Galway's traffic issues

Mrs OBumble

<offtopic>

biko

Doctors room ghost wrote: »

What do ye make of the idea of water taxis.

It has been mentioned before.
I think it's a great idea.

Doctors room ghost

biko wrote: »

It has been mentioned before.
I think it's a great idea.

I mentioned it before when someone was taking an hour to go from oranmore to salthill.

McGiver

Sara Shapely Bead wrote:

We can do what ever we like in Ireland and it will make zero difference to anything. When the world starts converting all goal, oil and gas electricity production to nuclear then they will actually be making an effort not taking nonsense about cars and cows.

That's quite cynical and fatalistic.
The more developed countries, which are mostly in Europe, should lead the way, otherwise no else will solve anything.
Secondly, doing something new is a great opportunity to develop new high-tech green technologies and profit from this development rather than not.
Furthermore, Ireland has committed itself to reduce CO2 emissions as part of the EU, so it would be foolish not to work towards what was agreed.
Also, China, one of the largest emitters, has actually made significant steps to renewable energy and electromobility by the way, and are set to potentially become a leader in some of the tech in 10 years, so it's not true that others are no doing anything.
And lastly, waiting for India, China and the US all sort themselves out and then only start doing something would be too late, action is needed earlier than that.

McGiver

Doctors room ghost wrote:

What do ye make of the idea of water taxis. Is Galway bay the solution to taking cars off the road. Huge expense involved with boats and car parks. Private company or government backed etc. What do ye reckon. Wasn’t there a water taxi last year from ballyvaughan to Galway docks. Did anyone know of anyone using it

Some sort of a Ferry is a total nonsense. Too slow.
Better build a proper bypass i.e. a road bridge from the Oranmore to the Ceant station as I proposed, why it is never occurred to anyone or wasn't done is not clear to me. It's obvious.

Jamsiek

McGiver wrote: »

Some sort of a Ferry is a total nonsense. Too slow.
Better build a proper bypass i.e. a road bridge from the Oranmore to the Ceant station as I proposed, why it is never occurred to anyone or wasn't done is not clear to me. It's obvious.

I disagree. It works in many places. Seabus and water taxis in Vancouver where I am and the SeaCat in Brisbane are just 2 examples that come to mind. These options can carry a large volume of people too.

Doctors room ghost

Jamsiek wrote: »

I disagree. It works in many places. Seabus and water taxis in Vancouver where I am and the SeaCat in Brisbane are just 2 examples that come to mind. These options can carry a large volume of people too.

I disagree with him too.im all for water taxi.galway bay is an untapped resource well capable of reducing city traffic.
If it seems far fetched there was one running last year from ballyvaughan to Galway docks.

ben.schlomo

Doctors room ghost wrote: »

Jamsiek wrote: »

I disagree. It works in many places. Seabus and water taxis in Vancouver where I am and the SeaCat in Brisbane are just 2 examples that come to mind. These options can carry a large volume of people too.

I disagree with him too.im all for water taxi.galway bay is an untapped resource well capable of reducing city traffic.
If it seems far fetched there was one running last year from ballyvaughan to Galway docks.

And how did that one do? Still going? A roaring success commercially? If you can't get people to use a bike or public transport then you may as well try an interstellar rocket if you're trying a ferry or water taxi.

McGiver

Doctors room ghost wrote:

I disagree with him too.im all for water taxi.galway bay is an untapped resource well capable of reducing city traffic. If it seems far fetched there was one running last year from ballyvaughan to Galway docks.

It's commercially non viable, its too slow and it has too low throughput. People in Oranmore own cars or use a bus. Better build a bridge with a bus lane. Connects to the existing infrastructure (change to other bus etc).
Do you have an example of a city where ferry is integrated into public transport system in a similar topography and delivers required throughput?
There are ferries in Oslo PT but they run between mainland and islands.

bobbyss

McGiver wrote:

Some sort of a Ferry is a total nonsense. Too slow. Better build a proper bypass i.e. a road bridge from the Oranmore to the Ceant station as I proposed, why it is never occurred to anyone or wasn't done is not clear to me. It's obvious.

How much would that cost?

biko

Last time a ferry was used between north Clare and the city - Ballyvaughan Bay Hop
I wouldn't be a fan of stepping onto this small vessel*
We know ferries to the islands works well, so why not across the bay.





*but that's not why it was stopped
https://clarechampion.ie/bay-hop-halted/

Ashleigh1986

Regarding ferries/ water taxis ...
Piers / car parks / offices would have to built .
People wouldn't drive to a pier ...pay for parking / pay for ferry and than have to get a bus/ taxi when they are dropped to get to their final destination .
They would require a car for bringing kids to school/ sports/ shopping/mass etc etc .
Irish people use their car because it's cost them a lot of money to buy it/ insure it/ maintain it/ tax it .
Cheap reliable public transport is the way to go .
Is bus eireann capable of providing such service??
I doubt it !!

Doctors room ghost

People would use water taxis if they were affordable,reliable,fast and regular.

There’s already plenty of piers. I can think of at least 5 piers in the oranmore maree Ballindereen direction that aren’t used.

In Boston they even have a bus that doubles as a boat.it drives up the town then into the river and away she goes.its called the duck tour.

Doctors room ghost

Ashleigh1986 wrote: »

Regarding ferries/ water taxis ...
Piers / car parks / offices would have to built .
People wouldn't drive to a pier ...pay for parking / pay for ferry and than have to get a bus/ taxi when they are dropped to get to their final destination .
They would require a car for bringing kids to school/ sports/ shopping/mass etc etc .
Irish people use their car because it's cost them a lot of money to buy it/ insure it/ maintain it/ tax it .
Cheap reliable public transport is the way to go .
Is bus eireann capable of providing such service??
I doubt it !!

If you were dropped off at the docks by water taxis you could walk or coca cola bike it anywhere in the city.

Mrs OBumble

Ashleigh1986 wrote: »

Regarding ferries/ water taxis ...
Piers / car parks / offices would have to built .
People wouldn't drive to a pier ...pay for parking / pay for ferry and than have to get a bus/ taxi when they are dropped to get to their final destination .
They would require a car for bringing kids to school/ sports/ shopping/mass etc etc .
Irish people use their car because it's cost them a lot of money to buy it/ insure it/ maintain it/ tax it .
Cheap reliable public transport is the way to go .
Is bus eireann capable of providing such service??
I doubt it !!

You know that Bongam Quay is being built at the docks, right?

Seems to me that what is being proposed is indeed reliable cheap public transport- in the sense of being accessible to the public.

Thelonious Monk

A friend drove us there from Dublin maybe 10 years ago and I couldn't believe how bad the traffic was in the city. By the sounds of this thread it hasn't improved. Realistically you'll prob get another road built or some roads widened which will just get clogged up with more cars. For such a small place it's frightening how bad the traffic is. Although the constant stream of ribbon development all around Galway is always going to make adequate public transport impossible. You're f*cked.

Mrs OBumble

A few posts ago, someone claimed that nothing to do with traffic had been improved in the last twenty years.

I've been taking an active interest in improvements in public transport and traffic overall for about ten years now. For context, I thought it might be useful to make a list of things that have improved. In no particular order,

The 409 bus to Parkmore, via Doughiska. I don't know the exact date it started, think it was 2007-ish. Before that, both areas had a very sparse bus service. Now it's the best in the country

A major re-organisation of the city bus timetable in ... 2012 was it? Routes were made more sensible, clockface times introduced, and a proper timetable published. Big extensions to hours of service.

Bus lanes on the Dublin Rd. Not perfect. Not covering the length of the road (yet!) But they make enough of a difference that I know many Doughiska / Roscam residents who don't take the car into the city anymore, because the bus is better.

Buslanes on Bothar-na-BigHill and Forster Street have sped up services thru town in the afternoons.

Bus shelters at the main stops.

Bicycles can now be pre-booked onto trains.

Coke Zero bikes.

Bukes Tuam and Headford buses moved from little-known bus stop in a side street to a main-street bus stop in Eyre Square. They also increased the number of services, and the Tuam service is now seven-day.

Boyles extended their commuter bus from Mountbellew to a multi-trips each day service to/from Roscommon.

BusLink vastly extended the Athenry bus service, replacing an infrequently poorly planned service run by Bus Éireann. They now have one bus each way travelling via Parkmore. (Again, now enough to make real change - but it's a start).

Athenry also has a night-link bus from the city on Friday/Saturday.

Healy's started a daily service from Loughrea via Oranmore.

Oranmore railway station.

A seven day, extended-hours city bus linking Oranmore, Galway Clinic, the city centre and UHG/NUIG/Newcastle.

Real time bus signs installed, and working properly on some routes. (Agree that better is needed - but it's a start).

Traffic management plan for the Galway Races: when I was first here, the thing was a nightmare. Now workers in the area are barely affected.

Widening of Monivea Rd into Wellpark, and removal of the roundabout there: Has made a big difference to speed of bus trips home from work in that area.

Bus lane on the SQR.

Standardisation of the CityDirect services, and moving their depot to a more suitable location.

Double-decker buses have increased capacity on lots of routes.

Bus Eireann now have 24 hour tickets on city buses.

The Dublin motorway, which enabled non-stop bus services to Dublin. Journey time to the city centre is 2.5 hours. Dublin is now a day-trip away.

The National Transport Authority built a website listing all licensed public transport services, and including a journey planner www.a-b.ie
Express buses to Limerick and Cork.

Hospital staff/patient shuttle bus between Merlin and Newcastle campuses.

NUIG park and ride in Dangan.

GoBus are running 7-day servcie to Ballina.

Express buses from Ballinasloe.

Lots of roundabout were removed. Some motorists hate this. But with the traffic volumes we have, they were inadequate. And they were pedestrian and cyclists hostile, stopping people from walking some minor journeys.

The Cycle-bus in Knocknacarra has community volunteers supervising groups of children cycling to school. While I have some concerns with the concept, especially if it's replacing walking journeys with wheeled ones - I have to admit that it's got some people out of unnecessary car journeys.

An express service to Killarney was trialled (now discontinued). Actually various other things were trialled too ... too many to list.




Agree that things are far from perfect - or even adequate in some cases.

But to claim that nothing has gotten better is just ill-informed ranting. And each public transport improvement is more people not needing to use individual vehicles to go places. We are far from fecked.

McGiver

The problem from a blowin point of view is that all you listed isn't enough and it happened from abysmally low base, so although I trust the progress has been significant, the current state is way below acceptable in European standards. Long way to go...Absence of sheltered bus stops is a particular issue in one of the rainiest cities in Europe.

youngrun

McGiver wrote: »

The problem from a blowin point of view is that all you listed isn't enough and it happened from abysmally low base, so although I trust the progress has been significant, the current state is way below acceptable in European standards. Long way to go...Absence of sheltered bus stops is a particular issue in one of the rainiest cities in Europe.

True. A Lot done more to do

To my half blind eye the most obvious thing is to put in several massive Park and Rides and use them all year round linked with buses. Surely it is worth the cost . Eg the NUIG one thats only used half the the year, Racecourse, Airport, + a couple of others on the key links eg Oranmore, Tuam road ( Corinithians? ), and Headford rd
Several thousand spaces there

what_traffic

Mrs OBumble wrote: »

A major re-organisation of the city bus timetable in ... 2012 was it? Routes were made more sensible, clockface times introduced, and a proper timetable published. Big extensions to hours of service.
.
..
...
The National Transport Authority built a website listing all licensed public transport services, and including a journey planner www.a-b.ie
Express buses to Limerick and Cork.
.
..
....
But to claim that nothing has gotten better is just ill-informed ranting. And each public transport improvement is more people not needing to use individual vehicles to go places. We are far from fecked.

Good post apart from the bike bus post? Anyhow the interesting thing from a Galway City perspective - was that it was an outside body who are responsible for this change in public transport in 2012. The NTA, not Galway City Council. Unfortunately NTA cannot build bus lanes in the City.

Storm 10

Don't go anywhere in the City centre direction there is chaos in there, they are digging up and laying down Tarmacadam at the Foster Court hotel, it has taken nearly an hour to get from Bohermore to the bottom of the Square, there were buses ahead and behind me so I can only imagine how far behind they are in their bus schedule, why can this not be done at night time is beyond me its a joke what going on there.

fergiesfolly

Mrs OBumble wrote: »

A few posts ago, someone claimed that nothing to do with traffic had been improved in the last twenty years.



But to claim that nothing has gotten better is just ill-informed ranting. And each public transport improvement is more people not needing to use individual vehicles to go places. We are far from fecked.

I think that was myself.
It was a rant against the ineffectual leadership shown by our elected councilors and disbelief that we voted them in again( not the thread for this I know)
MrsBumble, I, like everyone on this forum has read your input and recognised your work in this area for several years and you're to be commended for it. I wouldn't have the time or energy to put that sort of effort into this topic and I'd bow to your superior knowledge on the subject.
I read through the list and any improvements, large and small are to be applauded.
There are some of the points in that list that would be the bare minimum I'd expect a city of this size would have implemented, but I don't want to be nitpicking for the sake of it.
But what I would say, is that for the improvements made, we're in a worse off state now than we were when I first started driving, some 20 years ago.
So were the improvements made, part of an overall plan or strategy? Or just adhoc ideas shoehorned into a list.
Bus and cycle lanes are definitely the way ahead. Why aren't there more of them?
Park and Ride has been touted for years, but nothing has happened.
The by-pass has been stuck for over a decade.
You've listed some improvements and there are probably some you haven't mentioned and yet the traffic situation is worse than ever.
I'm not as informed as others here on the statistics, but I'm informed by the people I speak to. Family, friends work colleagues. Car users, bus users, cyclists. All frustrated by the ever worsening commutes into and through the city.
And as I write this I'm reading the front page of this week's Advertiser and the most important discussion to be had at the opening meeting of the council next week is who gets to be Mayor.
Maybe we aren't fecked, but with this bunch leading us, we're not that far from it.

Again, MrsOBumble, not a swipe at you. Just a tired rant at the status quo.

_Puma_

Mrs OBumble wrote: »

.....................

Real time bus signs installed, and working properly on some routes. (Agree that better is needed - but it's a start).

..............

The Real Time App just updated today with functionality that allows it to to display real time departure Information, not just the time tabled info.

Major step forward, no need for those signs now really. They have renamed the App "Live Departures"

what_traffic

fergiesfolly wrote: »

And as I write this I'm reading the front page of this week's Advertiser and the most important discussion to be had at the opening meeting of the council next week is who gets to be Mayor.
Maybe we aren't fecked, but with this bunch leading us, we're not that far from it.

They really have very very little say in anything to do with Transport in the City. That's why we have "Who will be next Ceremonial Mayor with no actual political power" headlines in the free sheets. It really is the Road Engineers Dept who dictate what happens in Galway City.

JCX BXC

_Puma_ wrote: »

The Real Time App just updated today with functionality that allows it to to display real time departure Information, not just the time tabled info.

Major step forward, no need for those signs now really. They have renamed the App "Live Departures"

Did it not show real time information before? I was sure it did as it never matched timetabled times.

Also, you're assuming everyone who gets the bus has a smartphone, that app, sufficiently charged, and has mobile data.

McGiver

fergiesfolly wrote:

It was a rant against the ineffectual leadership shown by our elected councilors and disbelief that we voted them in again.
...
There are some of the points in that list that would be the bare minimum I'd expect a city of this size would have implemented...

This is exactly what I wanted to say. Thanks for articulating that for me.

Yay another roundabout will soon be removed

Design options almost finalised for upgrade of Martin roundabout in the city

Design options are being finalised for the upgrade of Martin roundabout at Galway Clinic to a signalised junction.

The design is expected to progress to planning in the next few weeks.

The junction will provide primary access to Ardaun at the southern section which will provide bus priority, as well as full pedestrian and cyclist crossing facilities.

It’s being provided as part of an overall plan to develop the Ardaun area for housing.

Ardaun is located on 164 hectares on the east side of the city and has been designated as a major urban housing delivery site under the Rebuilding Ireland programme.

2.7 million euro in funding has been sanctioned for the Ardaun upgrade of Martin roundabout under the Urban Regeneration and Development Fund.

Ashleigh1986

Deleted User wrote: »

Yay another roundabout will soon be removed

Thank god for that .
Get the rest of them out Asap.
In there place CCTV monitored at rush hours traffic lights .
Wait until this Sunday , Connacht final in pearse stadium.
It will be carnage .
Traffic lights left on their normal sequence even tho hundreds of extra vecihcles going to event in salthill .
Where else but galway would you get this bull****.

jjpep

[Deleted User] wrote: »

Yay another roundabout will soon be removed

Excellent!! Although with the track record Galway city councils transportation dept has I'm sure they'll easily make a balls of it.

jjpep

jjpep wrote: »

Excellent!! Although with the track record Galway city councils transportation dept has I'm sure they'll easily make a balls of it.

In fairness, I'm not sure how it's possible to go from a RAB to a 4 arm signalised junction without inconveniencing all junction users during the transformation process