Galway Ring Road- are there better ways to solve traffic?

And too many drivers have no compunction about ignoring the existence of the cycle lanes and just treating them as a wider section of road to allow them to take corners at a higher speed.

I took that photo on a Digital Camera many moons ago now .Think it was taken August 2009. The Infamous Doughiska Road was done in 2008. Has bus shelters added since. It is car gridlocked now at peak hours now. It still needs a proper cycle facilities and dedicated bus priority at either end of it. Galway City Council gave themselves a 'D' rating for this Cycle facility in the Galway Transportation Study 2016 (so it actually really failed if they gave themselves a 'D')

Ring road is just a casual term - you are being pedantic. Same as someone calling the M50 a ring road. There is no need to build a tunnel under the bay and you know that.

Also, I have never once heard someone say that the new road will solve Galway city center's traffic problems. But it is expected it will make it much better for many people. The people who make these decisions know right well that the answer is to have less private vehicles in the city centre by way of improved public transport, pedestrian access, and cycling infrastructure - while also increasing the number of people living and working within the city centre area. This is why Augustin Hill is a key development in Galway, as is twin-tracking to Oranmore (ideally Athenry), and also the plans for the Sandy Road development. But the new road would be a huge addition for Galway in so many ways, including helping with advancing city centre public transport options and allowing Galway city the room to grow over the next 50 years.

Page 91 of this document (or section 2.4.9.3).

This document is the planning application document that ARUP were paid approx €30,000,000 for. It's publicly available for everyone to read. This document was submitted by Galway County/City councils as part of the planning application for the RR. Gawlay City/County Councils are the key "stakeholders".

Here's the table in question. In 2012 the modal share was measured and I've highlighted it in the first row below. If the RR is built and Galway City/County Councils implement the full Galway Transport Strategy (GTS) all the way to 2039 then we get more journeys by car, less walking, less cycling and 1.1% more on Public Transport (PT).

@GBXI - you asked: "Where did any of the stakeholders 'confirm' that building the new road will make traffic worse in the city?"

Does this answer your question?

At no point in the plans for this road development does it state "that building the new road will make traffic worse in the city". In fact, it states the exact opposite many time throughout the plans. What you have presented above is misinformation. Either you are being cynical or you just do not understand what the proposal is stating. Here is the context to the figures you posted.

In summary, the project will take private cars out of the city centre. Here it is below, highlighted.

It will push private cars and HGVs onto the outer ring roads and away from the city centre. Galway will grow in population by 2039 and more people means more cars. But with the new road, these cars will not be in the city centre and the new road will release the current over capacity that is currently on the main roads of Galway.

This mode share is exactly what one would expect in an Induced Demand scenario + as you said the population of the City is projected to grow. ARUP are really just basically covering themselves by including information like this so that in 20yrs time they can have recourse to say - we told ye so. With these mode share projections by 2050 with the GCRR and the current GTS we will be back to where we started. The PT% and Cycle% with the GCRR and the current GTS for 2039 are really poor for a modern European City.

They'll only be properly effective when they do happen with a new outer road though.

Best reopen the old N6 forum now https://www.rte.ie/news/regional/2023/1025/1412889-galway-road/