Galway - 61st worst traffic jams in the world

yer man!

Mrs OBumble wrote: »

But don't worry - no matter how many roads we build, the car traffic will expand to fill them. It's one of the few road engineering principles that applies everywhere in the whole world.

You're correct about this but, by moving the bulk of the current car traffic out to the bypass it allows the city to do more with the city roads. Currently there's really no space to put in any more bus lanes or pedestrianise anymore streets without causing complete gridlock all over the city. Nothing can happen in Galway until that bypass is built, no extensive city wide bus corridors, no more open city spaces.

Happyilylost

Some may not know but expect traffic to be horrendous in Galway today with the Galway Mayo football match in Salthill. Already long tailbacks into Claregalway and town is quite busy also. The rain won't help matters. Just a friendly warning. Anyone heading salthill side safe travelling and enjoy the day.

what_traffic

Happyilylost wrote: »

Some may not know but expect traffic to be horrendous in Galway today with the Galway Mayo football match in Salthill. Already long tailbacks into Claregalway and town is quite busy also. The rain won't help matters. Just a friendly warning. Anyone heading salthill side safe travelling and enjoy the day.

You mean CAR traffic right? Did not see any BUS traffic jams yesterday in the City.
Why GAA Clubs/Connacht Council all over Galway & Mayo cannot organise a fleet of buses to these well known events is beyond me. Date and time well known in advance + predictable travel patterns for majority of attendees.

KevR

Just skimmed through the replies, I don't think anyone has made the following point:

Galway City: 20 sq mi (53 km2)
Los Angeles: 469 sq mi (1,214 km2)
Dallas: 340.5 sq mi (881.9 km2)

I assume average commute distances (miles/kilometers) in the big cities are more than Galway...

Spending 43.5 hours stuck in traffic per year when your urban commute distance is miles (a guess for Galway)
-vs-
Spending 59 hours (Dallas) with a commute distance of perhaps 10+ miles

It can take 20 - 25 mins to do a couple of miles in Galway when traffic is bad. That's approx. 6 miles per hour which is horrendous!
I have been stuck in LA and Dallas "gridlock" a number of times. You typically can still cover 10 - 15 miles per hour.

Galway is so poorly laid out with huge volumes of traffic being funneled into a small number of under-spec'd pinch points. Substantial infrastructure investment is needed in Galway - major new roads and public transport, it's not one or the other!

what_traffic

KevR wrote: »

Just skimmed through the replies, I don't think anyone has made the following point:

Galway City: 20 sq mi (53 km2)
Los Angeles: 469 sq mi (1,214 km2)
Dallas: 340.5 sq mi (881.9 km2)

Why are you comparing apples and oranges?
Why not pick a similar size city in UK or Irleand with similar populations and size if you want to make comparisons.

KevR

what_traffic wrote: »

Why are you comparing apples and oranges?
Why not pick a similar size city in UK or Irleand with similar populations and size if you want to make comparisons.

You have missed the point.

While the average commute distance will be further in these big cities, you will still have many people with shorter commutes which are similar in distance to the Galway average. These commuters are likely to spend less time in traffic than their Galway counterparts over the same distance. Get it?

Regarding your suggestion of picking a similar size town in Ireland or the UK (why are you limiting it to these 2 countries BTW?), you are alluding to the fact that this will result in a different overall conclusion. On the contrary, it reinforces my point. Limerick, Waterford and Cork are far better off than Galway. Only London in the UK has a worse score, all the smaller cities and towns have a better score than Galway!

Basically, Galway's transport infrastructure is amongst the worst you will come across in any first world town or city (small, medium, large or mega).

what_traffic

KevR wrote: »

Regarding your suggestion of picking a similar size town in Ireland or the UK (why are you limiting it to these 2 countries BTW?), you are alluding to the fact that this will result in a different overall conclusion. On the contrary, it reinforces my point. Limerick, Waterford and Cork are far better off than Galway. Only London in the UK has a worse score, all the smaller cities and towns have a better score than Galway!

I am not alluding to that at all - I am just showing how poor your comparisons are. Comparing Galway with Los Angeles is pretty daft.

Please do tell how Limerick, Waterford and Cork are far better off than Galway?

please helpThank YOU

what_traffic wrote: »

I am not alluding to that at all - I am just showing how poor your comparisons are. Comparing Galway with Los Angeles is pretty daft.

Please do tell how Limerick, Waterford and Cork are far better off than Galway?

Cork , and Limerick, have a superior road infrastructure . Galway road infrastructure had been left behind and Cork , Limerick are light years ahead of Galway poor roads.

KevR

what_traffic wrote: »

I am not alluding to that at all - I am just showing how poor your comparisons are. Comparing Galway with Los Angeles is pretty daft.

Not daft at all. You are not "showing" anything. It's a poor attempt to undermine a point without putting forward a constructive counter-argument.

Do you disagree with my point that someone in Dallas or LA commuting 3 miles is likely to spend less time in traffic than someone commuting 3 miles in Galway? If so, why?

what_traffic wrote: »

Please do tell how Limerick, Waterford and Cork are far better off than Galway?

Refer to the OP. The stats are clear and easy to understand.

The onus is not on me to explain and justify the stats to you. If you disagree with the stats or the point I made, you should try putting forward a constructive counter-argument.

In the OP: "Data Source: http://inrix.com/scorecard/"

xckjoo

KevR wrote: »

Not daft at all. You are not "showing" anything. It's a poor attempt to undermine a point without putting forward a constructive counter-argument.

Do you disagree with my point that someone in Dallas or LA commuting 3 miles is likely to spend less time in traffic than someone commuting 3 miles in Galway? If so, why?




Refer to the OP. The stats are clear and easy to understand.

The onus is not on me to explain and justify the stats to you. If you disagree with the stats or the point I made, you should try putting forward a constructive counter-argument.

In the OP: "Data Source: http://inrix.com/scorecard/"

Not sure what the value of comparing a medieval city like Galway to a large US city is. Their cities are designed around car usage and never-ending space, while ours were designed around defense against marauding vikings or whatever. 3 miles in LA or Dallas is their version of pulling out of the driveway .

You could argue that our city planning should switch to match the US-style sprawling metropolis but that's only necessary if we base our whole lives around cars. I personally like being able to walk places. Doesn't do the heart of waistline any harm either.

Mrs OBumble

xckjoo wrote: »

You could argue that our city planning should switch to match the US-style sprawling metropolis but that's only necessary if we base our whole lives around cars. I personally like being able to walk places. Doesn't do the heart of waistline any harm either.

Also we don't have the landmass to support it.

We already have atelatively high proportion of the country devoted to roads.

what_traffic

KevR wrote: »

Do you disagree with my point that someone in Dallas or LA commuting 3 miles is likely to spend less time in traffic than someone commuting 3 miles in Galway? If so, why?

I do not disagree but it is a pointless point.
Comparing a small medieval town like Galway to a very large NEW 20TH Century US city like Los Angeles is still daft.

KevR

what_traffic wrote: »

I do not disagree but it is a pointless point.
Comparing a small medieval town like Galway to a very large NEW 20TH Century US city like Los Angeles is still daft.

A small part of Galway is medieval.

The city has expanded drastically in recent decades. The majority of Galway City is by no means medieval.

Many commuters in Galway are coming from suburban areas which are only a few decades old and travelling to industrial/office areas that again are "NEW 20th Century". They are not limited to passing through the medieval core.

The transport infrastructure that was built during Galway's 20th and 21st century expansion has been woeful. Medieval Galway is not to blame.

beardybrewer

KevR I'd agree with most of what you're saying to a point. However I think a historic town/city is more likely to be built near a water source and therefore naturally have bridges that act as bottlenecks.

connemara man

KevR wrote: »

A small part of Galway is medieval.

The city has expanded drastically in recent decades. The majority of Galway City is by no means medieval.

Many commuters in Galway are coming from suburban areas which are only a few decades old and travelling to industrial/office areas that again are "NEW 20th Century". They are not limited to passing through the medieval core.

The transport infrastructure that was built during Galway's 20th and 21st century expansion has been woeful. Medieval Galway is not to blame.

and there's only one bridge over the river that means you don't have to go through the medieval city

what_traffic

KevR wrote: »

Medieval Galway is not to blame.

Of course its not

But comparing Galway with LA or Dallas is not going to get you anywhere in terms of looking at Galways CAR traffic woes. Why bother?

More useful exercise is comparing Galway with comparable size towns in Ireland, UK & Europe with populations of 70k -> 200k

KevR

what_traffic wrote: »

Of course its not

So why even bring up Medieval Galway in the first place?
You made the point that Medieval Galway is not comparable with NEW 20th century urban settings in other countries.
Most of Galway City is 20th and 21st century. The problem is, it's very badly planned in comparison to other towns and cities (of all shapes and sizes) the world over.

what_traffic wrote: »

But comparing Galway with LA or Dallas is not going to get you anywhere in terms of looking at Galways CAR traffic woes. Why bother?

"not going to get you anywhere" and "why bother" - again with attempts to undermine without putting anything constructive forward...

We absolutely should be looking at best practices in planning, street design, transport...etc.
Ignorance is not bliss. Ignorance is congestion and a poor quality of life for commuters.
If other cities (big or small) can move people at average speeds 3 or 4 times faster than Galway, we should be trying to understand how they do it and emulate certain aspects as applicable given Galway's size. Outright dismissing comparisons against big cities is ignorance.

I see no reason why we should avoid comparing against big cities in certain respects. No - we are not going to build 10 underground railway lines in Galway; no - we are not going to build highways that are 14 lanes wide. But.... are we planning properly in Galway? Are our streets well designed? What is the optimal mix of low capacity residential streets -vs- higher capacity thoroughfares? How do we eliminate existing transport choke points? What is our masterplan?

Big cities have been there and done that. In fact, many have solved problems that are more difficult than Galway's transport woes. We just have very sloppy planners here and the public are failing to hold them accountable.

what_traffic wrote: »

More useful exercise is comparing Galway with comparable size towns in Ireland, UK & Europe with populations of 70k -> 200k

OK, Limerick and Cork commuters spend less time in traffic than people in Galway. None of the 3 (Limerick, Cork and Galway) have light rail or what you would call well developed public transport. Limerick and Cork both have partial ring roads. Galway does not. What does this tell us?

A North Ring Road is likely to be eventually built in Cork. They are forward planning in Cork and want to position the city so that it can grow and act as a counter-balance to Dublin. What's the plan for Galway? Fight over a ring road for another 25 years and remain in a position where the city cannot grow?

KevR

connemara man wrote: »

and there's only one bridge over the river that means you don't have to go through the medieval city

Exactly! Badly planned. Another bridge should have been built 15+ years ago as the city was expanding to avoid us having this bottleneck.

marno21

City bypass will be ready to go to construction in 2021, it's currently with An Bord Pleanala. More info - www.n6galwaycity.ie

sammyjo90 wrote: »

and the fckig traffic in jack lynch tunnel is a mare every single day. it makes no difference..you are still moving at a snails pace

If you place a signalised roundabout at the intersection of 4 motorway standard dual carraigeways then you have traffic jams, if the approach from the N40 was a bridge you'd have the same jams.

what_traffic

KevR wrote: »

So why even bring up Medieval Galway in the first place?

I am not BLAMING Medieval Galway. Medieval Galway is just that, a Medieval City! Comparing Medieval Town/City with a huge US Metropolitan area designed around the Car in the 20th is still not going to give you any new information on Galways CAR traffic woes.
3/4 Bridges in the City are in the Medieval Town/City.

One thing I would agree with you on is that yes we have had very poor planners in Galways recent history.