Morning traffic build up on Aghards Rd, Celbridge

JDigweed

Celbridge is a town of NIMBYS, with a reluctance for change.
The bridge over the Liffey at the Castletown Gates should have been built years ago along with another bridge further up the Liffey on the Clane side.
Sometimes you have to upset a few people for the greater good of the town i .e New Town centre in Donaghcumper.
An outer ring road is essential and must be built.

daheff

mloc123 wrote: »

The amount of people I see driving kids to school in the mornings, the schools are limited to catchment areas so any child in the school should be within walking/cycling distance.

This comment really gets my goat.

Maybe get off your high horse for a moment and think why they are doing this. Most likely is that parents are dropping the kids off and then rushing off to work themselves, so they don't have time to walk the kids to school...even if its a 10 min walk.

The parents I see walking to school are generally those that are not in a rush to get to work (either stay at home or shift etc). Those that drive are generally (though not all) that have to get to work afterwards.

daheff

paddythe goat wrote: »

....love to love to see more public car parks close to main st......what genius allowed castletown house to have lovely walk in entrance from main st?? .

Thats been the historic entrance for the past 200+ years. The gates are protected structures

JDigweed wrote: »

Celbridge is a town of NIMBYS, with a reluctance for change.
The bridge over the Liffey at the Castletown Gates should have been built years ago along with another bridge further up the Liffey on the Clane side.
Sometimes you have to upset a few people for the greater good of the town i .e New Town centre in Donaghcumper.
An outer ring road is essential and must be built.

I think the new town centre in Donaghcumper would have been great. I understand the objections re visibility from Castletown, but thats already spoiled by being able to see SuperValue. Done right, it might actually look good.

New bridge is a major problem. If you put one near Castletown gates you then have issues with the protected buildings there/steep slip road. Its doable, but might be a mess. Another road is then required to join the Dublin road somewhere up near Supervalue (which junction is already a bit of a mess)

For the bridge near clane road, the plan is to run this through 3 housing estates (Hazelhatch pk, Calendars Mill) which are not properly designed to take this volume of traffic -despite the planning. The bigger issue is then diverting a heavy traffic load through this, which joins up at the Hazelhatch road. This is already a busy road and would lead to heavy congestion of cars at the entrance (just go past on a wet school morning to get an idea).

paddythe goat

agree, no way show ring road, go through existing, or into new proposed housing areas, that is madness and dangerous and shows a lack of joined up thinking...........ring road should be exactly that, a ring road, around the town, but maybe few link roundabouts to slow down the racing motors, and to let some estates join the ring road..............

the only developments, i would allow on the ring road, would be a fire station and an ambulance station ,again for obvious reasons, quick access to all celbridge roads and housing estates in case of fire and other problems.................

celbridge is fast becoming a horrible traffic jam area..........from 7.30am to 9.30.........and from 3pm to 4.30pm...............and again from 5pm to 7.30pm....................

funerals and weddings, and special events all add to the traffic problems.......we do need help and relief, there are many studies completed, and now we need some decent action before massive build begins..............on all sides of the town.......see local area plan in library.....lap........and yes there are many opinions and we must listen to them all, give them all due respect, but sitting back and doing nothing is not an option now........................we need kildare county council to take the lead, they are the body who gace all the old estates full planning permission....and we were all glad for that, but now they must tackle the growth and put in improvements before they grant f.p.p. for new 3000 houses over next five years..................

Joe Public

daheff wrote: »

This comment really gets my goat.

Maybe get off your high horse for a moment and think why they are doing this. Most likely is that parents are dropping the kids off and then rushing off to work themselves, so they don't have time to walk the kids to school...even if its a 10 min walk.

The parents I see walking to school are generally those that are not in a rush to get to work (either stay at home or shift etc). Those that drive are generally (though not all) that have to get to work afterwards.

Secondary school pupils should not have to depend on their parents to get them to and from school unless they are living outside Celbridge and not on a bus route.

paddythe goat

exams around corner, parents like to get students close to school to ease pressure and tension.......so june is special month, however take your point, during rest of the year, 800m walk should be no problem to young and healthy boys and girls......in morning and again in afternoon................

some roundabouts would help flows in celbridge......would like to see one near celbridge house pub, where aghards road meets maynooth road, would be big big help.........and another spot that would benefit is where hazelhatch park meets hatch road/newcastle road, very dangerous coming out from residential area on to hatch road in the mornings..........kcc might take a look???? local councillors might take it up with super planners in naas...............

Spanish Eyes

Just wondered what DB or other visible and advertised connections there are to Hazelhatch Station.

Celbridge has this quick route in and out, but there doesn't seem to be any connections to the station?

What an advantage it is to have this station close to the town. But seems to me unless you drive or cycle to it, there is no other way to get there!

I heard about a shuttle bus, but nothing is coming up online about it.

paddythe goat

ring birchells transport......celbridge/ardclough............they should know details or will give u phone number to get details.............or ring any local councillors.........................they should be able to help you...............................................james coaches ...............................

Spanish Eyes

paddythe goat wrote: »

ring birchells transport......celbridge/ardclough............they should know details or will give u phone number to get details.............or ring any local councillors.........................they should be able to help you...............................................james coaches ...............................

Thanks, but my issue is that nothing is visible and available easily is it?

Seems to be hidden somewhere and not for the masses.

Certainly nothing online that I can see. I pity newcomers to the town, this should be a regular ten or fifteen minute service at morning and evening rush hours. But no information is readily available except to those in the know!

That is not right with such a great connection available a few minutes away from the Main Street. A shuttle would get the cars off the roads surely!

The Mulk

Spanish Eyes wrote: »

Thanks, but my issue is that nothing is visible and available easily is it?

Seems to be hidden somewhere and not for the masses.

Certainly nothing online that I can see. I pity newcomers to the town, this should be a regular ten or fifteen minute service at morning and evening rush hours. But no information is readily available except to those in the know!

That is not right with such a great connection available a few minutes away from the Main Street. A shuttle would get the cars off the roads surely!

If you search for the full PDF Hazelhatch time table on the Irish Rail website it gives you the full listing and what services the shuttles operates on.
Same for Sallins

paddythe goat

think thats why...........they call it the mystery bus????............agree should be bright colour, highly visible, and should have time table clearly posted on all bus stops in the town...........common sense????


times running tro town to the station...................and times coming from the station down the town, would be big big help to all customers.....................


traffic might reduce a little if this was the case>>?? any councillors interested??............

ZV Yoda

Joe Public wrote: »

Secondary school pupils should not have to depend on their parents to get them to and from school unless they are living outside Celbridge and not on a bus route.

There's any number of reasons why parents need (or want) to drop their kids to school

paddythe goat wrote: »

exams around corner, parents like to get students close to school to ease pressure and tension.......so june is special month, however take your point, during rest of the year, 800m walk should be no problem to young and healthy boys and girls......in morning and again in afternoon................

I'm all for walking / cycling... although if you look at the location of the secondary schools, a large % of the catchment homes are a lot further than 800m from the schools. St Woolstans and Salesians are both 2km from the village.

mloc123

ZV Yoda wrote: »

There's any number of reasons why parents need (or want) to drop their kids to school



I'm all for walking / cycling... although if you look at the location of the secondary schools, a large % of the catchment homes are a lot further than 800m from the schools. St Woolstans and Salesians are both 2km from the village.

How long will it take a teenager to walk 2km to school?

ZV Yoda

mloc123 wrote: »

How long will it take a teenager to walk 2km to school?

How long is a piece of string?

I wasn't suggesting kids shouldn't walk. Quite the opposite - like I already said, I'm all in favour of them walking or cycling.

Some people seem to think parents drop their kids to school simply because they don't want their precious little Johnny or Mary to walk to school. Maybe some do, but I'd guess they are in the minority. There are lots of reasons why a parent might drop their kids to school.

Often, both parents are working. Many of them have flexible start times specifically to ensure they don't have to leave for work early in the morning while the kids are left home alone (especially important if there are younger kids in the family). So, they drop the kids to creche / school / minders on the commute to work. Things get even more complicated with multiple kids in 2 or 3 different schools / creches.

daheff

Joe Public wrote: »

Secondary school pupils should not have to depend on their parents to get them to and from school unless they are living outside Celbridge and not on a bus route.

this thread is about morning traffic at Aghards....a primary school.

daheff

mloc123 wrote: »

How long will it take a teenager to walk 2km to school?

probably a couple of hours knowing teenagers

Joe Public

daheff wrote: »

this thread is about morning traffic at Aghards....a primary school.

It's also on route to CCS, The Salesians and St. Wolstans depending on what direction pupils are coming from.

mloc123

Joe Public wrote: »

It's also on route to CCS, The Salesians and St. Wolstans depending on what direction pupils are coming from.

Every morning and afternoon I see parents parking in the slip roads on the Clane/Aghards road dropping/waiting to pick up teenagers from Wolstans. Just stop with the hazzrds on.. don't worry about the cars you are blocking.. "I'll only be a minute or two"

daheff

Joe Public wrote: »

It's also on route to CCS, The Salesians and St. Wolstans depending on what direction pupils are coming from.

Thats stretching it a bit. You could also say the Lucan road is too...


In any case you know people are talking about Aghards on this thread.

ZV Yoda

daheff wrote: »

Thats stretching it a bit. You could also say the Lucan road is too...


In any case you know people are talking about Aghards on this thread.

Ah, to be fair, while my original OP was about the lights at Aghards, there's a lot of other factors contributing to the traffic problems in Celbridge.

• Celbridge is a commuter town... so lots of people commute!
• The road infrastructure is woefully indaequate, so traffic crawls out of the various estates onto the same few roads leading out of Celbridge
• The population of Celbridge is spread out on both sides of the village... and the only way to get from one side to the other is via bridge that was designed for horse & carts
• Celbridge has lots of families with young kids that need to be dropped to school / creche / afterschool activities etc
• All of the primary & secondary schools contribute to the gridlock within the same 30-40 minute period every morning / evening.
• The public transport network to / from Dublin city centre may be OK, but options are limited if commuting to other suburbs... so people are more likely to drive
• The train station is over 2km from the main st... meaning most people need to drive / use public transport to get there. If you live on the the Aghards side of Celbridge, that means travelling through the village at rush hour to get to the train station!
• For 3rd level students cycling to Maynooth... the majority of that route has excellent cycle paths, but also some very dangerous road sections (e.g. the back road from the Ray Crofton flyover toward Maynooth - it's treacherous for cyclists in winter)

I'm sure there are lots of other reasons I haven't thought of, but things could be improved with a combination of staggered school times, better roads (including a ring road to the M4 & a second bridge over the Liffey), better inter-suburb public transport, and more comprehensive cycle paths

paddythe goat

agree 100 per cent, with zv yoda..........common sense.........wish you worked in kildare county council.....or maybe you could pass your message on to all north kildare tds and local councillors, think we have seven, between celbridge and leixlip...............

3000, new houses coming to celbridge over next few years under lap...............present chaos on all roads and in all areas.................what will it be like once the new houses start???........would be lovely if kcc started to improve area ,one or two years before the massive developments kick off....??

am i seeking way too much???
i wrote to all four tds, only got a reply from two of them...........guess who will not get my vote next time??...............time for all in celbridge to say stop, fix present problems........best wishes

mloc123

Traffic was great this morning...

paddythe goat

all secondary schools closed.......big help........any chance we could keep them closed, all year around, bet students would smile............reality back in late august..............

mloc123

paddythe goat wrote: »

all secondary schools closed.......big help........any chance we could keep them closed, all year around, bet students would smile............reality back in late august..............

Which backs up my previous point... If secondary school kids didn't need to be dropped at the gates of the school.... Traffic would not be as big an issue

Joe Public

mloc123 wrote: »

Which backs up my previous point... If secondary school kids didn't need to be dropped at the gates of the school.... Traffic would not be as big an issue

What % of parents took a few days off work while their children are off?

paddythe goat

bottom line........big population deserves better roads, better river crossings, better cycle pathways, better bus services, more trains,......we should not be dependent on school holidays or parents taking breaks to get relief from daily and hourly traffic congestion...?? better planning and execution from kcc in naas is what we really need............... truth be told, we have needed help for last 10 to 20 years....somebody in kcc hates us.............and we seem to be paddy last when goodies are being given out from tax payers loot.............. we must live in hope, somebody with vision will appear before we get 3000 new houses in stuffed celbridge.............. a great town, a lovely area, but we do have a blight, think its called traffic blight......and we are now getting famous for it............??

mloc123

Joe Public wrote: »

What % of parents took a few days off work while their children are off?

Parents take 3 months off a year because the secondary schools are closed?

Joe Public

mloc123 wrote: »

Parents take 3 months off a year because the secondary schools are closed?

Yeah, teacher parents

Kfagan10

Train services to gcd via the city centre are more than adequate, but accessibility to the train station is poor. The train takes very few cars away from the pinch point of the bridge, because you can only drive or cycle there.

The shuttle is woefully advertised, with only the buses from the station to Celbridge visible on the Portlaise train timetable.

The ultimate solution is a combination of the previously proposed one way system to and from hazelhatch combined with a second bridge over the liffey.

In terms of any second bridge, our local councillors must be prompted to hurry up and put a proposal forward to the Department of Transport for funding in order to get funding. The earliest this funding can be granted is 2019, but doubtful that will happen with the gombeens in charge of submitting a proposal.

mloc123

Somewhat related... WTF is up with the main st works? I thought theses were to take a week or two, we must be almost 2 months in now?