O'Connell Street and Safety

dub45

I wonder does anyone else think that the recent changes in O'Connell Street have created hazards for pedestrians and motorists?

The pavement and the road area in front of the G.P.O. are now virtually indistinguishable - this is made worse by the very small difference in height between the path and the road. I also notice that once it gets dark the situation gets even worse as in the area on the opposite side of O'Connell Street to the GPO the pavement can look as it if is behind the trees and lights recessed in the pavement and that the area in front of the lights and trees is road whereas there is a portion of pavement there.

This might confuse some drivers with the result of them mounting the pavement.

For some strange reason the 'pavement' has now been extended across the 'street' part of Princes Street so that pedestrians are no longer aware that they are crossing a road when they are crossing between say the GPO and Pennys. Not alone is the paving the same but the surface of the road part has been raised to exactly the same height as that of the pavement. Many motorists turn down Princes St to enter the Arnott's car park and it is going to be very difficult for these motorists now.

A similar exercise has been carried out at Sackville Place where it is particularly dangerous because of the Taxi Rank there.

I will be amazed if there is not a serious accident as a result of these changes.

Andrew Duffy

In both casesm, since motorists are either turning off or on to the main route, they must give way to all traffic on the main route, vehicle or pedestrian.

BrianD

I suspect as O'Connell St development continues towards completion that there will be less and less traffic on the street. I like the new look but I can certainly see the difficulties in distinguising road surface from pedestrian areas, particularly at the plaza in front of the GPO.

One solution would be to put LED cats eyes on the street that would be lit 24hr to delineate the traffic lanes. I've sen this used in Australia and it is quite effective.

Crossley

The pavement and the road area in front of the G.P.O. are now virtually indistinguishable

Agreed. And it certainly doesn't help that the pavement area is marked out in 'lanes' using the same dark paving stones used on the roadway.

Slice

I think the point is to give padestrians the right of way - besides O'Connell Street has been downgraded and is no longer a national route. I think overall the street is looking pretty slick

Victor

I was actually at the point of running away from on-coming traffic when I was walking along the median and I was suddenly 'naked' as there were no trees or bollards around me. It felt like I was in the middle of a six lane road and the lights had just gone green.:eek:

dub45

Originally posted by Slice
I think the point is to give padestrians the right of way - besides O'Connell Street has been downgraded and is no longer a national route. I think overall the street is looking pretty slick

It may look pretty slick I just think its not very safe which surely should be the prime consideration?

Sarsfield

Originally posted by BrianD
One solution would be to put LED cats eyes on the street that would be lit 24hr to delineate the traffic lanes. I've sen this used in Australia and it is quite effective.

I like that idea. I would look pretty good too!

LFCFan

I've noticed the new paving is already covered in chewing gum and cigerette butts all over the place. Can people not have a bit of pride in their own city. Scumbags!

Victor

http://home.eircom.net/content/unison/national/3326008?view=Eircomnet

Safety takes the shine off O'Connell Street
From:The Irish Independent
Friday, 4th June, 2004

DUBLIN'S new-look O'Connell Street is to be sandblasted because buses are skidding dangerously on its shiny granite surface.

Dublin Bus has raised concerns about the street, which only recently emerged from the chaos of Luas construction and a multi-million euro regeneration project.

Now the city council has admitted there is a problem and says it will have to sandblast the eye-catching granite surface.

The bus company wrote to the council after two recent incidents. In one, a bus skidded as soon as the driver hit the brakes.

Dublin Bus raised serious concerns about the safety of the road's surface in wet weather.

The council, in a statement to the Irish Independent, last night admitted that it was aware that there was an issue with regard to potential skid problems with a small section of the street where granite has been laid.

"These problems will be rectified within the next two weeks," the council said.

The rest of the street where the granite has not been laid will not affected.

It is understood that the operations manager of Dublin Bus wrote to the council highlighting the issue.

In one of the accidents on May 31, two people were injured as an airport shuttle was rear-ended on the street during rush hour.

Treacy Hogan and Kathy Donaghy

Exit

I actually noticed how unsafe it is right at the spire as it's very hard to distinguish where the footpath ends and the road begins. And right enough, I saw two women just continue walking along as if it was a path until a few steps into it they realised it was a road and jumped back to the path for safety. Luckily there was no immediate oncoming traffic, but it's only a matter of time before there is an accident there.

Cake Fiend

I notice this every time I walk down O'Connel St. Bearing in mind how mindlessly some people tend to walk across roads in the city at the best of times, it's an invitation to incident having the road barely distinguishable from the pedestrian areas.

a_ominous

You gotta love the designers; "that polished granite looks luverly". Yeah but what happens when it gets wet? It's as slippery as a wet slippy thing. Is that thunder clouds I see on the horizon? Nah, it _never_ rains in Oireland.
Clowns.

Oh they're not the only ones, have seen too many public buildings, shops using similar stuff in reception areas. S-T-U-P-I-D! They deserve to be hit with loads of insurance claims for such ineptitude.

chewy

you are so right

i love when people think the same as me

was having the same discussion on archeire

there may be sometinhg to the, theres gonna be lesss traffic thing, but in the meantime ....

ya think they would take these things into account beforehand

chewy

perhaps this is what the council or doing with o'connell street...
re all one colour paths and road... and if it is i'd be dead impressed

"Woonerf" - Anarchy the Key to Safe Streets?
http://www.worldchanging.com/archives/000765.html


Why don't we do it in the road?
A new school of traffic design says we should get rid of stop signs and red lights and let cars, bikes and people mingle together. It sounds insane, but it works.

http://www.salon.com/tech/feature/2004/05/20/traffic_design/index_np.html

casper-

Originally posted by chewy

Why don't we do it in the road?
A new school of traffic design says we should get rid of stop signs and red lights and let cars, bikes and people mingle together. It sounds insane, but it works.

Why not ... that's exactly how it works here in Bangalore and I have to see an accident - of course I've only been here a week Oh and don't forget to throw cows into the mixture as well ...

antoinolachtnai

Well, to get this to work well, you'd have to reduce the speed limit to 20 mph (which doesn't seem like a bad idea to me, especially if you could get rid of some of the traffic lights)