Worst designed town in Ireland?

Rebelheart

This could be a really long thread. It was inspired by somebody on another thread saying Naas had to be the worst designed town in Ireland.

I think Bettystown in Meath is abysmally designed. Sitting next to one of the country's sandiest beaches, the planning people allowed an amusement arcade to be plonked right in the centre at the junction. I wonder how much the town and that part of east Meath loses in tourism revenue simply by scaring off tourists (nobody seems to think of the economic consequences of bad planning)

I was in Sligo town for the first time the other weekend, and it's all over the place. There's no central meeting place, no square, no fountain or anything really which could form the centrepiece of the community.

What town turns your stomach in the badly-designed stakes?

Biggins

Dundalk. Co Louth. What a disorganised mess!

flyton5

A city rather than a town but Waterford is an abysmal place. Driving there is a nightmare.

seamus

Blessington.

You have a "road" of the same quality as a dirt track running through the centre of it, with some nondescript parking and shopping either side of the road, without any kind of lines or signs or right-of-ways. The whole place is just one big chaotic mess, people drive whereever they want going whatever direction they want.

mojesius

Ah Blanchardstown. How many traffic lights can one fit within a three mile area? Get stuck in a jam around there and it's game over. Too many exits from the centre all leading to the exact same 3/4 routes.

dlofnep

New Ross.

nacho libre

Carlow.

Nodin

Theres designed towns in Ireland? Holy jaysus.....I thought they just built bits as they called in the bribes had the land rezoned...

fonecrusher1

Thread destined to turn into another stinkin culchies vs heroin addicts slanging match.

lcrcboy

I think Limerick city is a bit of a mess, when they were building up the city centre they should have move its main shopping areas down onto the water front, I hear the council has been planning for some time to try do this but I doubt anything will happen now with the way the economy is. Also areas like Corbally in Limerick are a nightmare during rush hour and the dublin road, the are a lot of areas in corbally which werent built for so much traffic and now there are housing estates every where. I think Limerick reley needs some series redevelopment to make it more attractive to the tourist and the locals. Cruises street the main shopping street in Limerick has lost alot of its main shops and have been turned into more bloody phone shops, Limerick city centre has way to many phone shops

Cianos

The town hall in Bray is the most charming building in the town, situated at the peak of the Main Street. What do they do? Give it to McDonalds :rolleyes:

Duggy747

Dunmore and that tiny bottleneck of a main road that's about as wide as an anorexic puppy.

irelandrover

I'd have to say Shannon. Was a town that was actually designed. Doesn't have a main street. Just one big housing estate really.

Hail 2 Da Thief

nacho libre wrote: »

Carlow.

The town isn't as bad to drive through since the bypass to Dublin was opened.
However, the design of many of the junctions & roundabouts & the locations of ped crossings is dangerous as fu<k in that town.

prinz

Rebelheart wrote: »

What town turns your stomach in the badly-designed stakes?

The tackiest of games arcades and 4-D cinemas being allowed to operate on the capital's main street.

iPlop

seamus wrote: »

Blessington.

You have a "road" of the same quality as a dirt track running through the centre of it, with some nondescript parking and shopping either side of the road, without any kind of lines or signs or right-of-ways. The whole place is just one big chaotic mess, people drive whereever they want going whatever direction they want.

I have to agree with you there ,try and get somewhere to park from 8am onwards you'll be lucky

Nodin

fonecrusher1 wrote: »

Thread destined to turn into another stinkin culchies vs heroin addicts slanging match.

Considering how Tallaght, Finglas and the like were 'designed', I think not...except perhaps in a 'Mr Pot & Mr Kettle' sort of way

df1985

shannon, adamstown etc are all "planned" towns, but theyve ended up completely soul-less.

papajimsmooth

Sligo is fairly bad its like a one way system around the outskirts of the town

bonerm

Cianos wrote: »

The town hall in Bray is the most charming building in the town, situated at the peak of the Main Street. What do they do? Give it to McDonalds :rolleyes:

Haha, I'm guessing that has to be the fanciest looking McDonalds branch in Ireland (if not the world?). Pity about the crap on offer inside.

Mint Sauce

Letterkenny town centre. Serveral retail parks all with their own car park, a hotel amongst them, a main street with a couple of multi stories off it, 2 shopping centres, one 4 laned main road in and out with a 80km speed limit on with serveral warehouse stores on it and the IT, whole lot connected by a network of one way systems. Roundabout after roundabout.

Nightmare to drive around.

Aglomerado

Does Mahon Point shopping centre in Cork count? It only has one entrance / exit and as a consequence long tailbacks at peak hours (evenings, particularly on Thursdays and Fridays) are the norm in the general area, whether you're going in there or not. If I could find the "planner" I'd make them sit in one and see how they like it. :mad:

cherryghost

Longford's easily the worst. A few one way streets where there shouldn't be, due to huge volumes of traffic.

Half of the towns businesses are dead

It takes nearly 40 minutes to walk out to the town's bowling alley, which incidently, doesn't even half a footpath for about 20% of the way, you gotta walk along a main road instead. There's many more fleeting businesses out that way which are similarly placed.

Argos, Mc Donalds and Homebase are so far out of Longford town, it's technically not in the town at all.

Heck it's so bad, Tesco applied for a relocation to the edge of the town, instead of the heart of it(where it is now). It's a complete joke.

Misanthrope

I know geological issues had a great effect, but Cork city looks like it was laid out by a bunch of tweakers.

Johnny Bitte

Athy town has to be the worst place for me. Everytime you try to get in either side the traffic is backed up.
Worse again they built a brand new connection to the M7 to it and put it bringing the traffic through the town rather than a by pass to the far side.

People from my area actually go to Carlow instead even though its an extra 10 mins in the car.

biko

Gort, streets look like the US have been practising Shock and Awe there.

biko

Bless your heart Galway, but congestion is your middle name.

alwaysadub

Have to agree with Sligo and Blessington. Couldn't get over how awkward Sligo was when i'd to go up there last year.


Gort is another one. Woeful town altogether.

Degsy

Tyrellstown..thousands of substandard housing units thrown together on top of each other in the middle of nowhere.

charlemont

Tipperary town, mainly because the main road N24 passes through its main street which is where all other traffic must go too, its a grey dismal mess, they cannot really fix it up till a by pass is built, there is no real alternative to getting around the town without ending up on the main st....

Papa_Lazarou

Fermoy in cork.....you'll know why if you've ever had to drive through it.

crow_eat_crow

I used to hate driving through Edgeworthlesstown

Agent Smith

Dun Laoghaire

complicit

Portlaoise for its roundabouts , ghost estates and the way the N80 cuts through the heart of the town .

Tiny Explosions

Biggins wrote: »

Dundalk. Co Louth. What a disorganised mess!

It's still alot better designed than Drogheda is.

jimthemental

charlemont wrote: »

Tipperary town, mainly because the main road N24 passes through its main street which is where all other traffic must go too, its a grey dismal mess, they cannot really fix it up till a by pass is built, there is no real alternative to getting around the town without ending up on the main st....

It's not that bad, it's been a long time since I was caught bad with traffic there. Kilkenny is a bit of a joke though as from motorway side to Freshford side you have to go through a number of awkward streets and Green's Bridge is ridiculous.

I don't know why they didn't do something to widen it when they were working on the river a few years ago. They need something to free up traffic here a bit as if you come from Padmore and Barnes direction it's a pain the arse to pull out at the bridge.

Big Pussy Bonpensiero

Galway is terribly designed, so is Westport, but the worst planned town I've come across is by and far Sligo. Take one wrong turn and it could be another half an hour before you're back on track with all the stupid fcuking one way streets.

gsxr1

Celbridge is a nightmare to drive through.
Athy is a kip

Mint Sauce

alwaysadub wrote: »

Have to agree with Sligo and Blessington. Couldn't get over how awkward Sligo was when i'd to go up there last year.


Gort is another one. Woeful town altogether.

It hasn't got much better



Its not the worst though

twowheelsonly

Aglomerado wrote: »

Does Mahon Point shopping centre in Cork count? It only has one entrance / exit and as a consequence long tailbacks at peak hours (evenings, particularly on Thursdays and Fridays) are the norm in the general area, whether you're going in there or not. If I could find the "planner" I'd make them sit in one and see how they like it. :mad:

In fairness to the gang that submitted the original plans they wanted a direct slip road onto the ring road. The geniuses further up the line blew that one out though.


+1 for Sligo btw, what a disorganised mess!!!

My name is URL

Tiny Explosions wrote: »

It's still alot better designed than Drogheda is.

Yep.. I doubt there's many other towns with the same amount of one-way streets. It's a nightmare to drive around and even worse for parking in

Anita Blow

Surprised someone hasn't said Dublin in an attempt to be cool and edgy

Shekira

charlemont wrote: »

Tipperary town, mainly because the main road N24 passes through its main street which is where all other traffic must go too, its a grey dismal mess, they cannot really fix it up till a by pass is built, there is no real alternative to getting around the town without ending up on the main st....

Totally agree...it also feels like the town centre hasn't has a facelift since the '70's

Benny_Cake

complicit wrote: »

Portlaoise for its roundabouts , ghost estates and the way the N80 cuts through the heart of the town .

Have to agree with that, I drive from Naas to the Mountmellick Road to get to work every day and the town is a nightmare.Traffic all the time, roundabout that seem to operate on different principles (right lane to go straight through?) to the rest of the country. Whoever allowed all that development along James Fintan Lawlor Avenue should be given a sound thrashing!

son-of-plunder

biko wrote: »

Gort, streets look like the US have been practising Shock and Awe there.

Loughrea is worse in fairness. Both in terms of layout and quality of roads. I actually hate going there

Mars Bar

biko wrote: »

Gort, streets look like the US have been practising Shock and Awe there.

What I hate is you can be standing outside O' Sullivans and look up to Bridge St. up to the old Tech and it looks so f*cking long!

The Square there is a death trap too.

Galway City is grand from a walking perspective when you compare it to Limerick. Every street in Limerick looks the same.
For traffic, Galway is ridiculous and if you're new to Limerick, the one way system means you could spend ages trying to work your way out!

ScumLord

Duggy747 wrote: »

Dunmore and that tiny bottleneck of a main road that's about as wide as an anorexic puppy.

Which Dunmore, that names so generic (large fort) there's a few of them scattered around the place.

Overall the question doesn't work because Irish towns aren't planned, Dublin is barely planned.

I have yet to see any town in Ireland that isn't laid out like four children fought for 20 minutes about planning then lost interest and everything ended up where it was dropped.

epgc3fyqirnbsx

The thing about Irish towns, and European towns, is that most weren't actually 'designed'. They're so bloody old that the streets were just formed by whatever way it was easiest to build on them with no conception of the 'irons horses' of the future
Contrast that to 'new' towns like in the States and they have a grid system that's easy to drive around and easy to navigate. But often lacking in soul...

ScumLord

Wilson Odd Dove wrote: »

The thing about Irish towns, and European towns, is that most weren't actually 'designed'. They're so bloody old that the streets were just formed by whatever way it was easiest to build on them with no conception of the 'irons horses' of the future
Contrast that to 'new' towns like in the States and they have a grid system that's easy to drive around and easy to navigate. But often lacking in soul...

You look at any modern city and by modern I mean built in the last century, and that doesn't hold up. Cities around Europe have been planning what they've been doing for well over 100 years.

Even old cities like Paris do have planning, look at Amsterdam on a map and you'll see it straight away. The smaller towns can be a different storey but they have to be medieval before they become really unmanageable.

alwaysadub

son-of-plunder wrote: »

Loughrea is worse in fairness. Both in terms of layout and quality of roads. I actually hate going there

I was gonna mention Loughrea-live there too.But didn't know if it was worth town status:pac:

Mind you, i wouldn't say it's worse than Gort!!

epgc3fyqirnbsx

ScumLord wrote: »

You look at any modern city and by modern I mean built in the last century, and that doesn't hold up. Cities around Europe have been planning what they've been doing for well over 100 years.

Even old cities like Paris do have planning, look at Amsterdam on a map and you'll see it straight away. The smaller towns can be a different storey but they have to be medieval before they become really unmanageable.

True you cn see Paris planning easily on a map, but I think it's the fact that these cities were parts of kingdoms and empires
Most Irish towns grew up around markets, bridges and fords and grew naturally without any real planning
The likes of Westport was planned by the 'big house', the river re-routed don the mall and the octagon show this but this place is also a nightmare for traffic because such traffic wasn't conceived

Of course that's not to say that planning all over Ireland hasn't been atrocious in recent years