Worst designed town in Ireland?

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

son-of-plunder

alwaysadub wrote: »

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!!

Good point there well maybe not as bad but the gort road certainly is and the westbridge. Why they cant just put a roundabout there is beyond me and i presume everyone who isnt on the town council

ScumLord

Wilson Odd Dove wrote: »

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

We had the opportunity to rectify those problems and we didn't. My point being, I'd give you the fact Irish towns and cities grew organically only for the fact we had a boom (when planning was well observed for hundreds of years) and continued to build as we had done before it mattered. So it's not down to ancient organic growing any more it's down to laziness and greed.

saywhatyousee

im actually quite shocked at the amount of people that said sligo.
i think sligo is one of the most attractive places in ireland.
yes the one way system could be a bit troubling if it is your first time.
but most of the streets are so thin they could not handle two lane traffic.
traffic system is much better now than it was 10 years ago when it was a free for all it could take 2 hours to get around town

Mars Bar

saywhatyousee wrote: »

im actually quite shocked at the amount of people that said sligo.
i think sligo is one of the most attractive places in ireland.
yes the one way system could be a bit troubling if it is your first time.
but most of the streets are so thin they could not handle two lane traffic.
traffic system is much better now than it was 10 years ago when it was a free for all it could take 2 hours to get around town

It's fierce confusing to walk around though. We kept going around in circles and there is random shops in random places. Eventually we found the shopping centre that has Lifestyle Sports...

-Corkie-

Anywhere near Dublin.

adamski8

Anita Blow wrote: »

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

Well that's probably cause it's a city and not a town

jdooley28

Galway. Can't turn right anywhere you want to. also portlaois 'mare to drive through

talla10

Without a doubt Shannon. For those of you lucky enough to never go there there is a lidl, supermacs and tiny shopping centre that makes up shannon 'town'. apart from that there are sprawling housing estates created in a very confusing way. Its Irelands first man made town and like everything else they f**ked it up!!oy yeah it also has an airport

talla10

Just copped what i wrote there by man made town i mean they sat down and decided to put a town there and planned it there was no early settlement there kinda like ballymun but without flats!hope i got there before some smart sh1te

Tarzan_man

Athy.

I hate it, I hate it, I hate it.