Bodkin / Headford Road roundabout replacement [Lights are on!]

Asmodean

fergiesfolly wrote: »

Thats no excuse for running an obvious red light.
Galway motorists seem to be displaying their anger at the roundabouts being replaced with traffic lights, by ignoring them.

Maybe the sync excuse could sometimes be used but 90% of the time Its chancers plain and simple. From the other perspective I've often been driving through that junction myself and have witnessed a handful of cars following one another through the red just because the lead car chanced it!

antoobrien

Private Joker wrote: »

the lights dont seem to be properly synced at the junction, one arm is red while the other is green. it is very annoying

Annoying as it may be, they are in that order by design. In theory it is supposed to be the best of all worlds:

it's supposed to be easier for pedestrians to cross the road
it's supposed to keep traffic flowing
it's supposed to balance the traffic flow between the four routes in question giving the "correct" priority to each

The actual result is to impair the traffic flow on 3 routes and force traffic away from this road, which has the effect of artificially creating higher flows on the N17 & N6 so that they can justify the multi million project to make traffic in Galway worse.

_Puma_

A lot of drivers simply do not know how to approach these junctions. This to me comes off as bad design. I pass by the new junction at ballybane coming from Boston Scientific every day. Some of the crazy things I've seen drivers do include

-Doing U-turns coming from the dual carriage to go back up it
-Trying to turn right from the N17 side when the right filter light is red and into oncoming traffic
-Changing lane in the middle of the junction, saw a fast oncoming truck, trying to beat the lights, almost rear end a car that changed lane at the last minute
-Coming from Ballybane a car filtering left almost wiped out a cyclist, where the left filter lane crosses over the cycle lane.

I only pass through the junction at 9 and at 6 but I see something like this on an almost daily occurrence. It wont be long until there is a major accident there.

khards

I think as in interim solution and to reduce congestion around 30% the following work could be undertaken: (in order of importance and cost)

1, Re-paint the lines at the junctions of the Roundabout.
2, Yellow hatched areas to be added on the roundabout to keep traffic from blocking the roundabout.
3, Slip road to be added when heading from ALDI/LIDIL direction.

Higher cost items:

4, Slip roads to be added at ALL other left turns thus reducing the quantity of traffic entering the roundabout.
5, Pedestrian bridges between both sides of the shopping center and all roads entering the roundabout.

I believe that the above would provide a low cost solution to the congestion and safety issues.

I also believe that the soccer club should be relocated and the fields turned into car parking. The reason for this is at busy periods the car-parks are full and traffic backs-up onto the roundabout.

galah

forget stop signs and all that (although I would agree with them, too) - just install red-light cameras, impose severe penalties for breaking a red light, and make sure the revenue goes to the city/county.

That would stop the muppetry fairly lively.

Private Joker

antoobrien wrote: »

Annoying as it may be, they are in that order by design. In theory it is supposed to be the best of all worlds:

it's supposed to be easier for pedestrians to cross the road
it's supposed to keep traffic flowing
it's supposed to balance the traffic flow between the four routes in question giving the "correct" priority to each

The actual result is to impair the traffic flow on 3 routes and force traffic away from this road, which has the effect of artificially creating higher flows on the N17 & N6 so that they can justify the multi million project to make traffic in Galway worse.

Thats not what i meant, although i do understand your point , the problem is coming from the college road junction, the left hand side lights are red for a couple of seconds while the right hand side are green.

Anyways getting back on topic, i think a short term solution would be to remove the access to the shopping centre, possibly counter this by giving them their access on the sean mulvoy road. move the traffic lights before the shopping centre access to the next exit and have the next set of lights just to control the traffic along the headford road coming from town. havent thought it out that much so i'm sure someone can punch a few holes in it.

I realise the shopping centre wouldn't be too happy about loosing an entrance but it would be an improvement for general traffic.


Edit: sean mulvoy road, DOh!

black47

Any news when this upgrade will proceed?

Sponge Bob

black47 wrote: »

Any news when this upgrade will proceed?

None. There is no contractor in place to do any work on any of the 3 remaining roundabouts. I think 2 or 3 contractors have been lost in the past 18 months and no doubt Coffeys will get a chance to do the job next, I have a perverse grá for Coffey and their antics I do.

The corpo got €2.7m allocated this year for the overall project but some of that is surely Retained payments for the work done to date on the 3 most easterly roundabouts.

http://seankyne.ie/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/NRA-Galway-City-2013.pdf

I'd still reckon the Bodkin will be done in 2013 but not starting before the 1st of June...an excellent time to start the job... and the other 2 roundabouts won't be done in a hurry...and sure we have not even seen the Corrib Park 'plans' yet.

By the time they finish the Bodkin they will have spend more or less all the €6m they said they would spend on removing all 6 roundabouts between the motorway and Corrib Park. They had spent €4.6m by last October on the first three roundabouts.

http://www.galwaynews.ie/28058-roundabouts-removal-cost-millions-euro-extra

.....and by then the NRA will be wary of our Corpo and simply might not pay up for the last 2 roundabouts.

KevR

There will obviously be lots of disruption whenever they do it but I can see the following happening:

• They start early in the year - there is disruption - people say they should have done it during the summer when days are longer and they could work later into the night to get the job done faster. Also the schools are off during the summer.
• They start in the summer when the schools are off - there is disruption - people complain saying they shouldn't have done it during the Races, Macnas Parade........etc. They should have done it during the winter when the roads are not as busy and there are no events on.
• They start later on in the year – there is disruption – people complain that they start the work after the schools have started back and are working in the run up to Christmas.

I feel sorry for the council because they can’t win when it comes to deciding when to start work. It would be good if people could realise now that there will be huge disruption regardless of when this work is carried out. Moaning about it won’t help.

antoobrien

KevR wrote: »

I feel sorry for the council because they can’t win when it comes to deciding when to start work. It would be good if people could realise now that there will be huge disruption regardless of when this work is carried out. Moaning about it won’t help.

Well hopefully they'll learn from Galway County Council's works in Claregalway and do it mostly at night. It won't mitigate all the trouble but it will help.

Sponge Bob

Best time to do it is late May to early July, students gone , secondaries closed and long daylight hours for out of hours working...that and it should not be too wet.

But they had better tender the Bodkin fairly sharpish....as in this month.

KevR

Sent an email to the City Council Roads Department last week requesting that they re-paint the lane markings on this roundabout as they have completely faded. It's bad enough at the best of times with people drifting/cutting across lanes; it has been particularly bad lately in the absence of markings.

I got a response saying it was highly unlikely that the markings would be re-painted because upgrade work is to start in June.

Fair enough I suppose (assuming work actually does start in June and doesn't get delayed again!)

I also noticed yesterday that some traffic counters have appeared on roads leading to/from the junction. Perhaps they are preparing traffic management plans for during the construction work.

khards

I they haven't re-painted the lines by then I suggest that the matter is taken into the peoples hands.
It would not be difficult to organize that a group of people get some line marking paint, some road cones and hivis jackets and do the work themselves.

It is the only way that potholes and lines get done. We have filled several potholes around here ourselves and done a much better job than the council would ever do.

antoobrien

KevR wrote: »

I also noticed yesterday that some traffic counters have appeared on roads leading to/from the junction. Perhaps they are preparing traffic management plans for during the construction work.

It's not just here, I've noticed them near Briarhill as well.

Iwannahurl

KevR wrote: »

I also noticed yesterday that some traffic counters have appeared on roads leading to/from the junction. Perhaps they are preparing traffic management plans for during the construction work.

Or doing targeted before/after traffic counts?

It's not often I admire (or even just tolerate) the work of the City Council, but I have to say I was impressed with the way they used traffic counters and ANPR to measure traffic flows around the other roundabouts marked for conversion to lights as part of the N6 Multi-Modal Scheme.

When major roadworks like the Bodkin redesign are started, motorists find their own way to adapt to the inevitable bottleneck (it's called the It'll Be Alright By Friday effect by roads engineers, afaik). The Council may be trying to assess the pre/post traffic flows through the junction itself and/or alternative routes.

Just guessing.

KevR

antoobrien wrote: »

It's not just here, I've noticed them near Briarhill as well.

Might not be related to the upgrade so. Although the timing is interesting considering they usually do a big traffic counting exercise each year around November; the timing of this one is unusual.

Mr_A

A wee bit on this from Galway Bay FM: http://www.galwaybayfm.ie/index.php/news/item/1067-city-council-review-on-traffic-levels-near-junctions

The Council wants to assess and compare the movement of traffic since the roundabouts were replaced with traffic light junctions.

emptybladder

khards wrote: »

I they haven't re-painted the lines by then I suggest that the matter is taken into the peoples hands.
It would not be difficult to organize that a group of people get some line marking paint, some road cones and hivis jackets and do the work themselves.

It is the only way that potholes and lines get done. We have filled several potholes around here ourselves and done a much better job than the council would ever do.

Unfortunately, there may be liability issues if there was a collision

gordongekko

Am I the only person who finds the journey through these light frustrating. If you travel outbound and turn right at Flemings, if you travel at the correct speed limit you will have a delay at the parkmore lights. You need to travel at around 70km in a 50 zone to make the lights.

If you then go straight past hogans and want to turn right at briarhill you need to travel in excess of 120km in a 100km zone into make the right turn. Most if the time its quicker to take a right at parkmore and go the old monivea road instead.

Coming inbound if you are taking a left hand turn at dunnes briarhill if there are 6 cars going straight then the filter lane is blocked yet the left hand turn light comes on before the green light to go straight comes on.


Anyways rant over

Where you say Parkmore, I am assuming you mean Ballybane, otherwise your route makes no sense.

Just because you go through a set of lights the second they turn green, does not mean the next set will be green also when you get to them.

I always find your complaint funny, not you personally, just the complaint.

I don't think people in general realise the kind of algorithims/math/divine providence/money you are asking for to be able to do this.

Think of it like this, your first junction, Tuam Rd, has 4 arms, 2 of which currently lead to another set of lights, 1 of those, the Ballybane junction (your second junction), has 3 arms, 1 of which leads to Briarhill junction, which has 4 arms, 1 of which leads to another set of lights.

What you are looking for is to sequence the following
- right turn at Tuam rd
with
- straight ahead at ballybane
with
- right turn at Briarhill

Now, that in and of itself is not difficult to do. However, you have now impacted the flow of traffic at 8 other arms of 3 junctions. Now before you say that could all be factored in, you must also consider that most of those 8 (not all) have 3 different flows, one for left, right and straight ahead.

To give you what you want, a clear run from Flemings, to Briarhill you are talking about adjusting the light sequence, light timings and traffic flow rate for about 20+ flows of traffic.

When you get the all of that sorted, come up with Einstein level kind of math and get it all tested & validated you must also now consider the unknown variables:
- power of engine and acceleration rate
- pedestrian/cyclist wanting to press a button to cross the road
- weather

So yeah, as I said, I find the complaint funny because few people realise what they are complaining about. Again, just to clarify, not picking on you about this.

antoobrien

gordongekko wrote: »

Am I the only person who finds the journey through these light frustrating

....
Anyways rant over

No and it's no rant. The council have taken the decision to follow the Dublin model of preventing where possible and otherwise consolidating right turns - part of the logic they used to justify using lights - in an effort to reduce congestion.

If you want to make the journey less painful, turn right at the trappers and go along the monivea rd. It's surprisingly easy to turn right at the new junction layout (though why they re-instated that turn when it goes against their stated strategy is beyond me).

I noticed this morning that there were about a half dozen cars "queue skipping" to get to the left filter lane on at Ballybane, also this is a common complaint going into Parkmore. The council have previously claimed an extra 500 vehicles per hour (8/min) going through the junction, but if my observations are holding true there is a majority if not all all queue skippers.

I guess I'll just have to check it out on a day off sometime.

biko

This is a gentle reminder that this thread is about the magic roundabout only and doesn't deal with other parts of Galway traffic.

Iwannahurl

I sincerely hope the redesign of the Bodkin junction does not prompt motorists to drive even faster than they do now over the QB in order to "make the lights".

My understanding is that it'll be a big complex junction, so slower is undoubtedly better.

KevR

Iwannahurl wrote: »

I sincerely hope the redesign of the Bodkin junction does not prompt motorists to drive even faster than they do now over the QB in order to "make the lights".

My understanding is that it'll be a big complex junction, so slower is undoubtedly better.

It will be less complex than it is now. They are closing the direct Shopping Centre access to/from the roundabout meaning it will become a 4-armed junction (as opposed to the current 5). At present, the junction is partially signalised; it will become fully signalised.

It will become more of a high powered junction than it is now. They are adding some additional lanes. I would imagine that traffic will move through the junction at a higher speed than with the current roundabout. This won't make it any more dangerous for pedestrians and cyclists - it's fully signalised meaning massive improvements in safety for pedestrians and there will be improved facilities for cyclists.

thisNthat

joushikijin wrote: »

Garda needs to be vigilant on people ignoring stop signs or driving over red traffic light. I am photographing every day people who either drive over a red light, cross a stop sign or cause otherwise dangerous situations like being on the phone or not buckled up. Within the 20-30 minutes I spend per day in my car to and from University I document an average of 3-4 offences per day.

With the way the Garda are being bent over by the Government at the moment I'm afraid being vigilant on people ignoring stop signs is the last thing they give a F**K about.
Should they? Yes
Will they? No

And you can take pictures all ya want it won't make one blind bit of difference, They just don't want to know, That would be classed as unnecessary hassle and paperwork for the Garda and would probably result in nothing more that a slap on the wrist and a "don't do it again".

You've the right idea but you should know at this stage that some innocent person has to get killed on the road at that junction before any serious action is taken, Unfortunately.

KevR

emptybladder wrote: »

Unfortunately, there may be liability issues if there was a collision

Would the City Council be liable if an accident occurred now given that the road markings are completely visible?

Private Joker

KevR wrote: »

Would the City Council be liable if an accident occurred now given that the road markings are completely visible?

They can be if the problem was highlighted to them. and it can be proved that the collision was because of the lining.

snubbleste

Finally going ahead.
Photo courtesy of huggs2 https://us.v-cdn.net/6034073/uploads/attachments/16678/255522.JPG

biko

Work on Bodkin roundabout set for completion in November

snubbleste

biko wrote: »

Work on Bodkin roundabout set for completion in November

Which year?