Irish Supreme Court (200 km away in Dublin) issue a ruling that favoured the original GCOB proposal or did they not?

yer man!

galwayrush wrote: »

Wish the professional serial objector who brought the case would **** off. He doesn't even live anywhere close.

It's some the people in Menlo that hired the man, some of the people around there are still paying to fight the bypass at every opportunity.

It really makes me angry when you see all the other cities and towns in Ireland with a bypass.

galwayrush

Apparently the serial objector(professional) convinced them that saving 1.7 hectares out of approx. 470 hectares of limestone paving was far more important than the traffic woes of an urban area 130 miles away from where he lives.
Mr Sweetman does quite well out of being a serial objector financially. Can't decide if he's a nut case or a hired gun to stifle Galway's economic growth .
Probably both. I've heard him speak, and he comes across as a nasty arrogant vindictive person who now has a successful career in causing misery.

galwayrush

yer man! wrote: »

It's some the people in Menlo that hired the man, some of the people around there are still paying to fight the bypass at every opportunity.

It really makes me angry when you see all the other cities and towns in Ireland with a bypass.

That section of the road was approved but this guy makes a submission to a proposal then hopes others against it hire him. The road will be built in time, but now at increased costs. Mr Sweetman has cost the local authorities approx. 500K in legal costs. Wonder how badly this will affect things like fire services, grass cutting etc, where this 500 K could be far better spent?

Iwannahurl

Iwannahurl wrote: »

Simple question: did the European Court of Justice (1300 km away in Luxembourg) and Irish Supreme Court (200 km away in Dublin) issue a ruling that favoured the original GCOB proposal or did they not?

And the answer to the above question is...

galwayrush

Iwannahurl wrote: »

And the answer to the above question is...

the serial objector(professional) convinced them that saving 1.7 hectares out of approx. 470 hectares of limestone paving was far more important than the traffic woes of an urban area 130 miles away from where he lives.

Iwannahurl

The answer to the question is that the ECJ's ruling did not support the bypass as originally proposed.

john.han

galwayrush wrote: »

the serial objector(professional) convinced them that saving 1.7 hectares out of approx. 470 hectares of limestone paving was far more important than the traffic woes of an urban area 130 miles away from where he lives.

No he didn't, that wasn't the question asked. The question was would removing those hectares adversely affect the integrity of the site, it's not the serial objectors fault the council couldn't interpret EU law (or basic language) correctly, and wasted millions on rubbish legal advice.

Mrs OBumble

WallyGUFC wrote: »

an extraordinary amount of bus lanes considering the complete lack of a regular bus service to anywhere (this is true for Claregalway also, never have I seen such idiotic wastage of money as I have with those bus lanes.) A huge amount of the people working in the city live outside the city, and far outside at that. So cycling won't work.
There is no public transport, so there are miles of lanes in or around the city that lie empty most of the time because they can't be opened for public use.

I just went into Bus Éireann's journey planner, and tried to count the number of departures from Claregalway for next Tuesday (to pick a random day). However it's not working the way it used to, so I had to restrict it to just services from Claregalway to Galway bus station - and got 16 services during the day (listed below for your viewing pleasure).

Now I'd imagine that there are also 16 services going in the other direction too. So that's 32. And I know that some of the private buses also stop there, too, eg Burkes run a number of Galway/Tuam serivces each day.


So - no public transport? Yeah, right. :rolleyes:







Claregalway (Opp Cois Chlair)
Galway (Bus Station)
08:04 dep
08:30 arr
0:26 0


Claregalway (Opp Cois Chlair)
Galway (Bus Station)
08:10 dep
08:35 arr
0:25 0


Claregalway (Cois Chlair Arches Hotel)
Galway (Bus Station)
09:00 dep
09:20 arr
0:23 0


Claregalway (Cois Chlair Arches Hotel)
Galway (Bus Station)
10:25 dep
10:45 arr
0:23 0


Claregalway (Cois Chlair Arches Hotel)
Galway (Bus Station)
10:30 dep
10:50 arr
0:23 0


Claregalway (Opp Cois Chlair)
Galway (Bus Station)
10:58 dep
11:15 arr
0:17 0


Claregalway (Cois Chlair Arches Hotel)
Galway (Bus Station)
11:17 dep
11:30 arr
0:16 0


Claregalway (Opp Cois Chlair)
Galway (Bus Station)
11:30 dep
11:50 arr
0:20 0


Claregalway (Opp Cois Chlair)
Galway (Bus Station)
12:16 dep
12:45 arr
0:29 0


Claregalway (Cois Chlair Arches Hotel)
Galway (Bus Station)
14:25 dep
14:40 arr
0:18 0


Claregalway (Cois Chlair Arches Hotel)
Galway (Bus Station)
15:47 dep
16:10 arr
0:26 0


Claregalway (Opp Cois Chlair)
Galway (Bus Station)
16:20 dep
16:45 arr
0:25 0


Claregalway (Cois Chlair Arches Hotel)
Galway (Bus Station)
17:05 dep
17:25 arr
0:23 0


Claregalway (Opp Cois Chlair)
Galway (Bus Station)
18:16 dep
18:45 arr
0:29 0


Claregalway (Opp Cois Chlair)
Galway (Bus Station)
19:31 dep
19:45 arr
0:14 0


Claregalway (Opp Cois Chlair)
Galway (Bus Station)
20:20 dep
20:40 arr
0:20 0

galwayrush

john.han wrote: »

No he didn't, that wasn't the question asked. The question was would removing those hectares adversely affect the integrity of the site, it's not the serial objectors fault the council couldn't interpret EU law (or basic language) correctly, and wasted millions on rubbish legal advice.

So by re submitting the proposal using different / proper language including Imperative Reasons of Overriding Public Interest will see this vital project through.:)

UsBus

Wompa1 wrote: »

Before I left there was a Friday, I was driving from work in Ballybrit to my apartment in Salthill. After 2 hours turned off and parked by Nuns Island and walked around the city for a while. I went that way due to the backup on my usual route. No event on, just roadworks, multiple roadworks happening at once. Again, great foresight. They are clowns.

Friday in Galway has been a write off for quite a while now.
As soon as the factories finish around lunchtime, the city just jams up.
I can remember the council blaming a funeral last year for a complete standstill on a friday.

It amazes me that with all the dodgy planning & brown envelopes over the last 20 years to push through needless projects, the bypass could not have been forced through. For such an important project of economic and public interest, the protester in question should have been sorted out in some form or another..