Most car friendly town in Ireland

veryangryman

With the constant sticking it to the motorist in levys and taxes coupled with the dumb policies of replacing roundabouts with traffic lights where not needed, I wonder if anyone can nominate a town that is comfortable to drive in or out to.

Ill start with mullingar. Handy to get in or out of and on street parking to boot.

Stinicker

Strokestown in Roscommon, the widest town in Ireland I beleive. Well suited to the car!

JupiterKid

Shannon (designed around the car back in the 1960s), Portlaoise and Newtownards.

Tedddy

Mitchelstown, smallest town in Ireland to have a 360 degree ring road.

toastedpickles

I find Newbridge to be fairly handy, 1 main intersections, one set of main lights, and a few more here and there, generally if the town is blocked there's always another way around it, that's just me though, next person could say it's a nightmare

nordydan

Kilmacanogue. DC right through the middle of it and petrol stations on both sides!

spacetweek

Tallaght. Roads, many of them duals, all over the place.

flazio

Anytime I've been in Kilkenny I've been able to get around no problem. (Though that's a city rather then a town)

wildlifeboy

Stinicker wrote: »

Strokestown in Roscommon, the widest town in Ireland I beleive. Well suited to the car!

I was just gonna say that. its a pleasure to drive through

killanena

Ennis isn't too bad. Loads of parking, traffic lights are never too crazy sense the bypass was build. You can get anywhere in town with in a 5 minute drive really.

r3nu4l

To be car friendly though, the road layout and supporting signage really needs to be comfortable and easy for someone who has never been to that town before.

A driver shouldn't have to sit at a crossroads looking all around them for a hint of a sign that tells them what road they are on or what the roads ahead and to the left and right are.

Signage should be such that a driver can navigate their way into and out of the town centre and to nearby retail parks with ease.

munchkin_utd

didnt Sligo spend millions on a pedrestrian zone, and 10s of millions on an inner relief road only to decide that car is king and un-pedestrianise the pedestrian zone?
That has to make them the most pro-car friendly shower of idiots in Ireland

EDIT: the pedestrianisation which was abandoned cost €5,016,466 to be precise.
The sligo inner relief road which was to allow the town centre to be traffic free cost €73million.

Danno

Kilkenny is the worst ever... takes a half an hour to get into the place and then they gouge you for parking fees, hence why I only shop there once a year at the most.

road_high

flazio wrote: »

Anytime I've been in Kilkenny I've been able to get around no problem. (Though that's a city rather then a town)

Kilkenny is not car-friendly. The narrow streets, heavy traffic volumes and poorly designed junctions do not help.
The Council have made it far worse in fact; made some roads even narrower with massive footpaths and got rid of some useful filter lanes at busy traffic light junctions such as on the top of John St. and going left from Patrick st to High st.
The whole Greensbridge is chocker-block most of the time, it's rare I get throught there without snarl ups.
Add to all this the woeful standards of driving (no indicators, ridiculous hesistency and failure to keep up with traffic) don't help either.
There's virtually no public transport so practically everyone drives too.

hi5

Carlow is car friendly, especially since they bypassed it with the M9, free parking in woodies and Tesco, and walking distance from the town centre.

Kilkenny is a disaster, they have a supermarket right in the middle which can't be accessed easily from any direction, and jams up the whole city centre.

road_high

hi5 wrote: »

Carlow is car friendly, especially since they bypassed it with the M9, free parking in woodies and Tesco, and walking distance from the town centre.

Kilkenny is a disaster, they have a supermarket right in the middle which can't be accessed easily from any direction, and jams up the whole city centre.

Carlow town cente has been destroyed though too while Kilkenny is vibrant and few vacant shops. Carlow is a perfect example of bad planning taking the focus out of a town centre to more peripheral retail parks and the Fairgreen SC. Tullow st was once a very good regional shopping street now it's dead.
Kilkenny might be chaotic but the Council have broadly made the right decision by keeping business in/near the centre.
But to stick to the thread title Carlow is way more car friendly but with all the disadvantages above.