Galway traffic

ben.schlomo

jk23 wrote: »

Anyone driving in the city today, How is traffic out there this evening any delays or build ups?

We left the city at 2 and was easy getting to Terryland and same then going Tuam Rd to east side.

Ruhanna

This needs to be re-posted, seeing as it's being studiously ignored by those who imagine that building more roads is the solution to car traffic congestion and who regard measures to tackle car dependence as "making people jump through hoops".

Don Juan II wrote: »

https://www.businesspost.ie/transport/galway-shows-the-direction-that-commuting-should-take-5d327549

Galway shows the direction that commuting should take | Business Post
The Department of Transport has shown some signs that it is serious about tackling congestion, and it‘s bad news for drivers.
Parking bans and congestion charges in city centres are among the measures the state has put on the agenda for its public consultation on how to address congestion.
As part of the process, which runs until January 24, the department has published a series of background papers that point out some of the obvious repercussions of heavy traffic.
Congestion leads to lost time, increased vehicle operating costs, emissions and pollution. There are also wider economic repercussions, with the costs of doing business increasing and making Ireland a less attractive investment prospect.
A 2017 report calculated that congestion costs the greater Dublin area €358 million a year and forecast this figure would swell to €2.08 billion by 2033 if there is no intervention.
One city crippled by congestion on a daily basis is Galway. It is brought to a standstill during rush hour, with its infrastructure barely able to cope with the influx of private vehicles.
The west of Ireland hub has struggled with its own congestion problems, but the whole country could learn a lot from the research that Galway has put into fixing its oversubscribed transport network. A lot of commuters are not going to like the findings.
A plan to create a ring road around Galway city was first raised in 1999. The bypass was seen as the answer to the city’s traffic problems.
Galway authorities have poured significant resources into the plan. Figures from earlier this year revealed that nearly €30 million had been spent on researching and planning the ring road. However, research in the past five years has found the city has been trying to solve the wrong problem.
Based on research by Arup, the international consultancy, the results are clear – and applicable to all Irish cities. Forget about a ring road or wider roads; congestion can be solved by making policies that prioritise every mode of transport except cars.
In fact, Arup found that a very small number of Galway commuters would use a bypass. Only 3 per cent of travelled between the two outer edges of the city each day, while 60 per cent of trips involved workers starting and ending their commute by car within city limits.
A separate study has found that the ring road is needed in addition to other measures, but at its core, Galway’s congestion plan has been focused on getting commuters out of their cars and onto public transport – not catering further to car users.
Buses are going to be given priority through the city, which would result in normal traffic being removed from University Road, across Salmon Weir Bridge, onto Eglinton Street and around Eyre Square.
These are all plans in the pipeline, so Galway has not got to grips with congestion quite yet, but everyone should pay attention to the city’s research. The harsh truth is that cars cannot be at the centre of transport policy any more.
The existing “smarter travel” policy for 2009-2020 targeted a reduction in commuting by car from 65 per cent to 45 percent. The state is expected to miss that target by some distance, with Census 2016 results showing that 61 per cent of commuters drove to work.
In the concluding remarks of its recent report on congestion, the Department of Transport said a combination of demand-focused and supply-focused interventions would be used to address congestion. That means additional charges for drivers, coupled with more investment in public transport infrastructure.
It’s a carrot-and-stick approach, but as has been evident in Galway, transport authorities will not be shy of using the stick in the coming years. Cars are going to be less of a priority, and commuters will have to get used to that fact.

Ruhanna

Jazmin Harsh Gold wrote: »

Or just drive into town and park where you can load up your stuff.

The hoops people what others to jump through is mind numbing. I wouldn't use park and ride if I was paid to, needless hassle.

The Galway car commuter's condition: can't live with the traffic, can't live without the private motor.

Mrs OBumble

Ruhanna wrote: »

This needs to be re-posted, seeing as it's being studiously ignored by those who imagine that building more roads is the solution to car traffic congestion and who regard measures to tackle car dependence as "making people jump through hoops".

Unfortunately a lot of the solutions proposed are simplistic, and don't address the real problem or even it's symptoms.

For example planniing only allows new industrial estates to have enough parking for maybe 2/3 of the people who work there. But often for more than 2/3 of the employees, there are no realistic alternatives to private cars. And because they're industrial estates, there aren't alternative car-parks a further walk away. So illegal, obstructive parking becomes the norm - and you cannot blame people, because they don't have alternatives.


All city centre parking bans do is annoy / drive-out city centre residents. They don't stop congestion unless rural and suburban visitors have realistic alternatives.

Ruhanna

Mrs OBumble wrote: »

Often for more than 2/3 of the employees, there are no realistic alternatives to private cars.

What's the evidence for that?

Mrs OBumble

Mrs OBumble wrote: »

Unfortunately a lot of the solutions proposed are simplistic, and don't address the real problem or even it's symptoms.

For example planniing only allows new industrial estates to have enough parking for maybe 2/3 of the people who work there. But often for more than 2/3 of the employees, there are no realistic alternatives to private cars. And because they're industrial estates, there aren't alternative car-parks a further walk away. So illegal, obstructive parking becomes the norm - and you cannot blame people, because they don't have alternatives.


All city centre parking bans do is annoy / drive-out city centre residents. They don't stop congestion unless rural and suburban visitors have realistic alternatives.

All evidence to the contrary

joeysoap

If ‘they’ are serious about public transport they need to introduce a more frequent (hourly ?) service from Dublin 7 days a week. Every 2nd one relatively fast, stopping only at major towns. (Ie cutting out Clara, Woodlawn. Attymon, Athenry and Oranmore.
and possibly later train to Dublin than 19:35. This in time might reduce to number of visitors to the city with cars.

As a visitor to Galway my twopence worth.

joeysoap

joeysoap wrote: »

If ‘they’ are serious about public transport they need to introduce a more frequent (hourly ?) service from Dublin 7 days a week. Every 2nd one relatively fast, stopping only at major towns. (Ie cutting out Clara, Woodlawn. Attymon, Athenry and Oranmore.
and possibly later train to Dublin than 19:35. This in time might reduce to number of visitors to the city with cars.

As a visitor to Galway my twopence worth.

Needs double tracking to allow that. Sorry, but we'd rather spend our rail dollars on opening a line between Athenry and Tuam.

JCX BXC

[Deleted User] wrote: »

Needs double tracking to allow that. Sorry, but we'd rather spend our rail dollars on opening a line between Athenry and Tuam.

Yeah because Irish Rail really want to do that?

Very few rail dollars to be had for obvious schemes needed, although a passing loop in Oranmore will be installed in the coming years.

johndeff2017

Galway needs to start from the 2 ends of Bothar na Trabh (E & W) and work back to the point where they meet to remove all traffic black spots.This would include major investment into Parkmore , Liosbawn & Terryland and Newcastle. Once done BnT should be given ultimate priority for moving traffic in and out of Galway. All junctions must have designated left turn lanes Brierhill, Newcastle going west and Newcastle & Tuam road going east.

The new junction at Terryland and the new bus routes over the Quincentennial bridge are a major step in the right direction.

Staggered shift timings at major employers in the east (Medtronic, Boston etc ) and Regioal Hospital anf NUIG on the East must be investigated as well as better use of the existining bus coorridors in Newcastle, Old Dublin Road and an introduction of a designated bus corridor on the Tuam road would IMO be a huge step forward.

JCX BXC

The problem is much more than Bothar na dTreabh, almost all routes in and out of the city center becomes utterly clogged every evening, the Tuam road being especially horrific at times, but University Road, Headford Road, College Road and Lough Atalia road are also almost certain to be blocked for a few hours every business day, as are areas like Westside and Salthill.

johndeff2017

johndeff2017 wrote: »

Galway needs to start from the 2 ends of Bothar na Trabh (E & W) and work back to the point where they meet to remove all traffic black spots.This would include major investment into Parkmore , Liosbawn & Terryland and Newcastle. Once done BnT should be given ultimate priority for moving traffic in and out of Galway. All junctions must have designated left turn lanes Brierhill, Newcastle going west and Newcastle & Tuam road going east.

There is a much longer answer to this but I'll summarise: all junctions on the N6 are going to be 4 arm junctions much along the lines of what has already been done. Nothing more.

Staggered shift timings at major employers in the east (Medtronic, Boston etc ) and Regioal Hospital anf NUIG on the East.

Already done.

Every employer who has a business that can work with staggered start times has already completed the transition many, many years ago

at1withmyself

JCX BXC wrote: »

The problem is much more than Bothar na dTreabh, almost all routes in and out of the city center becomes utterly clogged every evening, the Tuam road being especially horrific at times, but University Road, Headford Road, College Road and Lough Atalia road are also almost certain to be blocked for a few hours every business day, as are areas like Westside and Salthill.

I wonder though if they solved one road like bother na dtreabh and had free flowing traffic out the tuam road from the city at that junction, how much of a positive effect would it have on other routes? Loads of people avoid the road due to congestion so free up 1 junction at a time on the outskirts and see the resulting effects maybe?

PCeeeee

johndeff2017 wrote: »

Galway needs to start from the 2 ends of Bothar na Trabh (E & W) and work back to the point where they meet to remove all traffic black spots.This would include major investment into Parkmore , Liosbawn & Terryland and Newcastle. Once done BnT should be given ultimate priority for moving traffic in and out of Galway. All junctions must have designated left turn lanes Brierhill, Newcastle going west and Newcastle & Tuam road going east.

The new junction at Terryland and the new bus routes over the Quincentennial bridge are a major step in the right direction.

Staggered shift timings at major employers in the east (Medtronic, Boston etc ) and Regioal Hospital anf NUIG on the East must be investigated as well as better use of the existining bus coorridors in Newcastle, Old Dublin Road and an introduction of a designated bus corridor on the Tuam road would IMO be a huge step forward.

Shifts are already well staggered in Boston. I would assume it's the same in Medtronic and the others. It's the sheer number of employees, they are huge.

johndeff2017

Deleted User wrote: »

There is a much longer answer to this but I'll summarise: all junctions on the N6 are going to be 4 arm junctions much along the lines of what has already been done. Nothing more.







Already done.

Every employer who has a business that can work with staggered start times has already completed the transition many, many years ago

4 arm junctions yes but no thought of the slip roads that should be available at both Brierhill and Tuam Road (outbound) or Newcastle (west bound).

Biggest employers on the West are NUIG & Hospital wonder did they take up staggered start times

Hope that the new junction at Terry land is a success and that the Liosbawn entrance can cope

ratracer

johndeff2017 wrote: »

4 arm junctions yes but no thought of the slip roads that should be available at both Brierhill and Tuam Road (outbound) or Newcastle (west bound).

Biggest employers on the West are NUIG & Hospital wonder did they take up staggered start times

Hope that the new junction at Terry land is a success and that the Liosbawn entrance can cope

Dint know about staggered start times, but AFAIK, there is a park’n’ride from Merlin Park to UHG. Think it’s for staff only though.

JCX BXC

Universities by their very nature are very staggered.

Andrew00

Mayhem today

Mrs OBumble

ratracer wrote: »

Dint know about staggered start times, but AFAIK, there is a park’n’ride from Merlin Park to UHG. Think it’s for staff only though.

Staff and patients.

Mrs OBumble

Andrew00 wrote: »

Mayhem today

I came in to the city by bus from Doughiska at around 2pm. Pleasant journey, took maybe 5-10 mins longer than usual. Didn't see any mayhem.

Whereisgalway

Mrs OBumble wrote: »

I came in to the city by bus from Doughiska at around 2pm. Pleasant journey, took maybe 5-10 mins longer than usual. Didn't see any mayhem.

It was very busy

zell12

QB/Newcastle traffic lights out since last night.
Much fun, stops the speeding I guess.

Ashleigh1986

In the past week , traffic lights have been broken at the huntsman lights , the tesco lights and today at Newcastle lights .
In each of these instances they have to wait for a company ( Elmore ) based in Dublin to come down to galway to fix them .
Sweet mother of god galway really is a joke of a city regarding management !!!
It really is a village trying to operate as a city !!!!

Mrs OBumble

Ashleigh1986 wrote: »

In the past week , traffic lights have been broken at the huntsman lights , the tesco lights and today at Newcastle lights .
In each of these instances they have to wait for a company ( Elmore ) based in Dublin to come down to galway to fix them .
Sweet mother of god galway really is a joke of a city regarding management !!!
It really is a village trying to operate as a city !!!!

You think that a city of 80k people could justify having a locally based highly specialised traffic lights engineer providing 365-day cover?

Ashleigh1986

Mrs OBumble wrote: »

You think that a city of 80k people could justify having a locally based highly specialised traffic lights engineer providing 365-day cover?

...so you think it's ok for one of a countries cities to have to wait for a couple of days for an engineer to hop into a van to drive to fix a set of traffic lights ???
No wonder galway is in the trouble it's in regarding traffic and its management .
Less than a week ago we had the pitiful sight of galways traffic Corp police parked up at a junction watching choas .
They couldn't get out of their vecihcle to do traffic duty due to " health and safety issuses ".
A joke of a city !!!!

goalscoringhero

I've been thinking about how a P+R facility can take advantage of Galway's existing bus lanes to maximise throughput, while being placed sufficiently far away from the city center to not contribute to traffic congestion by car traffic attempting to reach P+R.

I've mainly been looking at this for Galway South/East, where traffic inflow at peak time during work days (Mo-Fr, 7.15am-9:45am) is resulting in heavy congestion at the following hot spots.

- Motorway roundabout: vehicles competing entry to roundabout from motorway and from dual carriageway approaching from Galway Clinic direction
- Dual carriageway entry to Galway Clinic roundabout
- Roscam/Coast Road junction entry to Dublin Road

Of course there are other congested areas, such as Doughiska, but I believe these are of secondary nature.


If there were 3 different routes from the P+R, catering in 10 minute intervals each for

1. Parkmore: 3 stops
2. Ballybrit: 3 stops
3. Dublin Rd/Huntsman: 7 stops

how do people think this could bring relief?

Here is an initial sketch of what I think would be a piece of the puzzle.
It blissfully ignores Galway North/West, and bringing people closer to the actual centre of the city, i.e. Eyre Square.


galway-park-and-ride.jpg


I'd be interested about people thoughts in relation to this.
Given the suggested frequencies, do people think this would be a good service? Would it stand a chance of being adopted?

Would there be any major obstacles to start such an initiative to understand whether it would be viable?
If so, what would folks think the obstacles would be?


Note that there aren't any assumptions yet in relation to cost for commuters who avail of service.

The numbers for costs are roughly based on an Electric Bus Analysis for New York City Transit. This is just a very rough guideline.

zell12

People are wedded to their cars, you'd need to force them to use the P&R.
We already have incentives like taxsaver bus tickets, pretty good bus services that get stuck in the jams, but not enough people use them.

Mrs OBumble

Ashleigh1986 wrote: »

...so you think it's ok for one of a countries cities to have to wait for a couple of days for an engineer to hop into a van to drive to fix a set of traffic lights ???

It takes a couple of hours to drive from Dublin to Galway, not a couple of days. A pool of specialised engineers based in Dublin (where there's lots of work for them to do) makes more sense than having them dispersed around the country and spending a lot of time doing nothing.

goalscoringhero wrote: »

I've been thinking about how a P+R facility can take advantage of Galway's existing bus lanes to maximise throughput, while being placed sufficiently far away from the city center to not contribute to traffic congestion by car traffic attempting to reach P+R.

I've mainly been looking at this for Galway South/East, where traffic inflow at peak time during work days (Mo-Fr, 7.15am-9:45am) is resulting in heavy congestion at the following hot spots.

This is exactly the kind of thinking we need to address the actual traffic problems which are potentially restricting development.

Not sure that the G/Huntsman is a necessary end-point - may be better to end by the Bons and head out again via Mervue. But stops at the Galway Clinic, Merlin Hospital and GMIT, plus Mervue / Liosban, Ballybrit, Briarhill and Parkmore estates all really help because they are where significant volumes of people are going.

The train from Athenry / Oranmore is the eastside to city-centre P&R option. Buses are needed for the very many employment places that the

goalscoringhero

Mrs OBumble wrote: »

Not sure that the G/Huntsman is a necessary end-point - may be better to end by the Bons and head out again via Mervue.

Initially I thought of the Huntsman stop as the get-off option for folks needing to access city - it's only 1km / 10-15 min walk from there.

One thing I haven't thought about was possibility of bus returning to P+R via Wellpark / Mervue Business Park / Thermo King, and have additional stop to cater for these.
Note to self: update map with return journey

Mrs OBumble wrote: »

The train from Athenry / Oranmore is the eastside to city-centre P&R option.

Good point - so probably not a big deal breaker for such a P+R shuttle to not enter the centre.

Ashleigh1986

Mrs OBumble wrote: »

It takes a couple of hours to drive from Dublin to Galway, not a couple of days. A pool of specialised engineers based in Dublin (where there's lots of work for them to do) makes more sense than having them dispersed around the country and spending a lot of time doing nothing.

For once I agree with you .
It does take only over 2 hours to get from Dublin to galway .
Why is it that a company (Elmore ) took over a day and a half to get from Dublin to galway to fix lights at the g hotel ?
Same company took over a day to get to lights at tesco that went down over 6 months ago .
Do you think it's reasonable for a city to be left with traffic turmoil for over 24 hours to wait for a man in a van to get from Dublin ?
Last year a green bulb was blown for over a week for the same man in a van to get to !!!
It's nearly 2020 but this city operates like its 1920 !!!!