Outer City Bypass

The eastern half of the bypass has been given full permission INCLUDING the Menlo section and the bridge over the Corrib. The approved road ends at the Moycullen road. I predict that construction will get underway on this stretch whilst the western half with minor modifications goes in for planning under the new "strategic infrastructure" rules meaning that it will be fast-tracked and that appeals will be limited. The outer bypass will happen - everyone except the looney fringe of the environmentalists knows that Galway will simply die as a viable city without it.

The "loonies" I'm referring to are those that object in principle to the idea of a bypass in the first place and I will stand by my labelling of them as lunatics if they realistically believe that Galway does not need this bypass immediately. You'll notice in my first post I referred to the "looney fringe of the environmentalists". I think it should be obvious that I don't regard all environmentalists as "looneys" and I'd suggest that people read a bit more carefully before jumping down my throat.

I actually fully agree that the bog should be protected, that the designers of the bypass made fundamental mistakes in their routing of the road through this area and thus that the western half of the road was refused for good reason. Shame on the city council (again) for their general incompetence in anything involving infrastructure for this City. At no point have I said that I disagree with the decision ABP made. The route needs to be modified, the new route will go in for fast-track planning and the full bypass will go ahead - eventually.

I'll reiterate since I seem to have been picked up so wrongly - people objecting on VALID environmental grounds are to be applauded. The loonies are those who claim that Galway does not need a bypass at all.

As for buses in Galway? There is no current through road in Galway remotely suitable for a proper dedicated bus lane to operate. Dedicated bus lanes are the only way to GUARANTEE a proper, regular and reliable service. Galway will never have a proper, regular and reliable bus service until an infrastructure is provided for it and the only way such an infrastructure can be provided is by taking away priority on existing routes from cars. This could be done now and indeed it would be a huge incentive for people commuting into the city to leave their cars behind - nice free flowing bus journey as opposed to sitting in even worse traffic jams on half the roadspace. It would be a no-brainer.

However by putting this tactic into place now before a bypass is in place people living in the west of the city needing to travel east of Galway would automatically suffer even more as would the people and businesses of Connemara and the tourists travelling from the east. The problem is that Galway City's traffic problems are not just city based. They are regional. And the bottleneck that is Galway is having a strangling effect on everywhere west of the city. Aside from this absolute REQUIREMENT to provide proper access to a whole region of the country there is the knock on effect on the city itself.

Of course I will only be correct in saying that there will be less cars on the road in the city itself if proper measures are taken to both incentivise the use of public transport (by providing the proper infrastructure) and to dis-incentivize the unnescessary use of cars for short journeys (through proper planning of neighbourhoods, further pedestrianization of the city core, reducing road capacity in favour of public transport etc.). This is how it's done in successful, small cities throughout Europe. There's no reason it can't work in Galway - unless the bypass does not go ahead...

Sorry for going on a bit. I love Galway, I feel it has the potential to be a much, much better city if there was a bit of vision and forethought put into decision making on these important matters. It's being strangled right now and will continue to decline unless action is taken and I really strongly believe that the bypass ALONG with the other actions I've mentioned could reverse the decline. Of course the unfortunate thing is that the politicians (Fahey etc.) will most likely say "Sure you've got your feckin bypass, that'll do you for the next 20 years..." without giving a seconds consideration to the other elements that would create an integrated solution to Galway's transport nightmare.

Rant over! For now

Webbs wrote: »

Its shortsighted planning that has got Galway and the Irish road infrastructure in such a mess...

...the land around the bypass which will no doubt be rezoned residential or commercial!!

You're dead right on the first point there - it does look like overkill to have a dual carriageway there under current circumstances given that it'll join onto the rather inadequate coast road. However it's most likely the Barna and Cappagh road areas will continue to develop rapidly (when this recession is over obviously) thus justifying the higher capacity road. I shouldn't be questioning this one example of official forward thinking!!

On the second, one would hope (but not expect) that the lessons of the M50 will be learned. There should be a good buffer zone limiting development either side of the bypass and particularly limiting any "city" type development (dense residential, commercial or industrial) to the city side of the road. Galway City should not be allowed to sprawl any further, it already covers a ridiculous area for a relativly low population.