Traffic at Briarhill in the mornings

witnessmenow

I know this might sound pointless, but is there anyone to complain to about the traffic at Briarhill junction coming from the Dublin Road/Oranmore?

It was ridiculous today, traffic was backed out well onto the Dublin road this morning.

The lane for turning right towards the airport/Parkmore at the lights had been artificially extended by an extra lane of cars all the way to the roundabout.

The lights were set up to allow about 5 cars at time to turn right, there was no congestion, as you would expect in the morning, coming out of the dual carriage way that passes the race course (and Tom Hogans) yet the lights were still set up the same.

Previously the lights were set up so that that right turn would come on while the going straight light was also green but they have stopped that for some reason.

It was so stupid last year to extend that turning right lane by whatever they extended it by, the world and its wife knew it wasn't going to be long enough!

People making the make shift lane is pretty dangerous, also who would be at fault if soemone in the second lane clipped someone in the "third" lane? Also traffic backing onto the Dublin road seems reasonably dangerous too.

It took me longer to get from where I first met traffic at the Dublin Road to Parkmore than it did for me to get to from Athlone to Galway.

antoobrien

witnessmenow wrote: »

I know this might sound pointless, but is there anyone to complain to about the traffic at Briarhill junction coming from the Dublin Road/Oranmore?

That's not so bad, they're getting less than 30s to get off the Monivea Rd, meaning that traffic is backing up over 1 mile (went out that way at 8am last week). I've been told by a few of the residents that it can take 20 minutes to get from Briarhill School to the lights at Parkmore.

snubbleste

How many of the cars you saw this morning were single occupancy?

witnessmenow

Might be a good use of my time tomorrow, I could get out and take a survey

snubbleste

The people to complain to are Roads/GTU at Galway City Council. They have cctv there so you'd think they'd actually be aware of the issue.

whatstherush

witnessmenow wrote: »

Might be a good use of my time tomorrow, I could get out and take a survey

You're right, it was a joke this morning. I'm going in the left lane anymore and doing a u-turn in Dunnes and back out across.

Mrs OBumble

The lads I work with were saying that this morning is particularly bad - is that right? Anyone spot why?

what_traffic

Mrs OBumble wrote: »

The lads I work with were saying that this morning is particularly bad - is that right? Anyone spot why?

Heard the same at work today - added 20mins to a journey when they were expecting to get in at 10h00(got in at 10h20); so something is not working right here.

buzz11

snubbleste wrote: »

How many of the cars you saw this morning were single occupancy?

Thats irrelevant, they all pay road tax so are entitled to proper modern traffic management systems.

Its a free country at the moment, when the "anything other than cars" nazi's get into power then the question becomes valid.

snubbleste

buzz11 wrote: »

Thats irrelevant, they all pay road tax so are entitled to proper modern traffic management systems.
Its a free country at the moment, when the "anything other than cars" nazi's get into power then the question becomes valid.

It is not irrelevant at all.

Mrs OBumble

IBTL.

It's relevant in terms of traffic management overall. But it's no more relevant to Briarhill today than it is to any other road or intersection - unless someone knows of a reason around Briarhill which would have caused a change to SOV numbers today?

snubbleste

I went by Briarhill @1700 today and I counted how many vehicles were able to go through turning right to Parkmore. It was around 12 imaginary cars cos only 2 were there

I know on Sundays that all the lights have a mush shorter sequence. Dunno you should really contact the GTU @ City Hall.

Iwannahurl

snubbleste wrote: »

I went by Briarhill @1700 today and I counted how many vehicles were able to go through turning right to Parkmore. It was around 12 imaginary cars cos only 2 were there.

How many of the imaginary cars were single occupant?

snubbleste

Iwannahurl wrote: »

How many of the imaginary cars were single occupant?

All!
But interestingly, the light stayed green imo because of the lengthy traffic coming from Ballybane/TomHogan turning right to Dunnes at the same time.

Iwannahurl

buzz11 wrote: »

Thats irrelevant, they all pay road tax so are entitled to proper modern traffic management systems.

Its a free country at the moment, when the "anything other than cars" nazi's get into power then the question becomes valid.

Actually none of them pays road tax. Neither do you or I, for that matter.

Perhaps when we start paying a Proper Modern Traffic Management Systems tax we will be "entitled" to said PMTMS.

El_Dangeroso

Mrs OBumble wrote: »

The lads I work with were saying that this morning is particularly bad - is that right? Anyone spot why?

A colleague in work said there was an accident apparently. They were coming from Oranmore.

buzz11

The State made at least €3.5bn in taxes alone last year from drivers – but spent just a third of that on roads.


http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/state-spends-just-third-of-tax-on-roads-29622780.html

Cleahaigh

buzz11 wrote: »

The State made at least €3.5bn in taxes alone last year from drivers – but spent just a third of that on roads.


http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/state-spends-just-third-of-tax-on-roads-29622780.html

So? It seems reasonable that a good chunk should be spent on healthcare (due to all the costs associated with injuries and fatalities due to driving) and environmental mitigation measures and so forth.

witnessmenow

So I hit Briarhill much earlier this morning, around 7:15 or so and obviously traffic wasn't too bad, but even still I was waiting to turn right for two light changes (was first in the queue for the 3rd one). Even at that hour there is not enough third lane.

On the light change that I went at the turn right light was green at the same time as the straight through and left, so they obviously still do it sometimes.

Reading back my comment on the survey it sounds snarky, I ment it as a joke. The poster who mentioned it is dead right, people dont car pool enough. Sometimes it just doesn't suit though, There are a couple of people coming up from Athlone where I work but we are on flexi time. They come in early and leave early which suits them, but I need to overlap with the US so I can't leave when they do. There is one case where 3 friends live in the same estate (2 of them together) and they all drive in separately :eek:

antoobrien

witnessmenow wrote: »

Reading back my comment on the survey it sounds snarky, I ment it as a joke. The poster who mentioned it is dead right, people dont car pool enough. Sometimes it just doesn't suit though, There are a couple of people coming up from Athlone where I work but we are on flexi time. They come in early and leave early which suits them, but I need to overlap with the US so I can't leave when they do. There is one case where 3 friends live in the same estate (2 of them together) and they all drive in separately :eek:

Don't bring up stuff like that circumstances aren't relevant to the surveyors.

whatstherush

They changed the light sequence back to having the right turn come on while the straight ahead and left were still on. No third lane of traffic back to the roundabout, and got from roundabout to lights in about 3 min.

Scruff

Here are the email address i've mailed before to complain and have gotten responses on the same day:
<No mail addresses>

It was fairly dire yesterday alright. I normally dont hit Briarhill until around 9:15 so as to avoid traffic but yesterday i joined the queue halfway up the hill to the Martin Roundabout. 20mins later when i got past the motorway roundabout i decided to go straight through the briarhill junction instead of the usual right turn as the queue in the right hand lane was barely moving. I continued on to the next junction no queues at all, turned right to go in to HP then down the slip road back onto the dual carriage way back to Briarhill and as i took the left turn i could still see the truck that had been in front of me still 3/4 way back to the motorway roundabout.

witnessmenow

Hit the roundabout at the Dublin road at about 8/8:15 this morning and although there was plenty of traffic it was moving very well and pretty much flew through. Its great to be back to 45-50 min commute versus 90-100

fish fingers

witnessmenow wrote: »

Hit the roundabout at the Dublin road at about 8/8:15 this morning and although there was plenty of traffic it was moving very well and pretty much flew through. Its great to be back to 45-50 min commute versus 90-100

If you hit it at 8.00 you should be sound. It was vey bad the last day alright, not usually that bad.