Traffic Lights in New Ross

arseagon

Anyone travelling from Waterford through New Ross in the evenings will know what i'm talking about here.

Basically up to about a week and a half ago it was an absolute nightmare with hour long tailbacks at times due to the traffic lights on the bridge in New Ross. For the last week and a half however, they decided to try turning off the lights at 4pm for a few hours and lo and behold, the traffic, while still slow, moved much faster. Now i've just heard that due to insurance reasons, the council are no longer allowed to turn off these lights??

What the hell is going on here?? They find a reasonable enough solution only to turn around and say "oh we were only trying that to see if it'd work. We were never actually going to be able to keep doing it"
How stupid is that?

road_high

markdunne wrote:

Anyone travelling from Waterford through New Ross in the evenings will know what i'm talking about here.

Basically up to about a week and a half ago it was an absolute nightmare with hour long tailbacks at times due to the traffic lights on the bridge in New Ross. For the last week and a half however, they decided to try turning off the lights at 4pm for a few hours and lo and behold, the traffic, while still slow, moved much faster. Now i've just heard that due to insurance reasons, the council are no longer allowed to turn off these lights??

What the hell is going on here?? They find a reasonable enough solution only to turn around and say "oh we were only trying that to see if it'd work. We were never actually going to be able to keep doing it"
How stupid is that?

The real problem is the fact that New Ross is in DIRE need of a bypass.
I believe this is still in the planning and design phase- my guess would be to consult the Wexford CoCo website for info on this. Last time I heard,earlier on in the year, the bypass was on the cards to only start in 2008/9:eek: , as they want to do Enniscorthy first- New Ross would have to wait. Good news is the bypass will be a dual carriageway standard which is good foresight for once.Do a google search for New Ross bypass and there is some info.

As for the current traffic light nightmare, I guess once the lights were turned off the N25 (Waterford) side traffic was getting priority over the town centre traffic causing traffic to tail back up the town- this is my hunch, I'm never in 'Ross regularly enough to access the situation further.
If ever there was a town that needed a bypass and second bridge it has to be New Ross!

arseagon

mfitzy wrote:

The real problem is the fact that New Ross is in DIRE need of a bypass.
I believe this is still in the planning and design phase- my guess would be to consult the Wexford CoCo website for info on this. Last time I heard,earlier on in the year, the bypass was on the cards to only start in 2008/9:eek: , as they want to do Enniscorthy first- New Ross would have to wait. Good news is the bypass will be a dual carriageway standard which is good foresight for once.Do a google search for New Ross bypass and there is some info.

As for the current traffic light nightmare, I guess once the lights were turned off the N25 (Waterford) side traffic was getting priority over the town centre traffic causing traffic to tail back up the town- this is my hunch, I'm never in 'Ross regularly enough to access the situation further.
If ever there was a town that needed a bypass and second bridge it has to be New Ross!

Yes agreed, New Ross is in need of a Bypass in the worst way.
But from what I experienced, The town didn't suffer that much at all because of the N25 having priority. So until they actually get on with the bypass then they should leave what was working in place.

bkehoe

It worked perfectly while the lights were off. I was actuallly surprised they finally decided to give in to common sense when they switched them off.

I can't understand why insurance is a problem here. If so, then why isn't it a problem for all other junctions that don't have traffic lights?

The town was fine and didnt suffer at all. Any time I went through, drivers on the N25 would let cars out when they were a few waiting, and the rest of the time the N25 traffic flowed freely.

Dilbert75

As I understand it, they were turning off the lights and the junction was being manned by a Council employee, who was therefore taking responsibility for the traffic movements. So its understandable, in our litigious times, that there would be a nervousness on the part of the Council to take the risk.

In my opinion, the majority of the delays are caused by the short-cutters. I've had the argument many times but the fact is this: if you have a queue going to a point and a large proportion of the people trying to get to that point skip the queue, then everybody else is going to be delayed. They should try blocking off the Shanbough shortcut for a few weeks and see how it goes. Bet your average queuing time would drop.

Kehoejck

I actually live along the Shanbough shorcut that is taken to bypass the traffic on the waterford road into ross. The traffic has been bad for a number of years but each year it just increasing and increasing and the only solution is a bypass which will obviously be done fof quite a few years. Give it a few more years and the traffic will be even bigger and the government will have to do something. It will just get out of hand. It needs to be addressed immediately.

Another issue is the shear amount of traffic down by the local shanbough area when the traffic are taking a shortcut to get to new ross. Its unbelieveably dangerous for somedody walking, cycling and children of the local area. Somebody will be seriuosly hurt. Its also used by Large Articulated trucks.. Its a back road and is not suited for these kind of vehicles. It is also used by Bus Eireann on its routes which is a total disgrace. They are just too big.

I can understand why people use the road and I accept that but next time if you are driving on the road would you please reduce your speed and not treat it like a main road beacaue its not. The local council couldent give a damn and will not do anything to stop traffic form using the road so all i ask is for people to reduce speed while going through shanbough.

road_high

Latest I could find on the bypass- as far as I know, things are a bit more advanced than this- I remeber reading in the local paper months ago abot the preferred route being selected and how it was going to be a dual-carriageway. If we had another minister in KK or Wex;) maybe this could get a fast-track- god knows it is one of the worst in Ireland for gridlock.

http://www.wexfordcoco.ie/wex/Departments/Roads/Functions/
http://kilkennycoco.kilkenny.ie/eng/Services/Roads/Roads_Design/#N25-Newross

Dilbert75

Kehoejck - you are entirely correct. I reckon they should stop non-residents travelling along this road immediately. Its neither fair nor safe - people live on that road for peace and quiet and safe conditions for their kids, not to live on the edge of a narrow road busy with fast and heavy vehicles.

Squiggle

Brutal traffic at times alright going through New Ross. As I understand it the lights can only be switched off when there is Garda presence on the bridge and they are saying they don't have the manpower to be there every day. An alternative strategy , and one which overcomes the insurance issue, would be to disallow exiting from the north quays ( ie from the side where the Galley Cruising restaurant is moored) between 4 and 7pm. Instead make all the Enniscorthy/ Carlow/ Kilkenny traffic take a left at Mannions pub, go over the ring road (put a roundabout at Kent's cross ), come back in the main Wexford road and over the bridge and on to Waterford or wherever - trucks over 3 ton already have to do this anyway. This eliminates the need for a green light from the North quays so the road can be safely crossed by pedestrians but also the pilot light at the bridge from the Wexford side could be left on green as they wouldn't have to wait on the traffic coming on to the bridge from the north quay. It was worth a try imo before they spent €368,000 on the present farce.

road_high

Seems like a good idea to me- reduce the number of 'red light' stops coming in from the Waterfrd side substantially. But they would have to build roundabouts at either end of that relief road thing; those junctions are a nightmare and highly dangerous.
Overall though a bypass of a high quality standard and second bridge is what's so badly needed now, the NRA should be pressured into pushing it up the priority list ASAP.

mike65

A solution to the problem - close the road from Enniscorthy/Carlow side to incoming traffic, it can be send around the long way onto the N25. Traffic on the Quay turning right
will have to get to the "centre" by leaving the N25 at the turn into Irishtown.

With that done (between say 4 and 7 pm) the bridge lights can be turned off. Sure plenty of grumbling from locals but tough, regional sanity must take precedence!

Mike.

Kehoejck

Dilbert75 wrote:

Kehoejck - you are entirely correct. I reckon they should stop non-residents travelling along this road immediately. Its neither fair nor safe - people live on that road for peace and quiet and safe conditions for their kids, not to live on the edge of a narrow road busy with fast and heavy vehicles.

Thanks. Unfortunately the council are doin nothing about it.

Give it a few years and it will be really bad though-then theyll have to do something then again it is the council so.....



And another thing...

The Gardai say they dont have the man power---All it takes is 1 guard to stand there. The garda station is full of them. Crime isint exactly all that high in new ross. Its the worst excuse ive ever heard.

Dilbert75

Kehoejck wrote:

The Gardai say they dont have the man power---All it takes is 1 guard to stand there. The garda station is full of them. Crime isint exactly all that high in new ross. Its the worst excuse ive ever heard.

How many of them will volunteer to stand at the end of the bridge for 3 hours on rainy winters' evenings though? Latest suggestion, I see on the local paper, is to utilise the Garda Reserve to man the junction.

I still reckon that if they block off traffic going up "the back way", the waiting time for each car will be reduced. Overall throughput won't increase but it'd spread the wait a bit more evenly.