Council to ban cars from O'Briens & Salmon Weir bridge, and 7 streets

John_Rambo

Electric Sheep wrote: »

Nox doesn't "live" in Galway, he lives "at home" in his parents house. He just "stays" in Galway in a house share for his work. He has no interest in what is good for the town, only what is good for his pocket and his convenience.

Ridiculous and childish attitude.

Dublin's getting to big. It needs a counterbalance. Galway needs to be even more people friendly to attract big companies. It needs proper public transport. A light rail system would be perfect.

pleasant Co.

Electric Sheep wrote: »

Nox doesn't "live" in Galway, he lives "at home" in his parents house. He just "stays" in Galway in a house share for his work. He has no interest in what is good for the town, only what is good for his pocket and his convenience.

Nox isn't the topic of this thread so less talk about other posters and more about the topic in hand, there's no place for such behaviour here

galwaycyclist

pleasant Co. wrote: »

Nox isn't the topic of this thread so less talk about other posters and more about the topic in hand, there's no place for such behaviour here

No but people like Nox feel they can come into this forum and attack people who live in city for the "crime" of wanting to live in a better place.

Many of us find it curious that this is apparently ok in one direction but not the other.

Perhaps you can explain it for us?

Light rail isn't even being proposed as far as I know.

Spanish Eyes

Regarding having to walk with shopping and then haul yourself on a bus, well, here's something for you...

I live 5 km from Dublin City Centre. Parking is a nightmare and very very expensive too. If I have to get heavy shopping it's off to the local Tesco with free parking, or Aldi or Lidl, whatever, I would never go to the city for that kind of shopping.

Also, I couldn't see myself coming home on the bus with a fridge freezer or a wardrobe strapped to my back either! So the city is for browsing and eating and drinking and that kind of thing, and I always use public transport for that.

OK, so what about those times that you end up with loads of bags for one reason or another, maybe the sales or that? Well, do what lots of other people do, bring your little wheelie case with you, or even handier a wheelie backpack. Sling it over your shoulders going out, and wheel it back full of the heavy goodies. No bother on the bus with that!

It can be done! You just have to adapt sometimes.

I cannot wait until Dublin gets more car free. The place is absolutely choked at the moment. And I know the thread is about Galway, but honestly, those places once pedestrianised turn out great. Can't make an omelette without breaking a few eggs.

And I also agree that Dublin is at saturation point at the moment. Time to enhance places like Limerick, Cork and Galway to give us Dubs a bit of breathing space! I think the former Secretary General of the Dept. Of Finance, John Moran thinks Limerick would be a great place for this. But could also be Galway if ye get your act together.

Electric Sheep

Electric Sheep wrote: »

Nox doesn't "live" in Galway, he lives "at home" in his parents house. He just "stays" in Galway in a house share for his work. He has no interest in what is good for the town, only what is good for his pocket and his convenience.

I'm actually working in a different part of the country at the moment, if I were working in Galway I'd be living at home not in a houseshare in the city.

John_Rambo wrote: »

Ridiculous and childish attitude.

Dublin's getting to big. It needs a counterbalance. Galway needs to be even more people friendly to attract big companies. It needs proper public transport. A light rail system would be perfect.

Big complains do and should continue locate on the outskirts of the city in industrial estates in locations ideal for commuting by car from the county and the city. We should be encouraging this more. Moving the jobs away from already over crowded city centres to locations easily accessed from both the city and county by car. In particularly companies need to heavily incentivised away from setting up in Dublin, crazy expensive, over crowded and congested but people are forced to move there when they would rather live elsewhere.

Anne Handsome Sawhorse

Anne Handsome Sawhorse wrote: »

I'm actually working in a different part of the country at the moment, if I were working in Galway I'd be living at home not in a houseshare in the city.



Big complains do and should continue locate on the outskirts of the city in industrial estates in locations ideal for commuting by car from the county and the city. We should be encouraging this more. Moving the jobs away from already over crowded city centres to locations easily accessed from both the city and county by car. In particularly companies need to heavily incentivised away from setting up in Dublin, crazy expensive, over crowded and congested but people are forced to move there when they would rather live elsewhere.

It can take half an hour or more to get out of Parkmore at times. The last thing it needs is more cars.

John_Rambo

Anne Handsome Sawhorse wrote: »

Big complains do and should continue locate on the outskirts of the city in industrial estates in locations ideal for commuting by car from the county and the city. We should be encouraging this more. Moving the jobs away from already over crowded city centres to locations easily accessed from both the city and county by car. In particularly companies need to heavily incentivised away from setting up in Dublin, crazy expensive, over crowded and congested but people are forced to move there when they would rather live elsewhere.

Nonsense. Do you think the likes of Google and Facebook would locate outside a city? They want to set up where there's people, a large pool of skilled and talented people. The people that work there don't want to be living in some backwater. They want to live in vibrant, cultural cities where there's restaurants, shops, bars, cafés, culture, shows, activitie etc...

Pedestrianising more of Galway city would enhance it and make it more attractive to these people and the companies that employ them.

pleasant Co.

galwaycyclist wrote: »

No but people like Nox feel they can come into this forum and attack people who live in city for the "crime" of wanting to live in a better place.

Many of us find it curious that this is apparently ok in one direction but not the other.

Perhaps you can explain it for us?

The procedure is to report offending posts, if action is required it will be taken. Questioning a mod warning is an infractionable offence, you know this given how long you have been on this site, I'm letting it slide but have a bit of cop on!

Mrs OBumble

Big complains do and should continue locate on the outskirts of the city in industrial estates in locations ideal for commuting by car from the county and the city. We should be encouraging this more. Moving the jobs away from already over crowded city centres to locations easily accessed from both the city and county by car.

If they only hired from their own side of the city, that might work. But if a large proportion of the workforce need to travel across the city, it's a recipe for chaos. And extremely unpleasant workplaces to be in, with poor access to cafes shops, post offices, dry cleaning, doctors, dentists, physios, gyms etc.

jjpep

[Deleted User] wrote: »

It can take half an hour or more to get out of Parkmore at times. The last thing it needs is more cars.

On a good day maybe...

I started working up there about 4 months ago and i really don't get how its being allowed to get to such a **** state. I think something fairly radical needs to happen now if they want to keep attracting companies up there. Something along the lines of park and rides at either end of the parkmore road and no car acess beyond unless for special reasons like disability, deliveries etc. Or making the parkmore road one way and converting one lane to a bus/cycle lane.

John_Rambo

John_Rambo wrote: »

Nonsense. Do you think the likes of Google and Facebook would locate outside a city? They want to set up where there's people, a large pool of skilled and talented people. The people that work there don't want to be living in some backwater. They want to live in vibrant, cultural cities where there's restaurants, shops, bars, cafés, culture, shows, activitie etc...
.

Google and Facebook are two companies all the big pharma, medical device, chip fabrication (Intel, analog devices), mechanical engineering, electronic engineering companies etc locate outside cities, look at cork they locate miles outside the city so as to avoid city traffic etc. Places like parkmore are too closer to the city they should be much further out. Look at Cisco even, one of the worlds leading IT companies and they are in oranmore a very easy place to get to. Basically disproving what you are saying in a big way, big companies in general steer well clear of city centres bar financials. It's the exception to locate in a city centre bar banks and other financial institutions.

All these places well outside the city's employ the smarted and most educated peope in the country.

Mrs OBumble

Anne Handsome Sawhorse wrote: »

Look at Cisco even, one of the worlds leading IT companies and they are in oranmore a very easy place to get to. ....

All these places well outside the city's employ the smarted and most educated peope in the country.

Cisco in Oranmore is on the very edge of places where I'd consider a job, because it would be such a PITA getting there: you can do it on public transport, but only just. And it's a miserable walk there from the bus stop.

I question that the bulk of the people working on the bit sites are the smartest and most educated: there are some very well educated people working as product-builders for the likes of Boston and Medtronic, but equally there are many with limited education who do mundane assembly or customer service work because it's an easy enough way to make a living.

Cities like Galway have an issue in that the allowable floor plans while preserving heritage in our centre city rule out the really big employers.

Internationally, big companies that are not doing manufacturing tend to locate in city-centre locations where their employees can have enjoyable lives, not miserable industrial estates.

Mrs OBumble

Mrs OBumble wrote: »

Cisco in Oranmore is on the very edge of places where I'd consider a job, because it would be such a PITA getting there: you can do it on public transport, but only just. And it's a miserable walk there from the bus stop.
.

Yeah but for the vast majority of people who drive and don't limit themselves to timetables and bus stops it's an ideal location for both people living in the county and those in the city as they travel out against traffic. Even have an underground car park so can walk from your car to the office without getting wet.

An industrial estate with easy car access is my ideal location to work. City centres are akward places to work unless you want to live in expensive accommodation close to work rather than much bigger and cheaper places in the subarbs or even better in the countryside.

Mrs OBumble wrote: »

I question that the bulk of the people working on the bit sites are the smartest and most educated: there are some very well educated people working as product-builders for the likes of Boston and Medtronic, but equally there are many with limited education who do mundane assembly or customer service work because it's an easy enough way to make a living.
.

Boston, Medtronic, lake region, Cisco etc in Galway. Intel in leixlip and Shannon, analog device in Limerick, multiple pharma companies in co cork, Stryker European R&D centre in co cork etc etc all employ large numbers of masters and PhD level employees. Yes they have a lot of normal workers they also have a lot of engineers, project managers, highly qualified R&D staff etc.

timmyntc

Anne Handsome Sawhorse wrote: »

Yeah but for the vast majority of people who drive and don't limit themselves to timetables and bus stops it's an ideal location for both people living in the county and those in the city as they travel out against traffic. Even have an underground car park so can walk from your car to the office without getting wet.

An industrial estate with easy car access is my ideal location to work.

No it's not. Anyone who lives in the city, or on the west side, has to travel with all the traffic across the corrib, across the city, and out the dublin road
the same way as all the parkmore traffic, and athenry traffic, and everything else

its a mess, too many cars. no amount of extra roads will solve it, though a bypass would help in the short term the city would soon grow and the problem would arise again.

timmyntc

timmyntc wrote: »

No it's not. Anyone who lives in the city, or on the west side, has to travel with all the traffic across the corrib, across the city, and out the dublin road
the same way as all the parkmore traffic, and athenry traffic, and everything else

its a mess, too many cars. no amount of extra roads will solve it, though a bypass would help in the short term the city would soon grow and the problem would arise again.

Hence why we need the bypass.

timmyntc

Anne Handsome Sawhorse wrote: »

Hence why we need the bypass.

read more

timmyntc wrote: »

its a mess, too many cars. no amount of extra roads will solve it, though a bypass would help in the short term the city would soon grow and the problem would arise again.

timmyntc

timmyntc wrote: »

read more

More companies also need to be flexible. This nonsense or rigid starting times creates a lot of problems. I can go to work when I feel like it within reason in the morning thus avoiding all the people rushing in for 9 and dropping kids to school etc heading in after they are all at work.

That being said I disagree with you, a bypass would make a massive and long lasting improvement to traffic around the city.

timmyntc

Anne Handsome Sawhorse wrote: »

More companies also need to be flexible. This nonsense or rigid starting times creates a lot of problems. I can go to work when I feel like it within reason in the morning thus avoiding all the people rushing in for 9 and dropping kids to school etc heading in after they are all at work.

That being said I disagree with you, a bypass would make a massive and long lasting improvement to traffic around the city.

I don't start work till 10. i get the bus from the city, and even with the use of bus lanes I still get caught in traffic. even worse around 6 when I leave, the place is gridlocked.

The bypass would work for a while, mostly for traffic going from west-east or vice versa, however city centre traffic and parkmore traffic would be just as bad. and theres no way to fix this without reducing the volume of cars on the road.

you can be as stubborn as you like nox and keep ignoring that there's a problem with our overreliance on cars, but the fact is that you're heavily outnumbered here. For once the city council has a long-term plan, and a good one at that, and people such as yourself make it your mission to stop all our progress simply because you feel 'entitled' to use your car everywhere. You are the same as those who complained about the pedestrianisation of shop street, and like them, you're on the wrong side of history nox.

Wompa1

There's free parking in the Maldron on the Headford Rd. (for now at least)

Most tourists I have met in Galway city did not actually drive, they were parts of tours. The sad reality is that Ireland is actually one of the worst places for tourists in terms of car rentals. Along with Italy, excess insurance through a major credit card does not cover insurance. Full coverage on a rental car for 2 weeks in Ireland will set you back 600 euro.

I've rented a car three times in Dublin airport and once in Shannon. It's a breeze because there are f'ck all people at the counter when arriving on an transatlantic flight.

Progressive cities in the US and Canada like say Seattle charge a fortune for overnight parking. Even on the outskirts of the city. You'd be looking at $25 a night. At least those places have reliable public transportation though.

I wouldn't have anything against further pedestrianization of the city BUT I hope they actually do a good job of planning this time around. Every major change has been a disaster. I lived on Lough Atalia when they replaced the first roundabout...it went as smooth as a bears hole.

The other junctions haven't turned out much better from my experience. That exit from Tesco out onto the Headford Rd towards the Retail Park is ridiculous. The tiny bit of a slip road up by Boston Scientific just causes confusion.

McTigs

FortySeven wrote: »

I want

Lol

FortySeven wrote: »

start knocking through some of the pointless, tiny houses around the city that are not fit for modern living and not historical enough for saving. Create space.

So we bulldoze the residential communities of woodquay, bohermore, the west and shantalla that are an integral part of what makes galway a great residential city because you don't think the houses are big enough and therefore not worthwhile so we can facilitate you droiving the cor that you have achieved (small minded much?) into the city centre providing you with maximum convenience? And where do you live FortySeven and what exactly gives you the right to decide what's best for those of us who wake up, live and go to sleep in the city centre?

FortySeven

McTigs wrote: »

Lol

So we bulldoze the residential communities of woodquay, bohermore, the west and shantalla that are an integral part of what makes galway a great residential city because you don't think the houses are big enough and therefore not worthwhile so we can facilitate you droiving the cor that you have achieved (small minded much?) into the city centre providing you with maximum convenience? And where do you live FortySeven and what exactly gives you the right to decide what's best for those of us who wake up, live and go to sleep in the city centre?

I live just outside headford. I work in galway. For 10 years I lived on the Westside, Merlin park and doughiska. I cycled, used the appalling public transport and I now drive. Driving is the dogs danglies. I would like a bypass. My opinion is as valid as anyone else's.

You say we should protect those terraced monstrosities mostly used as student and hotel worker houseshares because heritage. I say we flatten the eyesores to allow free movement of traffic.

New York would be a collection of wooden shacks had everyone acted the way you are.

McTigs

But it won't allow free movement of traffic will it? It will just get clogged up with more cars, you know it and I know it.

Bypass yes, I am in full support of a bypass but don't try and tell me that knocking down terraced "monstrosities" in the city centre will make life any better for anyone, motorists included, because it won't. It's never worked anywhere and it's not going to work, or happen here.

And living in headford, no your opinion is not as valid as anyone else's on this matter, least of all city residents.

FortySeven

McTigs wrote: »

But it won't allow free movement of traffic will it? It will just get clogged up with more cars, you know it and I know it.

Bypass yes, I am in full support of a bypass but don't try and tell me that knocking down terraced "monstrosities" in the city centre will make life any better for anyone, motorists included, because it won't. It's never worked anywhere and it's not going to work, or happen here.

And living in headford, no your opinion is not as valid as anyone else's on this matter, least of all city residents.

Cyclists can cycle through traffic. Buses have bus lanes. Traffic affects drivers so drivers should have the most say. As they will. Suggesting my opinion is less valid when I commute through Galway daily is ridiculous.

The one thing I do know. This thread is not representative of Galway commuters. When 95% of people want to use their cars, the council might want to start listening to them and not minority interest groups. We may just get ourselves a new council. One that represents the large majority.

jjpep

Motorised traffic affects everyone in a multitude of ways, from air pollution casued by emmissons (which we now know are a multiple of manafactories falsely reported figures), noise pollution, causing death and injury, clogging up streets, taking up space that could be utilised to do a hundred different things and just being a general pain in the ass to have to deal with.

And by your logic, my opinion is as valid as yours because i own a car.

FortySeven

jjpep wrote: »

Motorised traffic affects everyone in a multitude of ways, from air pollution casued by emmissons (which we now know are a multiple of manafactories falsely reported figures), noise pollution, causing death and injury, clogging up streets, taking up space that could be utilised to do a hundred different things and just being a general pain in the ass to have to deal with.

And by your logic, my opinion is as valid as yours because i own a car.

I own a bike too. I also walk. All opinions are valid if coherent. What I don't subscribe to is the absolute unquestioning attitude that restricting cars will solve anything just because they pollute, are noisy or go around killing people.

We need a traffic management policy for cars. Exclusion will not manage traffic, it just moves it elsewhere. I'm all for better cycling networks and better public transport but only if it comes with provision for current car traffic. Namely, a bypass.

This idea that we will all cycle, walk or take buses is claptrap of the highest order and should not be pushed on the silent majority by the vocal few.

joeKel73

FortySeven wrote: »

Cyclists can cycle through traffic. Buses have bus lanes. Traffic affects drivers so drivers should have the most say.

On a clear road I'd be cycling along at an average of 30kph, not the same as crawling along slowly around cars, not knowing when someones going to open a door or jump out of the line of static cars to skip around a few of their fellow motorists.

joeKel73

Wompa1 wrote: »

Along with Italy, excess insurance through a major credit card does not cover insurance. Full coverage on a rental car for 2 weeks in Ireland will set you back 600 euro.

Off-topic but more people need to know about car hire excess insurance. €3/day or €50/year.

FortySeven

J o e wrote: »

On a clear road I'd be cycling along at an average of 30kph, not the same as crawling along slowly around cars, not knowing when someones going to open a door or jump out of the line of static cars to skip around a few of their fellow motorists.

Well, as long as you're ok. That's sorted then.

joeKel73

??

My point was that cyclists aren't unaffected by congested traffic like you were suggesting.