Galway's traffic issues

Mrs OBumble

Wompa1 wrote: »

How about incentives for companies to permit more work from home? Or would cutoff tailoring where people work from be too mad as well?

I can't understand how cafes and shops (ironically some with the name Daybreak) open at 7:30am or later along major arteries for the city commuter traffic. It's been a while since I worked at an office here but thinking back now, everyone was getting into work at the same time. Everyone had the same break times. Why?...it's pretty strange and isn't what people do in other countries and that was in IT...

Working from home isn't an option for manufacturing staff! Or ones working with confidential data and no secure home office.

Some manufacturing sites have day shifts starting as early as 6am, and others starting between 8am and 9am.

Lots of IT staff do have offsite working options and flexibility re hours. Some work 10-6 ish to suit American clients.

Wompa1

Mrs OBumble wrote: »

Lots of IT staff do have offsite working options and flexibility re hours. Some work 10-6 ish to suit American clients.

How many and which ones? Most of my friends here work in IT for multi-nationals. I worked for one before I left and have worked with a couple of others. Support work roles are only a fraction of many of the companies departments.

Also, are these places hiring? Do many places have an 8 you shift these days? Standard used to be 8.5 or 9 to get a 40 hour week and allow for breaks.

Wompa1

Came in late yesterday from Headford way. No traffic after 9:30am. Great stuff!

Came into the city from the N84 at 7:45am this morning. No traffic either. Great stuff!

According to Google Maps. The route I take in right now has heavy traffic from the roundabout by Menlo Park Hotel. Traffic gets light again just past Tesco but backs up around Lidl for the rest of the way. Grand scheme of things, it looks like right now it adds about 15 minutes to what it a 22 minute journey without traffic.

So, there is traffic on that route it's just all concentrated around 8:15am - 9:30am, it seems.

Wompa1

Wompa1 wrote: »

Came in late yesterday from Headford way. No traffic after 9:30am. Great stuff!

Came into the city from the N84 at 7:45am this morning. No traffic either. Great stuff!

According to Google Maps. The route I take in right now has heavy traffic from the roundabout by Menlo Park Hotel. Traffic gets light again just past Tesco but backs up around Lidl for the rest of the way. Grand scheme of things, it looks like right now it adds about 15 minutes to what it a 22 minute journey without traffic.

So, there is traffic on that route it's just all concentrated around 8:15am - 9:30am, it seems.

The schools are all off not though which needs to be taken into account when judging traffic. That being said I would agree with your observations even when traffic is bad before 8 or after 9/9:15 things are much better and you get far less slow downs. I’m personally much more of a come in after 9 than before 8 person but regardless it’s one or the other for me I simply will not aim to in at 9 and it’s just madness doing it from a traffic perspective.

youngrun

Ashleigh1986 wrote: »

I'm sick to death of saying the traffic lights in galway during rush hours shouldn't been on a sequence.
How can a sequence tell how bad the traffic is on any given artery ?
The lights need to have CCTV cameras on them to be changed depending on how many vehicles are in any given artery .
How these clowns in city hall with all their degrees can't see this ?
Book smarts but street stupid .

https://www.advertiser.ie/galway/article/52811/lights-camera-action-city-hall-shows-off-its-new-high-tech-traffic-control-centre

There is a control centre
Just too much traffic going through city and junctions =Delays
Always going to eb the way unless either major shift to public transport, bikes or shanks mare or massive new infra projects

xckjoo

Wompa1 wrote: »

How about incentives for companies to permit more work from home? Or would cutoff tailoring where people work from be too mad as well?

I can't understand how cafes and shops (ironically some with the name Daybreak) open at 7:30am or later along major arteries for the city commuter traffic. It's been a while since I worked at an office here but thinking back now, everyone was getting into work at the same time. Everyone had the same break times. Why?...it's pretty strange and isn't what people do in other countries and that was in IT...

Incentivising working from home would be fine but not sure how much difference it would make or what it would look like. These decisions are usually made at head office in a multinational and most that can offer it already do. From my observations, most people with that option still come into the office for a variety of reasons (meetings, comfort, human contact, work atmosphere, habit, etc.). I guess we could offer those people an incentive to take up the option if it's available, but not sure what form that would take and could piss off all the people that don't have the option. Maybe offer an incentive not to bring your car out at peak traffic times, but that's basically a congestion charge isn't it?

xckjoo

youngrun wrote: »

https://www.advertiser.ie/galway/article/52811/lights-camera-action-city-hall-shows-off-its-new-high-tech-traffic-control-centre

There is a control centre
Just too much traffic going through city and junctions =Delays
Always going to eb the way unless either major shift to public transport, bikes or shanks mare or massive new infra projects

We're also sh1te at using traffic lights/any junction. People take ages to get moving when the lights turn green and then run the red at the end, block up the junction and messing up the flow for the next group to go. I'd love to see a crack down on this kind of behaviour and see if it improves traffic flow.

flazio

We need to introduce the Red and yellow then green light sequence that the UK use in order to improve the response times.

Ashleigh1986

The city traffic ain't going anywhere until all roundabouts pulled out.
It has some chance when they are .
Hopefully a one way system brought in again on inbound Lough atalia and outbound college road .
Pedestrian lights especially at Jurys need looking at .
That's where having CCTV cameras helps .
Zero tolerance by traffic wardens and gardai regarding vecihcles parked up along foster street / eglinton street .

flazio

flazio wrote: »

We need to introduce the Red and yellow then green light sequence that the UK use in order to improve the response times.

Having driven in the UK I can’t really see any benefit. Orange is treated as green over there so if you aren’t ready to move on orange it’s treated the same as not moving on green and you will be defended by horns from behind.

Ashleigh1986

Ashleigh1986 wrote: »

Pedestrian lights especially at Jurys need looking at

What's wrong with them?

Ashleigh1986

Deleted User wrote: »

What's wrong with them?

They cause chaos especially during the summer .
Traffic backed up along by the docks past harbour hotel along Lough atalia .
Traffic sorts it's self out after those lights , so obviously there's an issue with the timing involved .
Crossing junction is way to big for a start .
There should be a raised pedestrian crossing with flashing lights , just like you get on the continent .

what_traffic

Ashleigh1986 wrote: »

There should be a raised pedestrian crossing with flashing lights , just like you get on the continent .

A raised Zebra Crossing?

cgcsb

Gwen Shallow Raccoon wrote: »

As had been said plenty of times, simply not suitable or practical for large numbers of people particularly those who commute in from the county. Driving is and always will be a necessity for many reasons.

At our present rate of vast over consumption, rate of species extinction and environmental degradation the human food chain will be impacted at a moderate to severe level in 30 to 40 years, countries will start to collapse and nothing will matter anymore, but shure look you got your macmansion and the opportunity to swing your SUV round the place in a vulgar display of consumerism.

cgcsb

RoboKlopp wrote: »

Not feasible for all. I can do it and have tried all alternatives. Here's my figures:

• Drive to work (20- 35 mins each way depending on times of travel).
• Cycle takes 50 mins - 1 hr each way depending on weather.
• Bus journey takes 1.5 hrs ( 2 connecting buses) each way. Has taken up to 2 hours one way.

This is all for a distance of 10.5 miles...

I would love to ditch the car, but it's not practical.

I work with 25 other people. About 4/5 live in the city. Almost all others commute, - Ballinasloe/Loughrea/Headford/Clifden some of the towns.

This is the reality.

Telling people to just "get out of the car" is a lazy argument, and without much substance.

The vast majority of commute lengths in Galway are within 5kms. As has been repeated on this thread ad nausium

Ashleigh1986

what_traffic wrote: »

A raised Zebra Crossing?

Yes ... With proper signage / lighting to warn drivers you are approaching same .

JCX BXC

cgcsb wrote: »

At our present rate of vast over consumption, rate of species extinction and environmental degradation the human food chain will be impacted at a moderate to severe level in 30 to 40 years, countries will start to collapse and nothing will matter anymore, but shure look you got your macmansion and the opportunity to swing your SUV round the place in a vulgar display of consumerism.

Sounds like the plot to a sequel to the movie '2012'

jjpep

Ashleigh1986 wrote: »

Yes ... With proper signage / lighting to warn drivers you are approaching same .

That may well help. I suspect what also causes problems there is the amount of illegal parking around boojum and people trying to shove in to the left hand lane from the right hand side after skipping ahead of the traffic queue.

what_traffic

Ashleigh1986 wrote: »

Yes ... With proper signage / lighting to warn drivers you are approaching same .

Ya would be in favor giving pedestrians priority here between bottom of Quay Street and the Spanish Arch plaza.
Would you believe that this is a 50kmph speed limit road?

ben.schlomo

Ashleigh1986 wrote: »

Deleted User wrote: »

What's wrong with them?

They cause chaos especially during the summer .
Traffic backed up along by the docks past harbour hotel along Lough atalia .
Traffic sorts it's self out after those lights , so obviously there's an issue with the timing involved .
Crossing junction is way to big for a start .
There should be a raised pedestrian crossing with flashing lights , just like you get on the continent .

The traffic moves after that because there are routes left and right after the bridge, so the traffic can divide by three. Traffic on Lough Atalia is not caused by pedestrian lights at the Spanish Arch.

Mrs OBumble

cgcsb wrote: »

The vast majority of commute lengths in Galway are within 5kms. As has been repeated on this thread ad nausium

And a huge number of people who drive thru the city don't start or end their commute in the city so are excluded, making those oft-quoted statistics meaningless.

cgcsb

cgcsb wrote: »

The vast majority of commute lengths in Galway are within 5kms. As has been repeated on this thread ad nausium

Repeating something does not make it true. There is no way on earth that the vast majority of commute lengths are within 5kms. There are 1000’s of people commuting into the city who all have commutes in excess of 5km to begin with, anyone cross the city exceeds 5km etc etc.

McGiver

flazio wrote:

We need to introduce the Red and yellow then green light sequence that the UK use in order to improve the response times.

Absolutely this. This is not only in the UK but also in most of Europe. In fact the only countries that don't use red & amber before green are - IE, FR, NL, BE, ES, PT and EL.

McGiver

what_traffic wrote:

A raised Zebra Crossing?

Lack of over and underpasses for pedestrians is obviously a problem in Galway. It's evident straight away to the anyone coming from a larger city.

McGiver

McGiver wrote: »

Lack of over and underpasses for pedestrians is obviously a problem in Galway. It's evident straight away to the anyone coming from a larger city.

Under/over passes suit motorists, not pedestrians

Thank fup we don't have them in Galway

flazio

Also, they wouldn't be wheelchair friendly unless they were massive ugly yokes with ramps or lifts guaranteed to break down every week.

Mrs OBumble

[Deleted User] wrote: »

Under/over passes suit motorists, not pedestrians

Thank fup we don't have them in Galway

We have one underpass at Briarhill. It's actually quite well done, wheelchair friendly, and has grade-separation for cyclists. So is well used. But I still wouldn't feel safe using it at night.

what_traffic

McGiver wrote: »

Lack of over and underpasses for pedestrians is obviously a problem in Galway. It's evident straight away to the anyone coming from a larger city.

It is not a problem at all.
Galway is not a large City, its barely even a small City. By Euro standards its a large town.
One thing Traffic Engineers could do tomorrow morning in Galway City - put a Green phase for pedestrian on a junction arm when its red for vehicular traffic. Standard one sees in Europe. Wont have any affect on the timing of the junction arms as it stands. Beg buttons are daft in this context, especially for large multi phase junctions like those that exist along the N6 corridor.

what_traffic

Mrs OBumble wrote: »

We have one underpass at Briarhill. It's actually quite well done, wheelchair friendly, and has grade-separation for cyclists. So is well used. But I still wouldn't feel safe using it at night.

Is this not a contradiction?
I never use it on the bike and use this junction every day going to and from Parkmore. Littered with glass.

youngrun

ben.schlomo wrote: »

Ashleigh1986 wrote: »

The traffic moves after that because there are routes left and right after the bridge, so the traffic can divide by three. Traffic on Lough Atalia is not caused by pedestrian lights at the Spanish Arch.

City centre should prioritise pedestrians not cars in my view.
Galways issue is too many vehicles in not enough space + the preference to drive short distances

Solutions are multiple and complex

I keep harping on about it but I strongly am of the view these should be introduced next 2-3 years
6 Park and Rides with bus links on routes into city ie N59 ( NUIG? or Moycullen centre), Barna Road, N17 - Corinthians /Racecourse, Headford Road, Galway Airport +Oranmore side . Figure out a model that works and subsidise

Get the greenway to Moycullen up and running and CPO as needed

Train loop + extra carriages Oranmore, Athenry, low parking fees there.
Train line appraisals for Tuam -Galway and Curraghline- Galway