limerick bus lane parish politics

munstergirl

Why can't we have a council who cares about the whole of the city and not just a few rich residents. Who all have gardens large enough to park their cars.

I used to get bus to crescent, its one of the best bus services in limerick every 10 mins or so, but when you get on the bus you never know if its going to take 10 mins or 45 mins from city to cresent to city.

We all know the council only cares about being voted in again the next time, and out Mayor lives on the street, has a business where the bus lane should go.

I'm sure most of our council have never used a bus in their life.

Against the bus lanes

Joe Leddin
Tom Shortt
Jim Long
Pat Kennedy
Diarmuid Scully
Denis McCarthy
Cormac Hurley
Maria Byrne


In favour of bus lane.

Maurice Quinlavin
John Gilligan
Ginger McLoughlin
Kevin Kiely




Kieran O'Hanlon was absent
Kathleen Leddin didn't speak
Orla McLoughlin didn't really publicly take a side, but she proposed again that they adjourn.

bigpink

Orla Mcloughglin she thinks she a celeb or something,plays the bleeding heart card well

bigpink

Im very suprised that Tom Shortt and Joe Leddin are against them i always thought they seemed to be good guys
What were their reasons?

Kess73

munstergirl wrote: »

Why can't we have a council who cares about the whole of the city and not just a few rich residents. Who all have gardens large enough to park their cars.
I used to get bus to crescent, its one of the best bus services in limerick every 10 mins or so, but when you get on the bus you never know if its going to take 10 mins or 45 mins from city to cresent to city.

We all know the council only cares about being voted in again the next time, and out Mayor lives on the street, has a business where the bus lane should go.

I'm sure most of our council have never used a bus in their life.

Against the bus lanes

Joe Leddin
Tom Shortt
Jim Long
Pat Kennedy
Diarmuid Scully
Denis McCarthy
Cormac Hurley
Maria Byrne


In favour of bus lane.

Maurice Quinlavin
John Gilligan
Ginger McLoughlin
Kevin Kiely




Kieran O'Hanlon was absent
Kathleen Leddin didn't speak
Orla McLoughlin didn't really publicly take a side, but she proposed again that they adjourn.

People had asked about getting permission to turn gardens into drive ways for their cars if the bus lane was agreed upon, but they were refused.

Also it is a bit rich for Kevin Kiely to now be on the pro bus lane side.

Funny how he was on the no side before the local elections, and only switched to the yes side after his term as mayor ended.

kilburn

I think our mayor is out of touch with reality. She wants bus lanes put on the dock road or hyde road instead. Does she understand the concept and purpose of bus lanes? No buses use the dock road Maria !

munstergirl

The vote has been put off till sept 13th.

I do hope our council will put the city 1st and not rich v poor. (it is the poor that get the bus)

DarkJager

Its a poorly thought out idea in the first place. Bus lanes or not, that stretch of road is a bottleneck as it is without adding to it further. No reason why they can't use the dock road for this. And it has nothing to do with rich vs poor, its common traffic sense.

kilburn

What residential city services use the dock road ? None ! How would that help

Mc Love

Nothing like having disjointed bus lanes all over the city. Looks pure amateur an seriously dumb!

Feckin bus lanes to nowhere, almost as bad as the cycle lanes

Amazotheamazing

kilburn wrote: »

What residential city services use the dock road ? None ! How would that help

Rather than put in bus lanes to suit exisiting routes, why not redesign all the routes in Limerick to make best use of the roads that are wide enough to accommodate bus lanes?

kilburn

ok fair enough but what routes will use the dock road?

OConnel ave is wide enough.

munstergirl

O'connell ave is plenty wide enough, and ballinacura is one of the widest roads in limerick.

This bus also is not just for shopping it takes a lot of people visiting regional hospital.

Its probably one of the only decent bus services in limerick.

Do limerick bus have any input?

bigpink

Dont forget the Dock road has parking back again soon

dave 27

The solution to this arguement is simple,

The basic governance of this city (which includes the input of bus lanes) cannot be properly carried out unless it is governed by a single local authority, ie Limerick city council, so to me, Limerick is lacking the very basic characteristic (spelt that wrong), in order to properly control the place

look at the bus service, it serves parts of county clare (shannon banks, westbury, parts of corbally etc), Limerick county (raheen,dooradoyle,ballycummen, UL etc), and Limerick city

how can a bus service properly operate under 3 different local authorities without chaos?!

it all comes down to having an extension into the areas that the busses go, ie greater suburbs

so forget about bus lanes, lets talk about the city boundary!

Rapidmike

Please please please
shout loudly to all the councilors and to the media
about how nessesary this lane is to limericks future
development and just to suRvive in the short term !!!
I have attended a meeting where all I heard was lies
lies and more dammed lies.
Bus lanes and cycle lanes when put on the busiest routes
have worked all over the world WHY oh WHY!!! Is Limerick
so dammed different ???
It's because our councillors who would you believe WE elect
are incompetent and incapable of organising a piss up !!!!!!
There is loads of room on the proposed routes and there is
space on the other side of the road , just take a photo any evening
after 7pm !! They just don't want to cross the road or lose something
their used to it's as simple as that .
Please make it happen !!! Cleaner and safer for all 130,000 not just 100 residents .
Ps .. Look what happened on the ennis rd .
Less than 100 making sure a whole Side of a city has a bus and cycle lane
too far away on the condell road for anyone to use
THIS IS Not what a city council is supposed to do .
SHOUT LOUDLY ,VERY LOUDLY




This is not

zing zong

munstergirl wrote: »

Kieran O'Hanlon was absent
Kathleen Leddin didn't speak
Orla McLoughlin didn't really publicly take a side, but she proposed again that they adjourn.

a bit off topic, but how did you find this out about the above 3?

CiaranMT

zing zong wrote: »

a bit off topic, but how did you find this out about the above 3?

Maybe they were at the meeting?

Kess73

zing zong wrote: »

a bit off topic, but how did you find this out about the above 3?

It was a public meeting. There was about 120 residents there along with the political wafflers.

All it did was highlight how inept the councillors are, and how worthless their words are.

When asked direct questions, they stammered and spluttered. Many, like Kiely, had said one thing before and had argued reasons why their original points were valid, and now are saying the opposite.

Orla McLoughlin seems totally out of her depth and comes across as a nice person who does not have a clue as to what to do in her role.

Total joke of a meeting, that ended as questions were getting sticky for councillors. I guess they don't like when people remember what they said in the past, and like it even less when people have hung onto copies of interviews given by them relating to the bus lanes, and things like councillor newsletters where certain councillors made claims as to what they were looking to do.

Even more laughable was something one councillor said afterwards about the bus lane being critical for the future of Limerick City as, in that person's words, the city itself could not survive without it.

A simple thing like making sure that people with no off road parking could convert their gardens to driveways would have appeased a lot of people in the past, but that idea was dismissed a long time ago by the fools that run the city.

zing zong

thanks for the info kess73

Ive since found out the time for the meeting was made public, which I didnt know at the time sadly, so didnt go, thats why i was wondering how people knew what they did

Kiely is an idiot. Orla is only there because of her dad, which is very sad, especially for those that voted for her.

Im going to try and keep up on the meetings though, not just in relation to the bus lanes, the city is going to pot, we need to be there, and to call them out on their stupidity

Blazer

dave 27 wrote: »

The solution to this arguement is simple,

The basic governance of this city (which includes the input of bus lanes) cannot be properly carried out unless it is governed by a single local authority, ie Limerick city council, so to me, Limerick is lacking the very basic characteristic (spelt that wrong), in order to properly control the place

look at the bus service, it serves parts of county clare (shannon banks, westbury, parts of corbally etc), Limerick county (raheen,dooradoyle,ballycummen, UL etc), and Limerick city

how can a bus service properly operate under 3 different local authorities without chaos?!

it all comes down to having an extension into the areas that the busses go, ie greater suburbs

so forget about bus lanes, lets talk about the city boundary!

so basically you want the same idiots who are making a complete balls of limerick city to manage the whole county now?
What are you? a glutton for punishment?

dave 27

Sc@recrow wrote: »

so basically you want the same idiots who are making a complete balls of limerick city to manage the whole county now?
What are you? a glutton for punishment?

im not asking anyone to take over county limerick, just the greater (and proper) areas of the city which spill over in to the county like the areas i mentioned above, just seems retarded trying to manage one urban area under more than one council!?

jamezy

They should make it like the Mulgrave street Bus Lane - Call it a "Bus Lane" but still have bloody everyone still park on it...

Behold the type of idiocy reserved for politics.

Raiser

The City Centre-Raheen Bus Service has been a joke for as long as I can remember.

Seems to me that the Mayor of Limerick is more concerned about selling Pints in her Family Business of Bobby Byrnes's than implementing necessary change on one of the main Arteries into the City.

- The irony is that the Patrons of that Pub shouldn't be driving home afterwards anyway.

The above point re. the Victims on O'Connell Avenue having room to park Cars in the Gardens is valid too - Suck it up - we've moved beyond the Horse & Cart you whinging Idiots - You can't choose to live in the City and then dictate on every specific as suits you.....

Can you imagine this happening in Germany or France?

- No Bus Lane because Joan and Tom want to park their Land Rover Discovery on the Street forever? Or because the Mayor is in the thick of it with massive conflicts of interest all round??????

Reaganomical

Will the vote on Sept 13 be open to the public? Wouldn't mind going along to watch local politics in action

Raiser

schnellimbiss wrote: »

Will the vote on Sept 13 be open to the public? Wouldn't mind going along to watch local politics in action

Bring whatever is required to cope with and overwhelming sense of dismay, disbelief and shame.

- There's more decency, integrity and decorum in a drunken Knife-fight.......

Thomas_B

Hi there,

Great to hear so many comments in favour of the bus lanes.

A group of us were at the council meeting this week, and we were so disgusted with the behaviour of our councillors that we decided to set up a campaign: Get Limerick Moving

We got great coverage in the city edition of the Leader this week, and we're trying to put the pressure on as much as possible. In fairness to the residents they've waged a brilliant campaign to protect their on-street parking, the danger is that the voices of people in Limerick who know that we desperately need better public transport in Limerick will not be heard.

Any support would be appreciated, in particular we're
asking anyone who cares about this issue to get in touch
with their local councillor (list here)

There's also a facebook page -- most of us aren't very active on facebook, so any promotion you could give the page would be gratefully received!

We've only got a few weeks until the councillors vote on this for the last time, and the campaign is less than 3 days old, so any help to spread the word would be appreciated.

Cheers!

Kess73

Raiser wrote: »

The City Centre-Raheen Bus Service has been a joke for as long as I can remember.

Seems to me that the Mayor of Limerick is more concerned about selling Pints in her Family Business of Bobby Byrnes's than implementing necessary change on one of the main Arteries into the City.

- The irony is that the Patrons of that Pub shouldn't be driving home afterwards anyway.

The above point re. the Victims on O'Connell Avenue having room to park Cars in the Gardens is valid too - Suck it up - we've moved beyond the Horse & Cart you whinging Idiots - You can't choose to live in the City and then dictate on every specific as suits you.....
Can you imagine this happening in Germany or France?

- No Bus Lane because Joan and Tom want to park their Land Rover Discovery on the Street forever? Or because the Mayor is in the thick of it with massive conflicts of interest all round??????

With all due respect you are talking rubbish, and I don't say that in a mocking manner. City councillors should not be letting people think that was an option, and then keeping quiet until after people had applied for permission to convert their own gardens into parking spaces instead of using the side of the road to park, and being refused permission to park on their own property.

There are a lot of people affected who are not waelthy or the owners of fancy Land Rover Discoverys. The Ballinacurra road section has a lot of people in their 60's and 70's who also tried to get permission to turn their own gardens into driveways, thus removing their cars from the roadside, and they were refused this option.

A number of times since this process started in the first half of the 00's, the local authorities have managed to leave out information, give vague information, and in the case of one councillor, giving information that was incorrect.

A lot of people have being using the arguement that the bus lane will allow people to get to the likes of the Crescent shopping centre, the regional Hospital, and the Raheen industrial estate is quicker times. I would love for somebody to explain how as there is NO bus lane being built on the outbound lane, and if anyone takes the time to look at the plans for the outbound lane on Ballinacurra road, it will become obvious that the proposed outbound set up will slow traffic going that direction as the positions for the bus stops are in the actual outbound lane, so all traffic will have to stop each time the bus stops.

For the bus lanes to have an actual effect in the manner the political spoofers are claiming, there would have to be both an inbound and outbound lane, and both lanes would have to go from the city centre the whole way to Raheen Church. But surprise surprise, that is not on the agenda, so all that is being proposed is a single inbound lane, that will not cover the whole length of the inbound journey.

My arguement is a very simple one. Either the city council does a proper job and puts genuine bus lanes that have a genuine positive effect on the route both ways or don't bother. A half assed plan is worthless.

The next meeting should be open to the public again, anyone who wants to see how inept the councillors and planners are should go along, I can assure you that sitting and listening will be an eye opener. When you have "qualified" planners who answer the question of what will the benefits of having one lane that partially covers the distance with "because it is better" and give no other details, then people are right to have doubts as to what the final work would actually be like if it went ahead.

Raiser

Good points well made Kess - Thanks

zuroph

You know what would solve all of this??? :pac:

Kess73

Raiser wrote: »

Good points well made Kess - Thanks

I have been to a few of the meetings, due to my mother being a resident on Ballinacurra road, plus when the earlier plans were being discussed etc I was a resident on the other end of that road before moving to where I am in Dooradoyle now. I am not against the idea of a bus lane at all. But I am against the idea of a badly planned bus lane that does not do what is being claimed about it.

It bugs me when people say it is badly needed and would cut down on bus times going out of town when nothing at all is planned to improve the outbound journey. Also from talking to councillors on the matter, they seem to be basing their traffic figures and time improvements from the single bus lane on traffic numbers in the summer months, and ignoring the fact that the road gains a hell of a lot of extra traffic during the school and college year, so if you are on an outbound bus and the bus stops and the driving lane for cars etc are all the one thing, then expect the outbound journey to actually take longer.


Another reason why some residents wanted to turn their own gardens into driveways is because of the fact that a hell of a lot of people who work in town park their cars on the side of the street there and then walk or bus into town, leaving the cars there all day, which in some cases mean that residents cannot park anywhere near their own homes at all until well into the evening, so basic things like going shopping can become a major effort if you have to park a half mile or more from your own home. Now this does not apply to everyone on the road of course, and the outbound side generally has off road parking at the front of their houses.

Kess73

zuroph wrote: »

You know what would solve all of this??? :pac:

A Monorail.

Thomas_B

Kess73 wrote: »

I would love for somebody to explain how as there is NO bus lane being built on the outbound lane

There is an outbound bus lane planned at the Mount approaching Punch's Cross.

This will help the buses to skip the peak-time queues coming up to those traffic lights.

Drawings of the scheme: http://getlimerickmoving.com/drawings

dave 27

i also read i think on archiseek.com that a limerick bus driver was saying that they are introducing double decker buses on the busier routes (castletroy and raheen), anyone else hear about this?

panda100

I don't understand why Limerick needs a bus lane? There is no traffic at all in the city or suburbs. The only place where you get delays of 30mins or so is Adare,thats where they need to be sorting out imo.

I have family members who live on O'Connell avenue and I wouldn't describe them as rich residents at all. There all struggling to survive like everyone else. There isn't car parking space for them in their homes, so they have to park on the street. If a bus lane arrives there looking at walking 15minutes or so from their car to their homes.

I'm all for public transport but not at the detriment to others. Bus journeys in Limerick city are shorter than in any other city I have lived such as Dublin or London. Traffic is free flowing and buses generally on time. Bus lane is waste of money and time as far as Im concerned.

panda100

zuroph wrote: »

You know what would solve all of this??? :pac:

Corrupt Councillors or Bus Lane? But whats best? There's only one way to find out.......FIGHT!!!

I think next public meeting should be Maria Byrne and the Bus lane fighting Harry Hill style, its the only way to solve this crisis :pac:

Kess73

Thomas_B wrote: »

There is an outbound bus lane planned at the Mount approaching Punch's Cross.

This will help the buses to skip the peak-time queues coming up to those traffic lights.

Drawings of the scheme: http://getlimerickmoving.com/drawings

The bit you are talking about on O'Connell Avenue is only a few hundred yards long. Doesn't that plan have the two current outbound lanes at Punches cross become one outbound lane straight after those traffic light for about a hundred yards, and then turn back into two lanes until the traffic lights at the greenpark centre?

So traffic that would be going left onto Childers road and the traffic going on straight towards Dooradoye all get funnelled into one single lane where there is currently two lanes, then just past the bus stop outside the old Esso station it becomes two lanes again.


From then onwards there is no outbound bus lane and everything gets to share the one outbound lane. An outbound lane that has no off road bus stops planned for it, meaning the bus will be stopping on the outbound lane, as shown in the drawings you linked to, stopping all traffic behind it. Plus when the road is busy, the bus gains nothing in terms of time, and is still going to be prone to peak traffic on the Ballinacurra road.


Just seems a very flawed plan, especially when it is meant to be designed by professional planners. The bus would gain time on one side of the route, but looks like it could lose it on the other side of the route. Kind of defeats the purpose of a bus lane system if it does not speed up the route as a whole, and if the inbound lane gets built on the Ballinacurra road, there will be no room for an outbound lane to be built at anypoint, not unless they get rid of one of the traffic lanes totally and make it one way to traffic on that lane.

Rapidmike

This is not just a bus lane !!!! Far from it , its a car free lane which gives the city back to its inhabitants .It will get used by far more cyclists than
buses ,thus bringing back the cleanest form of transport a city can have
. Just look at dublin and the amount of cyclists in the inner city and on the approach roads every morning .Along with the dublin bike scheme it has become a far nicer place to visit and live.
A bus and cycle lane gives its users a view of the pavement and any crossings on it become safer for pedestrians as well .
Every european study shows that where implimented ,cycle rates go up
and accident rates go down for both pedestrians and cyclists alike .
Sounds like win win to me ?????
Waiting for the perfect plan to come around will never happen ,but any errors will get sorted in time . Better to get started than to be thinking about it for another 10 years.
I understand residents being unhappy at loseing what they have have become used to and every effort possible should be made to make other spots available for them.
Not withstanding the above the premise has to be WHATS GOOD FOR THE MAJORITY IS HAPPENING ...........
Hence the title PARISH POLITICS..........

Kess73

Rapidmike wrote: »

This is not just a bus lane !!!! Far from it , its a car free lane which gives the city back to its inhabitants .It will get used by far more cyclists than
buses ,thus bringing back the cleanest form of transport a city can have
. Just look at dublin and the amount of cyclists in the inner city and on the approach roads every morning .Along with the dublin bike scheme it has become a far nicer place to visit and live.
A bus and cycle lane gives its users a view of the pavement and any crossings on it become safer for pedestrians as well .
Every european study shows that where implimented ,cycle rates go up
and accident rates go down for both pedestrians and cyclists alike .
Sounds like win win to me ?????
Waiting for the perfect plan to come around will never happen ,but any errors will get sorted in time . Better to get started than to be thinking about it for another 10 years.
I understand residents being unhappy at loseing what they have have become used to and every effort possible should be made to make other spots available for them.
Not withstanding the above the premise has to be WHATS GOOD FOR THE MAJORITY IS HAPPENING ...........
Hence the title PARISH POLITICS..........

Ah yes a bus lane that is not continuous and that has many proposed merges with the car lane will be so much safer for the cyclists. And what about every other main route in and out of the city centre then? Should not every route have bus lanes going each way then? After all cyclists use more than that one stretch of road.

And what happens to the cyclists who want to cycle out towards the Crescent Shopping centre or Dooradoyle along the Ballinacurra road? Under the new plans there will be just one outbound lane which is to be shared by cars and buses and all other traffic. Or do those cyclists just do what they do now and cycle along the pedestrian footpath?

Funny how some of the councillors most behind the bus lane for O Connell Ave/Ballinacurra road are ones who have spoken out against bus lanes on their own sides of the city.


Bus lane systems that actually go in and out of each main route in an unbroken manner would be of great benefit to Limerick, but the bus lane planned for the Ballinacurra road/O Connell ave is not this.

Rapidmike

Ah!!! Wouldn't that be nice ,contra flow bicycle lanes on the five main routes of our city all in one go .... But life isn't perfect (unless you live in holland) is it , so you take what you can get as a starting point and move forward from there
weaning the public on to the NEW idea .

Mc Love

People are saying give more power to the city councillors and unify them under one authority - feck that. For all its worth if that ever happens its the County Council that takes over, having that inept system out here would be a shambles!

Kess73

Rapidmike wrote: »

Ah!!! Wouldn't that be nice ,contra flow bicycle lanes on the five main routes of our city all in one go .... But life isn't perfect (unless you live in holland) is it , so you take what you can get as a starting point and move forward from there
weaning the public on to the NEW idea .

To be honest having bus lanes, bike lanes, and a proper rail system is hardly a new idea, and as someone who lived in Germany and Holland, I am all for those idea if implemented in a manner that makes sense, but the layout of the plans for the bus lane on the Ballinacurra road is a joke.

Some people seem to be thinking that there will be a clear bus lane going each way, something that certain councillors have hinted at, and that the bus lanes will go from Town centre the whole way to Raheen church.

This is not the case at all, nor are there future plans to have an outbound lane on the Ballinacurra road as once the inbound buslane gets put in place, then there will simply be no room for an outbound lane, something that has already been confirmed by the plans.

Next time people are driving in from Dooradoyle/Crescent Shopping centre along the Ballinacurra road, they should visualise this.

Where the cars are parked on the left will have parking some spaces, so that is the width of a car. Next will be an inbound bus lane. Now look at the remaining space on the road and picture inbound and outbound traffic lanes fitting there. Now picture everything trying to fit in that small outbound lane as it is laid out in the plans. Cars, trucks, cyclists and of course buses all have to use that outbound lane, and the plans for the new layout have the bus stops on the actual lane, so all traffic has to stop every time the bus stops to pick up or let people off. Also with all the traffic in one lane, buses will not be able to go any faster than the regualr traffic in that stretch, so there will be no increase in bus times heading out of town to Dooradoyle or the Crescent shopping centre, but that's alright because there will be a bus lane going in the opposite direction that won't go the whole way to town either.:rolleyes:

Also the talk of it being good for local jobs is a load of baloney. There was also talk of the current road works where the gas line are being done on O'Connell Avenue, Ballinacurra Road, Ballinacurra gardens, Oakview drive etc being good for local construction type jobs too. Maybe people should pay attention as to where the "local" companies brought in to do the work are actually from.


It is also funny that the residents on the Ennis road were able to protest about a bus lane going there with no problems, which left it as a bus lane that ends at Ivans cross and only resumes at Maternity hospital for a few hundred yards, surely such a busy ruote should have had a bus lane pushed through with the same vigor and intent.

Oh wait the same councillors from that area who are shouting the loudest about getting the Ballinacurra bus lane were the ones shouting against one on their own doorsteps on the Ennis road.

Amazotheamazing

Kess73 wrote: »

It is also funny that the residents on the Ennis road were able to protest about a bus lane going there with no problems, which left it as a bus lane that ends at Ivans cross and only resumes at Maternity hospital for a few hundred yards, surely such a busy ruote should have had a bus lane pushed through with the same vigor and intent.

Oh wait the same councillors from that area who are shouting the loudest about getting the Ballinacurra bus lane were the ones shouting against one on their own doorsteps on the Ennis road.

The Ennis road is still be discussed, afaik. It will happen eventually.

Kess73

Amazotheamazing wrote: »

The Ennis road is still be discussed, afaik. It will happen eventually.

The Ennis road was originally meant to be long finished at this point. But certain individuals with influence objected to it being done on one stretch in particular on the Ennis road, yet one of those individuals is very vocal about it being done on the Ballinacurra road. Bit hard to take these people's opinion on the subject , and their comments on wanting what is best for Limerick seriously when they can flip flop in their convictions depending on how close a project comes to their own doorstep.

What Limerick will end up with is a number of half assed bus lanes when it is all done and dusted.

Bus Lanes that go some of the journey and not both ways on each main route. Rather than bus lanes that go full routes and in both directions, that would have a genuine impact on bus journeys with the town and suburbs.

sparkman

It's depressing that it causes so much controversy when there's a proposal to improve public transport and reduce private traffic.
Those poor misfortunes on O'Connell Avenue. Someone should call in Amnesty.

sparkman

If a tunnel under the river, with a cost of 1.80 per car is cost-effective, why isn't it cost-effective to build a few under the city and put in a few trains? By cost-effective I mean taking into account: ticket revenue, increased public transport by rail, increased public transport by bus (because there will be less congestion), increased retail activity, less air pollution, less noise.

Kess73

sparkman wrote: »

It's depressing that it causes so much controversy when there's a proposal to improve public transport and reduce private traffic.
Those poor misfortunes on O'Connell Avenue. Someone should call in Amnesty.

How exactly will it improve public transport and reduce private traffic?

If you are making that statement I take it you have look at the current plans along with the proposed future ones for the Ballinacurra road/O'Connell ave bus lane.

I would love to hear how a single bus lane that will only be going inbound for some of the journey into the town centre will bring about the improvements you just claimed.

Especially as there will be no outbound buslane on the Ballinacurra road, and the current plans for the inbound lane mean there never can be one due to the fact that once the inbound lane gets built then there will be no room for an outgoing bus lane, no room for a bik lane, and no room for off road bus stops.

So once traffic hits the Ballinacurra road, everything has to use one outbound lane. Private traffic, commercial traffic, buses, cyclists etc, plus the proposed new bus stops on the outbound route will be on the road, meaning all traffic gets stopped everytime a bus stops, plus the buses on that outbound route will still be able to travel no faster than whatever outbound traffic is on the road.

Plus the inbound lane will not go as far as the town centre.


So please explain, using the current proposed plans, how it will reduce private traffic and improve public transport on that route.

source

sparkman wrote: »

If a tunnel under the river, with a cost of 1.80 per car is cost-effective, why isn't it cost-effective to build a few under the city and put in a few trains? By cost-effective I mean taking into account: ticket revenue, increased public transport by rail, increased public transport by bus (because there will be less congestion), increased retail activity, less air pollution, less noise.

You have to take into account the difference in cost between a 700m tunnel and one that is a number of miles long, also factor in the cost of stations and rolling stock.

If you want to talk light rail, there are plenty of unused tracks around the city which could be revived, using the existing commuter trains, and building unmanned platforms along the same line as luas stops.

Cookiemunster

According to the Leader the bit from the city boundary to Punches Cross is going ahead. The rest is being put off until next year.

http://www.limerickleader.ie/news/Plans-to-build-a-bus.6528957.jp

Kess73

Cookiemunster wrote: »

According to the Leader the bit from the city boundary to Punches Cross is going ahead. The rest is being put off until next year.

http://www.limerickleader.ie/news/Plans-to-build-a-bus.6528957.jp

Laughable that it is going ahead for one small stretch on the Ballinacurra road when the next stretch could yet be blocked and has not been approved.

Come next summer if the O'Connell avenue bit does not get cleared, then the brains that are the planners end up with a bit of a bus lane that ends beside Punches pub heading city bound..

Ah well guess we will get top see the massive improvements for people's bus times along a short stretch, yet will never see any improvements on bus times going out towards the crescent shopping centre and Dooradoyle as there is no bus lane being built or even planned for that direction, and never will be now that the inbound lane is coming in.

steveon

It took me 45 mins to get from The model school to Punches cross the other day, reason...road blocked from people collecting there kids. Whats gonna happen when bus lane goes in...road congestion will further increase not get better...

A bus lane is no good unless it goes the entire route. And Im sick of hearing about all of foreign neighbours having bus routes. They do as there roads are much wider and can take the capacity.

Also the politicians made the claim that it would bring in local jobs and parts would be bought locally, a complete lie, as the contractor is from Laois, the plant hire is also from Laois and there is a load of foreign contractors there..

Plenty of Limerick plant hires that are local ...a complete disgrace...get rid of =every stupid bus lane in the entire town and half of the newly established traffic lights, and get every single car moving, cutting the congestion therefore getting rid of the need for any stupid bus lane...

And also if the bus lanes were so good why havent they reduced the price of the buses to encourage people to use them, no all they do is drop the number of buses that serve the route as what has happened in castletroy.

I would invite any politician to answer one of my arguments...

Kess73

steveon wrote: »

It took me 45 mins to get from The model school to Punches cross the other day, reason...road blocked from people collecting there kids. Whats gonna happen when bus lane goes in...road congestion will further increase not get better...

A bus lane is no good unless it goes the entire route. And Im sick of hearing about all of foreign neighbours having bus routes. They do as there roads are much wider and can take the capacity.

Also the politicians made the claim that it would bring in local jobs and parts would be bought locally, a complete lie, as the contractor is from Laois, the plant hire is also from Laois and there is a load of foreign contractors there..

Plenty of Limerick plant hires that are local ...a complete disgrace...get rid of =every stupid bus lane in the entire town and half of the newly established traffic lights, and get every single car moving, cutting the congestion therefore getting rid of the need for any stupid bus lane...

And also if the bus lanes were so good why havent they reduced the price of the buses to encourage people to use them, no all they do is drop the number of buses that serve the route as what has happened in castletroy.

I would invite any politician to answer one of my arguments...

You will get no answers to any of your questions. The councillors answered nothing of note at any of the meetings on it.

And yes you are correct in saying that no local contracter will be doing the work, despite all the bluster about it creating local jobs in the construction of the lane. Then again all the road works laying the gas pipes etc in the same area over the last few months all went to a firm from Offaly, and the company that trimmed the trees on O'Connell avenue was from Mallow, so the talk of local people getting the jobs for these projects is rubbish.


It is a very poorly concieved plan and anyone with half a brain who looks at the approved section along with the proposed sections can see the obvious problems with it, not withstanding the fact that even if all of it gets built that it does not even cover the whole journey and only goes one way.

I have no doubts that when it is finished lots of people who were saying it should go ahead will be complaining about how the outbound lane to Dooradoyle along the Ballinacurra road is one single lane which includes all traffic and will have the new bus stops in the actual lane as it goes outbound.

As I have said many times here, well planned bus lanes that go inbound and outbound and that are continuous would make a huge difference in bus times, but one bus lane that only goes inbound and only for some of the journey that also merges with the main traffic flow, makes no sense.

Your point about Punches cross is valid too, moreso when people find out that the inbound lane at the traffic lights alongside the old Esso station is due to become one traffic lane for a few hundred yards, forcing where there was also two traffic lanes into one, cuasing more congestion.