Cork city centre traffic

corktina

If the two quays were made one-way and to flow in opposite directions and all the conflicting movements were eliminated by channeling all the traffic onto the quays like a giant roundabout, with Patricks Bridge pedestrianisedwould that solve the laughable traffic chaos?

AugustusMinimus

It might.

Easiest way to work if would be an anti-clockwise system as all the bridges could be retained with traffic flowing on the left.

Can't see any reason for Patrick's Bridge being pedestrianised though. Just allow nothing but left turns onto bridges and it should be an instant improvement.

The biggest problem with a quay is that the length of bridges themselves don't allow for a great deal of space for traffic to queue. Put 8 cars across Shandon bridges and it's nearly full, blocking traffic from moving on the quay behind it.

EurasiaEndtoEnd

hi
I remember the chaos was much worse when I was a kid back in the 1970s. Before improvements such as the Christy Ring Bridge (near Opera House), the Blackpool bypass, the new bridges opened further down by the train station (mostly to feed traffic on and off the South Link and away from the centre) and of course the South Ring Road and tunnel, all the traffic was using the centre, especially St Patrick's Street.
I remember hearing that after some totally gridlocked evenings in the 1970s, it was decided to push the traffic jams out onto the roads leading into the centre to prevent the centre becoming overloaded. To this end, roads like the Wilton Rd and Western Rd, Tivoli and the roads leading in from Douglas now handle heavy queues ... but it is deliberate so that the centre stays somewhat free-flowing.
At the moment, aren't the quays mostly one-way systems like you suggested? Overall, the one-way street system was much stricter when first implemented and meant a lot of circling round to get to places that were quite close.
Cork needs a MUCH better bus service which MIGHT encourage more people to leave their cars at home. There are some new routes, new buses and so on, but the service today is not substantially better than it was 40 years ago.

corktina

its no good them being MOSTLY one way....the idea would be to remove all the conflicting movements so that traffic keeps flowing and isnt held up by grid-locked traffic lights.

Carawaystick

corktina wrote: »

If the two quays were made one-way and to flow in opposite directions and all the conflicting movements were eliminated by channeling all the traffic onto the quays like a giant roundabout, with Patricks Bridge pedestrianisedwould that solve the laughable traffic chaos?

Ah, I see where you're making your mistake, two channels of the Lee makes 4 quaysides....

I think the sheer irregularity of Cork city adds to the issues, when you have the only straight road called "the straight road"....

I always thought the junction where the n20 meets the north channel across from the cinema or opera house and had traffic turning downstream caused issues. If traffic was diverted earlier via Coburg st and McCurtin st and then across the Brian Ború bridge, things might be better.

If you went big bang changing stuff, there'd probably be engineering requirements, buildouts for per crossings/filter lanes etc. I'd like to see and play with a model of the traffic to see how a large change would improve things.

corktina

ah yes, simple error. The Northern pair of Quays I mean of course.

Us N20 users mostly do use Coburg St and McCurtain St and always have sinec ethat was the original route before the Christy Ring Bridge was built,usually a lot quicker because of the gridlock on the new bridge which has conflicting movements in pretty well every direction!

AugustusMinimus

I see there's a long term plan to completely pedestrianise Patrick Street.

Is this really viable ? is there really a need ?

mk6705

AugustusMinimus wrote: »

I see there's a long term plan to completely pedestrianise Patrick Street.

Is this really viable ? is there really a need ?

Where are all the bus stops supposed to go?