Galway traffic

Great line: "Why are we still needed?"

5yrs on the go is the Cyclebus - how many km's of cycle or bus network have been added to the City Network in those 5 years? Answer: "0" ZERO

Brendan and his buddys in City Hall still searching, hoping, longing for that Silver bullet to "solve" Galway Citys Car traffic issues.

The barriers are always the same. We do not have enough high quality cycle lanes/paths/permeability gaps for parents to even cycle with their kids to school without setting up cycle buses. If we had that - they could be unaccompanied when walking or cycling like is done on the continent once they reach a certain age (not the continent across the atlantic mind)

Much of this network can be delivered within residential housing estates rather than pushing a "cycle bus" onto a road along the WDR for example; but get the usual reactions about that even though its a non-issue in the more established / mature areas of the City.

Could count the no of meters (not even km's) of cycle path lanes that have been built in the last 5 years and they are just around the modified N6 junctions - certainly not a suitable environment for children.

Millars lane is the classic example of the piecemeal approach to the way the Council operate - it has been there for decades as a gravel path, and when they finally had funding to surface it and light it and widen its linkages into neighbouring estates; they chickened out.

The Council Executive are cowards here - the common good is not been met.

To reduce Galway Citys Car traffic mess - these types of schemes will have to be done properly.

The river has nothing to do with it - you could build 3 more bridges and the traffic problems would still be there. Theres still a big destination problem - too many people driving to destinations that simply cannot fit all the cars in and out at peak times (Parkmore, NUIG, various schools)

We have already seen the ideology of the car has not worked for the City for the last couple of decades.

We need to try something else that has worked in other comparable City's in Europe.

The City Council, County Council, Galway Chamber of Commerce still believe in what you say - so your ideology is still the dominant one.

" self-centred perspective."

Thanks. That was exactly the word I was looking for after reading the letter but the word failed to find me.

the very basic fact that more people choosing public transport means fewer people driving and competing for space with other drivers like himself. So, yes, it could make a very real difference to him.

This concept is so ingrained in Irish life - why is it so hard for people to grasp this? It's not just this letter writer; many in City Hall struggle with it.

Who replaces Chief Brendan McGrath this year?

I thought that was a very disappointing program, with many opportunities missed. The School Cycle Bus chap spoke well though. and seeing some of the video of it, man some drovers need to lighten up and cool the jets a bit.

I wonder were the City/ County councils asked to partake? I don’t think it was mentioned if they were, or if they were asked and refused.

Also, the clown riding the electric scooter one handed whilst using the phone, travelling in front of a truck……what an idiot!

rant/

Those arseholes beeping and revving their engines at the cycle bus in Galway on Eco Eye ffs, carbrain is a mental disease.

After seeing that Eco Eye episode, it just seems that the council and the councillors have just given up on the city. Radical intervention needs to happen with the governing body to get them moving at this stage, it's gone way too far. The incompetence is breathtaking.

Once we have the Greens in government and a green minister for transport, things will change..

They are not able; change is hard. The mindset change is beyond them when they have been conditioned to think like this. They have been putting ALL the eggs in the one basket for the last 3 decades. First the bypass, then the ring road. Its the City Executive I blame here mostly - not the Cllrs. Might need a sweep out of personnel at the top.

For example the City Roads Engineers & Executive 20yrs ago wanted to put in a Dual Carriageway on the Seamus Quirke Road /Bishop O'Donnell Road with multilane Roundabouts. Majority of Cllr's at that time opposed it, wanted bus lanes and traffic lights junctions. ABP agreed with them in 2003 - was nearly a decade later (during a time when there was very little capital spend going on due to the "Celtic Tiger" crash) that the City Executive got the Seamus Quirke Road /Bishop O'Donnell Road bus lanes built, this of course was after the first bypass proposal they had been working on for a decade failed to get over the line.

It really is a pity that Cycle Bus have to even use this stretch of WDR with its poor cycle lanes (not wide enough) - but highlights why the Cycle Bus still needs to exist. If Hawthorn Place was connected to Slí an Sruathan and Slí an Struathan was connected to Caiseal Ur that would be link available to any kids on the Northern Section of Clyabun Road to Gaelscoil Mhic Amhlaigh via the Gateway Retail Park. There are probably plenty of kids in those cars who are going to School who might walk or cycle if that kind of link was in existence. Above is just one example. Other links can be done from Ballymoneen etc