The new Relief road

Jhcx

Cant see any thread on this since it opening.

But Wondering what yer views on it are? we were sitting at the table today discussing how awkward it is and none of us can see results. Personally i was looking forward to it opening thinking it would be quicker alternative..... ehh now i hate it and its brought a load of trouble with it.

Now i know it may only be early days. But there are more traffic delays than before. imo. What would take 5minutes run up from clarecastle to dunnes on a normal day and 11 minutes in heavy traffic has now gone up. The traffic lights at the post office arent really helping. the que is going back to the roundabout. and back upto towards the cathedral. They were bad without the lights but on real heavy periods is this not just going to get worse? I havent yet gone on the relief road due to too much anger at the delays.

today i noticed its nearly just as quick to floor it up the turnpike and come out by flannans or could turn at o dowds(thats next on my list) getting stuck at those lights out side the tyre center they only seem to let 3 cars off at a time. I presume the time allowance will have to be regulated? for instance the lights at the post office side have the pedestrian crossing coming on each time and only allowing 2-4 seconds for the pedestrian to cross.

I hope the road becomes a success, but hasnt won my vote yet :pac:

CptSternn

I drop my kid up to Ennis National every morning and then usually come down the hill there next to the Post office on Station road to get to Dunnes/Aldis to do shopping. Last Wednesday when they opened the new road it was a nightmare. As I was driving back from the National towards the turn in front of Francie Dalys traffic was literally backed up onto the main road there in front of Francie Dalys. It took twelve minutes to get from Francie Dalys to Station road going down past the doctors office there. Parents were not expecting it so many were letting their kids out of the cars on the hill there and telling them to walk as they were already pretty late.

Your right, it only lets three cars go each time, and with about 20+ cars backed up there and on average about 1.5 minutes per change you can do the math and see how it brought everything to a crawl.

That being said, if all those parents had taken the turn before Francie Dalys and used the new road it would have helped the situation but since it was the first day people didn't know about it.

I think it will be helpful, the problem lies in the current transition. Most people are still blissfully unaware the road is open and are still trying to drive through the estate there and it seems to be causing issues. This week when I go to do my shopping I will be using the new road to see how well it works sure.

There is some truth to it causing some new congestion. The lights appear to change even if no one is coming the other way which leads to long lines of cars waiting as the lights cycle. However if you are coming out of Dunnes and heading up that way towards Station road it does help immensely with getting through that intersection. And the new crosswalk lights are brilliant as well as normally you have lots of pedestrians running out in the road in that area.

Like yourself I am still undecided either way. There are pros and cons, but I think we will have to wait until people understand the new traffic pattern and start to utilise the road more fully and properly before we can pass final judgement.

ger664

If they had put in roundabouts with pedestrian crossings at the exits instead of lights they would have no issues.

banner1964

i totally agree about the new road.the traffic was starting to back up from the lights at the banner arms yesterday as the new lights at the tyre centre on the limerick road were changing too fast and not enough cars were getting through.this is going to be a disaster for the town.

the whole of ard na greine, station road, dunnes and the limerick road will be traffic blackspot.again the town council has not thought this one out.

mindyou i see that a lovely new road surface, brand new footpaths, road widening and a very nice cut stone wall have been built in ballybeg right beside silvergrove <Mod Snip>

Lady Chatterton

Welcome to the Clare Forum, Banner1964, I would ask that you read the Clare Forum Charter before making further posts.

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056236830

MyPeopleDrankTheSoup

I think it's great, slightly cuts my daily journey from Morans car park to Quin. The timing on the lights are definitely off though. They'll fix it in time. The council also did a great Tarmac job in Morans car park. It's all coming up Milhouse for me.

Jhcx

georgiecasey wrote: »

I think it's great, slightly cuts my daily journey from Morans car park to Quin. The timing on the lights are definitely off though. They'll fix it in time. The council also did a great Tarmac job in Morans car park. It's all coming up Milhouse for me.

Did they do it up? that got awful bad there 2 weeks ago. thought i was bout to burst a Tyre going into those holes. was very bad. look forward to it now if its all done up.

Clareman

I don't think there's any need for the traffic lights at the Holy Family, 1 of those small roundabouts would have made it a whole lot easier, doesn't help that the lights are set to change way too quickly, saying that, those roads are a great improvement to the town to make it easier to get around, the Causeway link road is a god send.

maiden

OMH I hate these lights and they are adding time on my school run, I used to love the clare road but now I hate it

golfball37

What road? Seriously

Clareman

golfball37 wrote: »

What road? Seriously

On Station Road, besides Madden's furniture there's now a road that will connect with the Clare Road/Carmody Street, they have put traffic lights on the intersection though which makes it a bit of a pain.

Davyhal

I personally have no real issue with it, though I have yet to notice any real decrease in the length of time it gets me from home on the Kilrush Road to Dunnes. Only thing I did spot with it though is there appears to be some confusion when it comes to crossing from Dunnes up to the new relief road.... At Dunnes, there are two lanes coming out on the station road, but at the opposite side on the relief road, there is only one lane. I know that you should take the left lane when coming from Dunnes if planning on going straight across or to turn left, but I did notice that not all drivers were aware of this. Maybe directional arrows should be painted on the tarmac to indicate this? I spotted on more than one occasion cars in both lanes intending on driving straight ahead on to the relief road, but they did not know which of them was in the right lane.

CptSternn

I took it this morning for shopping and it was brilliant. Much better than driving through the next turn there next to Dalys. The only problem I see now are the pedestrians. It appears parents walking their children to school that use that intersection do not think the lights apply to them and were all over the place this morning, walking out in front of cars when there were obvious no crossing signs almost getting knocked down.

Clareman

CptSternn wrote: »

I took it this morning for shopping and it was brilliant. Much better than driving through the next turn there next to Dalys. The only problem I see now are the pedestrians. It appears parents walking their children to school that use that intersection do not think the lights apply to them and were all over the place this morning, walking out in front of cars when there were obvious no crossing signs almost getting knocked down.

A massive pet peeve of mine is parents out walking with their darlings in a buggy and they push the buggy out first to see if there's anything coming, the old turn from the market across from Dunnes was a nightmare, Moran's car park is brutal now.

CptSternn

Clareman wrote: »

A massive pet peeve of mine is parents out walking with their darlings in a buggy and they push the buggy out first to see if there's anything coming, the old turn from the market across from Dunnes was a nightmare, Moran's car park is brutal now.

Me too sure. It's one thing if you want to jump in front of oncoming traffic when there is a green light, but to push or drag a small child out as well, thats just wrong. They should have their children taken off them.

poppyvally

Another peeve of mine is people opening car doors without as much as a backward glance. I've had a few near misses with this utter lack of care. Sometimes when I'm walking on the foothpath, I've nearly crashed into car doors suddenly appearing in front of me & the drivers just seem to be oblivious..or just dont care. Some of them look at you as if its all your fault...You Should be more careful!