Galway traffic

what_traffic

what_traffic wrote: »

:D Your turning into Trump.
Getting beyond the parody stage at this point.

A rural Ireland living person like yourself transported into the heart of 2020 Amsterdam will need two or three weeks to acclimatise to a new reality. Amsterdam not a very good comparison with Galway, Dublin ya would be comparable. Did ya visit any smaller Dutch citys on your trip?

I was in or passed through the Netherlands quite regularly prior to covid on business travel so I’ve been in and passed though a number of cities and it’s similar in them all bikes packed in everywhere, on footpaths, pedestrian areas etc.

The likes of shop street over there would be a nightmare with bikes.

I’m not anti bike and never have been, they have their place and I have and would use one myself when it suits. But I would be very much against anything like in Holland. I’m also against banning cars from streets, giving large amounts of road and parking space to cycling infrastructure. But again I’m not against cycling or bikes.

donvito99

Marcelo Delightful Neurology wrote: »

I was in or passed through the Netherlands quite regularly prior to covid on business travel so I’ve been in and passed though a number of cities and it’s similar in them all bikes packed in everywhere, on footpaths, pedestrian areas etc.

The likes of shop street over there would be a nightmare with bikes.

I’m not anti bike and never have been, they have their place and I have and would use one myself when it suits. But I would be very much against anything like in Holland. I’m also against banning cars from streets, giving large amounts of road and parking space to cycling infrastructure. But again I’m not against cycling or bikes.

I don't see how you can't be "against cycling or bikes" (which is bizarre question in the first instance) when you tacitly support pedestrianisation - which involves "banning cars from streets, [and] giving large amounts of road and parking space to [pedestrian infrastructure]".

The existence and presence of bicycles does strange things to the brains of middle class motorists in the Western world.

I think it was this thread where someone tried to claim that the Grafton St area had suffered as a result of pedestrianisation....

donvito99

donvito99 wrote: »

I don't see how you can't be "against cycling or bikes" (which is bizarre question in the first instance) when you tacitly support pedestrianisation - which involves "banning cars from streets, [and] giving large amounts of road and parking space to [pedestrian infrastructure]".

The existence and presence of bicycles does strange things to the brains of middle class motorists in the Western world.

I think it was this thread where someone tried to claim that the Grafton St area had suffered as a result of pedestrianisation....

What gave the impression I supposed pedestrianisation? I don’t.

donvito99

Jazmin Harsh Gold wrote: »

What gave the impression I supposed pedestrianisation? I don’t.

Sorry, forgot who I was dealing with there for a second.

cooperguy

xckjoo wrote: »

I could be wrong but I think Bus Eireann have said the reason they won't increase routes or run directly over the Quincenteneray is the lack of dedicated bus lanes/infrastructure.

Somewhere in this sprawling thread is a link that talks through the logic of not having partial services through the day.

Ruhanna wrote: »

You made your bed. Lie in it.

Or, you know, you make your infrastructure actually work and plan it correctly...

So the purpose of the ring road is to facilitate the sprawling "nature" of our housing development patterns? Nice. And having a big road for all the cars emerging from all the sprawl every day will enable more of the same? Even nicer.

The purpose of the road is to have a cross city connection while dedicating the centre of the city to public transport

Meanwhile, people living "near" bus routes "can use" the bus? Or maybe they can ignore public transport and drive instead, like their sprawl-based fellow commuters? It's getting better.

And there we have it. The badly needed ring road is required to serve people who can't or won't use public transport, not to promote the use of public transport, as widely advertised.

Why you have "can use" in inverted commas is logic you'll have to explain to the rest of us. The ring road frees up everything inside of it to be properly used for public transport, bikes etc. This makes public transport way more accessible and usable for everyone within the city, myself included.

McGiver

Jerry Pitiful Month wrote:

I’m not anti bike and never have been, they have their place and I have and would use one myself when it suits. But I would be very much against anything like in Holland. I’m also against banning cars from streets, giving large amounts of road and parking space to cycling infrastructure. But again I’m not against cycling or bikes.

So you basically want own the road both as the car user as well as the pedestrian and marginalise bicycle users as some sort of weirdos who can cycle off road in a fun park where they can spin in circles... Right.

But you're not against cycling. But you hate Amsterdam and the Netherlands with all them bloody bikes everywhere.

Hard to square this really.

Mrs OBumble

McGiver wrote: »

Why would anyone sane live on a ground level of a two story building in town here? That's destined to be occupied by students & hippies. Nobody normal, say with a family, would want to live there, everyone knows that it means noise etc. Many of these are very old (some even Georgian) buildings, which must be wet, cold and damp.
...

The problem in Galway (and most of Ireland) is that it's all two story buildings and the ground floor is too low for some reason - it's not suitable for being used as residential really. ...

Anyway, city centre living has its advantages and disadvantages. You seem to want to have all the advantages of city centre, no disadvantages and make it like suburban living. That's unrealistic.

Thanks for demonstrating that you really have very little idea about Galway.

1) large parts of the city-centre (as defined before) are 3-4 stories high. The parts that are 2-story are mostly designed for residential use only, and at this time there's no need to convert them to commercial (more on that below).

2) Students and hippies (and older people, and child-free couples) are people too. They need places to live, despite not meeting your definition of "family". They live in building that have living space on the ground floor because that it the way those buildings were designed. Some are family homes that are 100+ years old. Some are council flats that are (I think) less than 25 years old. What is insane is to suggest converting the area outside their front door into alcoholic / drug-user playgrounds.

3) City-centre living is nothing like suburban living, and never will be. But that doesn't excuse us from managing the space to meet the sometimes-competing needs of businesses, residents, shoppers and recreational users. I make zero apologies for pointing out the needs of residents, which are overlooked by many.

what_traffic wrote: »

Afraid you are wrong wrong wrong. I used to be surprised but not any more as you project an image of been a Public Transport advocate/supporter. Perhaps you dont have any contacts with said Public Transport operators? Ask any of the bus operators in Galway City and they will tell you that the City Centre is affecting operations along with areas outside this very small area that you highlight.

I see we agree that there are problems outside the "very small area that you highlight" - aka the city centre, which receives a disproportionate amount of bright-idea suggestions, even though the effort would be better spent elsewhere.

I have daily contact with actual public transport in the city-centre. Beyond the pinch points I mentioned, any problem you see in the city centre is due to an issue outside the city centre. Changes to things in the centre won't make a blind bit of difference. For example, long inbound queues on College Rd / Forster St on sunny days are due to traffic build-up from Salthill The solution is to manage demand by create a waterfront walking / socialising area on the east of the city, and one on the north (Lough Corrib). Not to fiddle with Middle Street or make people park off the prom.

xckjoo wrote: »

How many cars are there driving down Middle St, St Augustine St and Lower Abbeygate St at night?

City centres are moving away from retail to cafes, restaurants, etc. They all benefit greatly from increased outdoor space and people walking around the area.

Enough to provide passive surveillance. (remember - I live there).

Totally agree that city centres are moving away from retail to experiences(*). But Galway's already-pedestrianised streets have plenty of vacant buildings - we don't need to spread the party-zone beyond its current limits. And the longer term impacts of Covid likely mean this won't change for many years.

(*) we need to focus on more than just food. With Covid-19, obesity is literally the elephant in the room (I stole that phrase from another forum), and if anything restaurants and cafes need reigning in and broader forms of activity offered to fill the space that retail no longer needs.

what_traffic

Mrs OBumble wrote: »

(*) we need to focus on more than just food. With Covid-19, obesity is literally the elephant in the room (I stole that phrase from another forum), and if anything restaurants and cafes need reigning in and broader forms of activity offered to fill the space that retail no longer needs.

hmmm - I wonder would active travel help here? :eek:
If more people are doing "hidden exercise" like walking/cycling to work/school/uni. Apart from the UK our other Northern European neighbours have far better stats in this area.
Galway City does really well on walking stats, we need to grow the cycling and public transport numbers.
Changes to the City Centre will of course impact the surronding area's.
We will see this in action once Salmon Wier Bridge is made a bus gate.
It will have a big knock on effect on areas like Headford Road/Woodquay and Newcastle Road/University Road.

what_traffic

Jazmin Harsh Gold wrote: »

I was in or passed through the Netherlands quite regularly prior to covid on business travel so I’ve been in and passed though a number of cities and it’s similar in them all bikes packed in everywhere, on footpaths, pedestrian areas etc.

In the 60/70's they used to be packed with cars, they made the change. They had to.
Did you ever live there? or stay in one location for 2/3 weeks?
Have lived in a number of German Citys/town for 3+ months over a number of years, always found took 1/2 week to get into the swing of how things moved. As If we followed rest of Europe on cycling/drive on the right hand side of the road probably take a day or two.

Zzippy

Jazmin Harsh Gold wrote: »

I was in or passed through the Netherlands quite regularly prior to covid on business travel so I’ve been in and passed though a number of cities and it’s similar in them all bikes packed in everywhere, on footpaths, pedestrian areas etc.

The likes of shop street over there would be a nightmare with bikes.

I’m not anti bike and never have been, they have their place and I have and would use one myself when it suits. But I would be very much against anything like in Holland. I’m also against banning cars from streets, giving large amounts of road and parking space to cycling infrastructure. But again I’m not against cycling or bikes.

This is utter nonsense, and fake news. Anyone who actually visited Holland would see that they have dedicated cycling infrastructure which keeps bikes separate from motorised traffic, trams and pedestrians, and importantly this is observed by the vast majority of road users, including cyclists. I have visited Amsterdam, Utrecht and Maastricht in the last few years and what you are describing is simply not the case.

It's pretty clear from your last few sentences that it's the Dutch giving priority to bike traffic over cars that annoyed you enough to post the rest of that fairytale.

McGiver

McGiver wrote: »

marginalise bicycle users as some sort of weirdos who can cycle off road in a fun park where they can spin in circles... Right.

.

They use the road in most places like other vehicles and as I did any time I have cycled. There are places that would need seperate lanes where traffic is faster moving etc but in Galway we already have them in these places such as the QCB and BnDT.

what_traffic wrote: »

In the 60/70's they used to be packed with cars, they made the change. They had to.
Did you ever live there? or stay in one location for 2/3 weeks?
Have lived in a number of German Citys/town for 3+ months over a number of years, always found took 1/2 week to get into the swing of how things moved. As If we followed rest of Europe on cycling/drive on the right hand side of the road probably take a day or two.

Never any more than 2 days, in for meetings and home again but we would always be out for dinner and beer in the evenings and would walk around a good bit and there was always bikes on footpaths coming from all sides.

I've no issue with driving on the right, haven't done it much in europe but have spend weeks at a time in the US and covered a lot of miles with zero issue. I always felt much more at home in the US than in central Europe to be honest and settled into things much faster. Never had an interest in leaving Ireland (to live) but if I did have to the US would be my first choice. Language, more of familiar shops etc of course is part of that too.

Zzippy wrote: »

This is utter nonsense, and fake news. Anyone who actually visited Holland would see that they have dedicated cycling infrastructure which keeps bikes separate from motorised traffic, trams and pedestrians, and importantly this is observed by the vast majority of road users, including cyclists. I have visited Amsterdam, Utrecht and Maastricht in the last few years and what you are describing is simply not the case.

It's pretty clear from your last few sentences that it's the Dutch giving priority to bike traffic over cars that annoyed you enough to post the rest of that fairytale.

Its not nonsense, I remember Enschede was particularly bad for it with no inch of road or footpath free from bikes and absolutely flying around too many late in the evening too on the way back from the pub so dark (streetlights but shadows etc).

Just picking a random pedestrian area nearly as many bikes as people and all the parked bikes weren't walked there you can be sure. Evening time was far busier too with people coming home, going to pubs/restaurants etc.

Also I have never driven in Holland so and bar a few taxi trips it was train or on foot as our meetings would be centrally located and would always stay close by.

Thargor

Jazmin Harsh Gold wrote: »

Just picking a random pedestrian area nearly as many bikes as people and all the parked bikes weren't walked there you can be sure. Evening time was far busier too with people coming home, going to pubs/restaurants etc.

Also I have never driven in Holland so and bar a few taxi trips it was train or on foot as our meetings would be centrally located and would always stay close by.

Oh wow what a dystopian hell scape, yes it would be much better if all these people were in their own cars instead like we do it in Galway, excellent argument.

what_traffic

Jazmin Harsh Gold wrote: »

I've no issue with driving on the right, haven't done it much in europe but have spend weeks at a time in the US and covered a lot of miles with zero issue. I always felt much more at home in the US than in central Europe to be honest and settled into things much faster. Never had an interest in leaving Ireland (to live) but if I did have to the US would be my first choice. Language, more of familiar shops etc of course is part of that too.

Done both. Had to be Automatic though.
I would recommend Houston (or maybe Atlanta) for you. You would feel like you were coming home to your spirtual kingdom living there.
Houston is encircled by rings of highways—it has nine major radial freeways, three ring freeways, and a 180-mile fourth outer ring on the way.

xckjoo

Mrs OBumble wrote: »

Enough to provide passive surveillance. (remember - I live there).

Totally agree that city centres are moving away from retail to experiences(*). But Galway's already-pedestrianised streets have plenty of vacant buildings - we don't need to spread the party-zone beyond its current limits. And the longer term impacts of Covid likely mean this won't change for many years.

(*) we need to focus on more than just food. With Covid-19, obesity is literally the elephant in the room (I stole that phrase from another forum), and if anything restaurants and cafes need reigning in and broader forms of activity offered to fill the space that retail no longer needs.

I've no idea where you live!

I agree that residents need to be considered in these decisions but I disagree with your approach. They should be lobbying the council to turn it into a more people and business friendly area with restrictions on opening times and promises of police surveillance. Not just hoping for cars to be randomly passing if anti-social behavior is happening. There's no pubs on the street and very little housing so there still won't be anything attracting the unruly mobs. Restaurants and cafes could have 10pm closing times so those yobs can be gone before bedtime too.


The issue with retail in cities is a universal one at the moment. Only the big brand stores can afford city centre rates (see the homogeneous store selection in all major cities these days) and only "experience" related businesses (cafes, restaurants, pubs, etc.) are able to pull in enough foot traffic to make ends meet. But that's because of internet shopping, not car access. Most people will still order off Amazon even if roads had unlimited capacity and you could drive up to the door of the store and have it put in the car by the sales assistant.

I agree that we can't just focus on food and drinks. The council should be incentivizing smaller boutique shops, art galleries and anything else they can think of that will benefit the community. But maintaining the status quo is not helping anyone. Can't say I've noticed a lot of empty shopfronts around recently, but all or at least most of the commercial properties on Middlestreet are occupied so why not do things that'll hopefully build their business AND create a nicer area for residents?

what_traffic

what_traffic wrote: »

Done both. Had to be Automatic though.
I would recommend Houston (or maybe Atlanta) for you. You would feel like you were coming home to your spirtual kingdom living there.
Houston is encircled by rings of highways—it has nine major radial freeways, three ring freeways, and a 180-mile fourth outer ring on the way.

Always drove autos over there too but I’d have no problem driving a manual - changing gears with my right had in tractors for many many years.

NY, Chicago or really preferably California would be my preference.

My feeling more at home in the us wasn’t a driving thing as such it was just a general impression compared to continental Europe but as I said language and familiarity with a lot of America culture etc is a lot to do with that.

Ruhanna

cooperguy wrote: »

The purpose of the road is to have a cross city connection while dedicating the centre of the city to public transport

Why you have "can use" in inverted commas is logic you'll have to explain to the rest of us. The ring road frees up everything inside of it to be properly used for public transport, bikes etc. This makes public transport way more accessible and usable for everyone within the city, myself included.

You're a regular public transport commuter, are you? When there isn't a pandemic on, that is.

Do you take the bus every day? What's the approximate distance of your commute?

JCX BXC

What actual effect did the no right turn on Eglington street have?

Traffic today backed up from courthouse to hospital again, despite the lower traffic numbers on the road.

Mrs OBumble

xckjoo wrote: »

....They should be lobbying the council to turn it into a more people and business friendly area with restrictions on opening times and promises of police surveillance. Not just hoping for cars to be randomly passing if anti-social behavior is happening. There's no pubs on the street and very little housing so there still won't be anything attracting the unruly mobs. Restaurants and cafes could have 10pm closing times so those yobs can be gone before bedtime too.
...

but all or at least most of the commercial properties on Middlestreet are occupied so why not do things that'll hopefully build their business AND create a nicer area for residents?

I'm not sure what city or street you are posting about.

But Middle Street in Galway has the Dáil bar at one end, and the back door of the Kings Head half way along. There is also Buttermilk Lane, which leads down to De Burgos. The street has some housing at street level (roughly opposite the church), and a lot at higher levels. The unit in the Cornstore is empty, are several (3 I think) shops near the Kings Head, and one at the bottom of Malthouse Lane. (The sewing machine shop there isn't empty, but hasn't re-opened yet either).

Issues caused by pedestrianised areas aren't limited to patrons of licensed premises. In many ways, street-drinkers and drug-users are more of an issue. These thrive if given pedestrianised areas to sit around in - look at Eyre Square for evidence.

Promises of "police surveillance" are very sweet, but the guards are not going to waste their time on public urination in city-centre areas. They only rarely move on street drinkers or beggars, because they know that these people will generally be back on the same street in a couple of hours.

Mrs OBumble

what_traffic wrote: »

Galway City does really well on walking stats, we need to grow the cycling and public transport numbers.

Or we could take a strengths-based approach, and focus on further encouragin the mode that we know actually works well here. Apply policies which support localism, so even more people can live within walking distance of where they study or work.

Given our new consciousness of disease-prevention, public transport is going to need some fundamental vehicle re-design to be a safe option for anything like the numbers it previously served. Most city buses are running at between 25 and 50% capacity now, and tbh some are starting to be too crowded for my liking - and I'm fairly open to taking risks. There's no way that more risk-adverse people will be getting on a bus or train at the moment or for a considerable time.

NeftDaslari

Mrs OBumble wrote: »

I'm not sure what city or street you are posting about.

But Middle Street in Galway has the Dáil bar at one end, and the back door of the Kings Head half way along. There is also Buttermilk Lane, which leads down to De Burgos. The street has some housing at street level (roughly opposite the church), and a lot at higher levels. The unit in the Cornstore is empty, are several (3 I think) shops near the Kings Head, and one at the bottom of Malthouse Lane. (The sewing machine shop there isn't empty, but hasn't re-opened yet either).

Issues caused by pedestrianised areas aren't limited to patrons of licensed premises. In many ways, street-drinkers and drug-users are more of an issue. These thrive if given pedestrianised areas to sit around in - look at Eyre Square for evidence.

Promises of "police surveillance" are very sweet, but the guards are not going to waste their time on public urination in city-centre areas. They only rarely move on street drinkers or beggars, because they know that these people will generally be back on the same street in a couple of hours.

By that logic, we should dig up all the foot paths and convert Eyre square into a car park. There tends not to be much anti-social behaviour on dual carriageways, so sounds like a sound plan.

McGiver

Mrs OBumble wrote:

Thanks for demonstrating that you really have very little idea about Galway.

If you start with this statement then it's pointless to discuss anything. Adios, Ciao, Hej då, Slán!

PS: As I said if you have issues with law enforcement allegedly, then adress thie issue directly instead of using it as an argument against development of the city centre.

McGiver

Jerry Pitiful Month wrote:

I've no issue with driving on the right, haven't done it much in europe but have spend weeks at a time in the US and covered a lot of miles with zero issue. I always felt much more at home in the US than in central Europe to be honest and settled into things much faster. Never had an interest in leaving Ireland (to live) but if I did have to the US would be my first choice. Language, more of familiar shops etc of course is part of that too.

OK, so your extremely car-centric ideas make sense now after you've revealed your US-philia. So basically Galway, a city on a tiny island squeezed between a bog, a lake and a bay, despite lying in Europe, despite all historical links with Europe and geographic proximity, should imitate the US, a country on a different continent 5000 kms away, country of a continental size with huge space available with a different political, natural, societal and historical context and build the city around "gas" thirsty jeeps and hummers. And should absolutely not follow the rest of the continental Europe or the EU of which it has been a member of for 37 years, because the bloody weird continentals are different.

I know there are cultural links between the US and Ireland but does that mean that Ireland should be americanized (the z pun intended )?

McGiver

NeftDaslari wrote:

By that logic, we should dig up all the foot paths and convert Eyre square into a car park. There tends not to be much anti-social behaviour on dual carriageways, so sounds like a sound plan.

That's the US approach in fact. What NOx (nitric oxides?) suggests.

?Cee?view

NeftDaslari wrote: »

By that logic, we should dig up all the foot paths and convert Eyre square into a car park. There tends not to be much anti-social behaviour on dual carriageways, so sounds like a sound plan.

That's not at all what she said, but don't let that stop you :rolleyes:

yer man!

Jazmin Harsh Gold wrote: »

They use the road in most places like other vehicles and as I did any time I have cycled. There are places that would need seperate lanes where traffic is faster moving etc but in Galway we already have them in these places such as the QCB and BnDT.



Never any more than 2 days, in for meetings and home again but we would always be out for dinner and beer in the evenings and would walk around a good bit and there was always bikes on footpaths coming from all sides.

I've no issue with driving on the right, haven't done it much in europe but have spend weeks at a time in the US and covered a lot of miles with zero issue. I always felt much more at home in the US than in central Europe to be honest and settled into things much faster. Never had an interest in leaving Ireland (to live) but if I did have to the US would be my first choice. Language, more of familiar shops etc of course is part of that too.



Its not nonsense, I remember Enschede was particularly bad for it with no inch of road or footpath free from bikes and absolutely flying around too many late in the evening too on the way back from the pub so dark (streetlights but shadows etc).

Just picking a random pedestrian area nearly as many bikes as people and all the parked bikes weren't walked there you can be sure. Evening time was far busier too with people coming home, going to pubs/restaurants etc.

Also I have never driven in Holland so and bar a few taxi trips it was train or on foot as our meetings would be centrally located and would always stay close by.

Dutch cycling infrastructure is world class and they do an amazing job of segregation of cars and bikes all over the country. I can agree though that the lines can be a bit blurred between pedestrians and cyclists in some cases as the bike lanes and footpaths can sometimes be very very subtly different. This can cause pedestrians to unknowingly wander into a bike priority part of the path and find themselves in trouble.

Not saying it's the right way to do, the Dutch are still learning and improving it, in heaving pedestrianised areas they have strict time windows for bicycles to be in the area and rigorous enforcement if you don't follow it, in Zuid Holland anyway where I am.

Honestly driving a car here is a dream, there's parking everywhere, they build garages under squares or under roads in the middle of towns so you can drive in, park, go about your business and then leave, no bother at all. Of course, you pay for this privilege. Owning a car here is expensive to begin with, VW polo is €400 a year in tax and the car costs more here to begin with as we too have a form of VRT.

You're heavily encouraged to cycle here and the infrastructure is built and maintained to make it a viable option. Cars have amazing roads built for them so if you want to do that then you can. Cyclists have amazing paths built for them, so if you want to do that then you can. Both worlds are kept separate. The grey area is indeed pedestrians and cyclists, but they're working on that.

Galway won't and doesn't need to be like the Netherlands but there's a lot of mistakes that have have been ironed out here and Galway could save itself from and learn from them to be somewhat of a pioneer in Ireland. If we keep trying the same stuff over and over again in Ireland we will be going nowhere, literally.

what_traffic

Mrs OBumble wrote: »

Or we could take a strengths-based approach, and focus on further encouragin the mode that we know actually works well here. Apply policies which support localism, so even more people can live within walking distance of where they study or work.

Its not a OR scenario. I agreew with this approach though. The stats show that the localism approach works for certain area. Can actually see the mistakes that have been made here for the last 30yrs with regards planning. The areas with highest walking numbers are all the older City areas built and designed before 1990.
KnocknaCarra and newer area's like it have poor permability for people walking and cycling and have matching low stat rates.
Even from a services perspective one example as I know your a fan of Pubs.
How many suburban pubs do we have in 2020?
Pub wise everything is concentrated in the Centre.
How can localisim fit the vast numbers commuting from the Rural hinterland outside the City.... thats going to be the difficult NUT to crack.

what_traffic

NeftDaslari wrote: »

There tends not to be much anti-social behaviour on dual carriageways, so sounds like a sound plan.

Disagree but I understand where you are coming from. It depends on ones cultural definition of anti-social behaviour.
Throwing rubbish out of motor vehicle window, breaking speed limits, tailgating other motor vehicles. This and more like it are all anti-social behaviours.

cooperguy

Ruhanna wrote: »

You're a regular public transport commuter, are you? When there isn't a pandemic on, that is.

Do you take the bus every day? What's the approximate distance of your commute?

I dont because it is unreliable. But I absolutely would if they sorted out a ring road and dedicated more internal space to public transport. I imagine i'm the exact demographic they are trying to convert. Before working from home myself and the wife were considering getting a second car so we can both commute independently. A reliable public transport route makes it a no brainer that we do not add yet another car to the roads in Galway and in reality take the main car off the road on the straight forward commute days of just straight in and out to work as well (obviously we live on a bus route).

There are days when we both would not travel home from work at the same time. We are both turned off using public transport regularly from the complete lack of reliability of the bus on the days either of us attempt to use it. Waiting 40 mins for a bus in the rain is not how I like to end my work day

cooperguy

cooperguy wrote: »

I dont because it is unreliable. But I absolutely would if they sorted out a ring road and dedicated more internal space to public transport.

The projected population of Galway will be 100,000 by the time the ring road opens (2030 best case). Given the population is due to increase by 20,000 over the next 10 years and the road network is at or above capacity due to private cars, the only capacity left to be gained is by walking, cycling & buses so more internal space will have to be dedicated to buses well ahead of the estimated opening date of the ring road.

cooperguy wrote: »

I imagine i'm the exact demographic they are trying to convert. Before working from home myself and the wife were considering getting a second car so we can both commute independently. A reliable public transport route makes it a no brainer that we do not add yet another car to the roads in Galway and in reality take the main car off the road on the straight forward commute days of just straight in and out to work as well (obviously we live on a bus route).

There are days when we both would not travel home from work at the same time. We are both turned off using public transport regularly from the complete lack of reliability of the bus on the days either of us attempt to use it. Waiting 40 mins for a bus in the rain is not how I like to end my work day

You do realise that the very delays to buses that you are pointing out are caused by private motorists being prioritised on the road network and the only way to eliminate those delays and make buses more attractive is by reducing the access and priority of private cars.

cooperguy

Deleted User wrote: »

The projected population of Galway will be 100,000 by the time the ring road opens (2030 best case). Given the population is due to increase by 20,000 over the next 10 years and the road network is at or above capacity due to private cars, the only capacity left to be gained is by walking, cycling & buses so more internal space will have to be dedicated to buses well ahead of the estimated opening date of the ring road.

You do realise that the very delays to buses that you are pointing out are caused by private motorists being prioritised on the road network and the only way to eliminate those delays and make buses more attractive is by reducing the access and priority of private cars.

Yes, that's what I said, the internal roads need more dedication to public transport. However the way to do that successfully is to also build the ring road so that all the people not directly serviced by bus routes are not entirely ground to a halt.