New Road Layout by Westwood Hotel

deisedude

The council are idiots. They change the road layout by the Westwood Hotel and have no signs in advance warning its a new layout. Half the drivers are observing the old lanes and half are observing the new lanes. I guarantee there is going to be a crash in the next few days because of this

Edit: I've emailed the council about this

GerardKeating

deisedude wrote: »

The council are idiots. They change the road layout by the Westwood Hotel and have no signs in advance warning its a new layout. Half the drivers are observing the old lanes and half are observing the new lanes. I guarantee there is going to be a crash in the next few days because of this

Noticed this yesterday, maybe they might put a sign up when they finished.

Mars Bar

What's the new layout?

deisedude

Mars Bar wrote: »

What's the new layout?

Its the road straight opposite the entrance to the business park.

Left lane is now exclusively for going Moycullen direction
There is a small middle lane which I assume is for bikes but it doesn't have a bike icon
Right lane is now for going straight into the business park or turning right

biko

Coming from the city the left lane was always left turn or straight on, and the right lane only for business park, no?

Zzippy

biko wrote: »

Coming from the city the left lane was always left turn or straight on, and the right lane only for business park, no?

Think he means coming from the hospital direction on N59 (along the side of the Westwood and going straight on would bring you into the business park), not from Upper Newcastle Rd

Mars Bar

Yeah he means coming from the roundabout turning left to Dangan I think

deisedude

biko wrote: »

Coming from the city the left lane was always left turn or straight on, and the right lane only for business park, no?

Coming from the Brown roundabout. Its still the same from the city direction

Baggy Trousers

The narrow middle lane is a weird one. No arrow or marking at all.

I did hear the road widening there was for the massive wind turbine trucks to be able to turn.

deisedude

Still no signs this morning warning motorists of the new road layout. Got an email from the council saying they have forwarded the query to someone in transport so typical passing of the buck.

Council couldn't even paint the road right. The far right lane that was pointing straight no longer is.

Motorists are unbelievably confused. While driving in to the business park today a car in all 3 lanes tried driving straight in to the business park. Its an absolute fcuking joke!

Intifada

Thomas Hynes Road is the name yeer looking for lads...

Baggy Trousers

deisedude wrote: »

Still no signs this morning warning motorists of the new road layout. Got an email from the council saying they have forwarded the query to someone in transport so typical passing of the buck.

Council couldn't even paint the road right. The far right lane that was pointing straight no longer is.

Motorists are unbelievably confused. While driving in to the business park today a car in all 3 lanes tried driving straight in to the business park. Its an absolute fcuking joke!

The far right lane is pointing straight but also has a right arrow.
The lane in the middle is wide enough that motorists think it might be for cars. It probably was intended for cyclists.
It is a screw-up and the people painting it must have recognised that.

D Trent

<Keep it on this intersection only>

biko

Sorry for stepping up the strictness but in the interest of keeping this on track, stick with this intersection only afore we have yet another general complaining about traffic thread...

deisedude

Changed again now!!!

The left lane is now for turning towards Moycullen or going straight into the Business Park
The Middle Lane is still a mystery!!!
The right lane is only for turning right

Seems to me they completely messed up when painting the road markings

what_traffic

Any photos?

Sniipe

deisedude wrote: »

Changed again now!!!

The left lane is now for turning towards Moycullen or going straight into the Business Park
The Middle Lane is still a mystery!!!
The right lane is only for turning right

Seems to me they completely messed up when painting the road markings

I saw them altering the arrows as you pointed out deisedude. I'll try and snap a shot on the way home. The middle lane is very odd - I've never seen a road marking that size before. Its good for me going straight normally as it is combined with right. Seeing as they only just finished widening the road its disappointing that it is not 100%. The lights still have bags over the new ones...

what_traffic

Sniipe wrote: »

I saw them altering the arrows as you pointed out deisedude. I'll try and snap a shot on the way home. The middle lane is very odd - I've never seen a road marking that size before. Its good for me going straight normally as it is combined with right. Seeing as they only just finished widening the road its disappointing that it is not 100%. The lights still have bags over the new ones...

What are the length of the lanes?
Hopefully this middle lane is a cycle lane - otherwise would have cyclists inside left turning traffic.

westgolf

what_traffic wrote: »

What are the length of the lanes?
Hopefully this middle lane is a cycle lane - otherwise would have cyclists inside left turning traffic.

Might be something like the central cycle reservation at the exit from mcdonalds/dunnes in westside ?

Baggy Trousers

The road markings are now back to the original arrows. The middle lane is confusing and seems to extend well past the lights. They don't seem to have thought this through at all. People coming from Moycullen have a more awkward right turn.

Sniipe

Not the best shots in the world, but they give you a gist...


and

Zzippy

Could the central "lane" be to facilitate left-turnng HGVs with a large turning circle, so they don't swing into the right-turning lane onto traffic there?

Sniipe

Zzippy wrote: »

Could the central "lane" be to facilitate left-turnng HGVs with a large turning circle, so they don't swing into the right-turning lane onto traffic there?

That is the intention. The road was probably built by the company looking to use the road for the wind turbines.

what_traffic

any updates? any further road paintings?

Sniipe

what_traffic wrote: »

any updates? any further road paintings?

Nothing new. It does seem to be for bikes only. The middle lane extends out about 3 meters in front of the other two lanes...

what_traffic

Sniipe wrote: »

Nothing new. It does seem to be for bikes only. The middle lane extends out about 3 meters in front of the other two lanes...

It is perhaps a bike lane - but very much doubt the junction was changed for that reason. Is the wind turbine theory the most obvious reason for the change?

what_traffic

Any changes to this junction in the past month?

boardzz

Would it not be for cars going straight into IDA park.

snubbleste

Contact roads @ galwaycity.ie for a definitive answer

Sniipe

snubbleste wrote: »

Contact roads @ galwaycity.ie for a definitive answer

ha, I just did that 2 min ago. I sent them this picture


I think its too small for cars 3 abreast...

what_traffic

boardzz wrote: »

Would it not be for cars going straight into IDA park.

Its only about 2.8m wide - too narrow for a standard motor vehicle lane. Just wondering had any NEW line painting been done on the junction? Westbound on Thomas Hynes Rd the markings show a lane (not marked as a cycle lane) ending at the footpath. It is all very strange.

Sniipe

I got word back from someone in the transportation department and have been told that it is for cyclists only as a right turn lane and that it is currently incomplete as it is awaiting colouring and symbols when weather also permits.

Sniipe

They have 2 sets of traffic lights there for a while also... I wonder when they will be sorted...

deisedude

You are wasting your time emailing the council for an answer. I emailed them twice and they passed the buck on to someone else.

Surprised there hasn't been a crash yet to be honest

Sniipe

deisedude wrote: »

You are wasting your time emailing the council for an answer. I emailed them twice and they passed the buck on to someone else.

Surprised there hasn't been a crash yet to be honest

Sure I got an answer... I don't feel it was a waste of time.

what_traffic

Sniipe wrote: »

I got word back from someone in the transportation department and have been told that it is for cyclists only as a right turn lane and that it is currently incomplete as it is awaiting colouring and symbols when weather also permits.

Did they mention the other "proposed cycle lane" I guess now that is on the opposite side of the road. It's a mess - stops at the footpath. As this is the N59 do the NTA not have standards to maintain when it comes to design?

Sniipe

no mention of anything else. I guess they are holding onto that one as a happy surprise ...

GerardKeating

boardzz wrote: »

Would it not be for cars going straight into IDA park.

Nope, the left most lane is clearly marked for this, and the right most lane is clearly marked for a right turn.

I have seen cars in the "middle" lane indicating right, this is prime for an accident.

They are in the process of installing new lights, I kind of assume when the new lights are fully commissioned, they will finish painting the junction, Perhaps someone more is to change, the requires the "new" lights.

GerardKeating

Sniipe wrote: »

I got word back from someone in the transportation department and have been told that it is for cyclists only as a right turn lane and that it is currently incomplete as it is awaiting colouring and symbols when weather also permits.

What "kind" of weather are they waiting for? It's been there a few weeks now, and we had all sorts of weather, cept snow.

Mars Bar

They were putting in a cycle lane on the side going towards Westside on the Thomas Hynes Road on Friday. The lane for the cars looks extremely narrow now.

GerardKeating

Mars Bar wrote: »

They were putting in a cycle lane on the side going towards Westside on the Thomas Hynes Road on Friday. The lane for the cars looks extremely narrow now.

Any sign of work on the middle lane?

Mars Bar

No, not at the time. I don't see how they can keep that middle lane so wide when the westside bound side is so narrow!

Maybe it's fine it just didn't look fine when I was sitting in the car.

D Trent

GerardKeating wrote: »

Any sign of work on the middle lane?

Yes middle lane is now that burnt orange colour for cyclists with vehicle lanes either side of it.

Cyclist only stopping area is also burnt orange in front of vehicles' stop line

Sniipe

I took a photo on Friday

huggs2

Maybe they will turn on the new lights now.They were fitted some months back and it's been work done in dribs and drabs ever since.

galwaycyclist

I took pictures this morning and this looks pretty horrific. A classic example of the city council making cyclists the meat in the sandwich.







It looks as if the intent of this "cycle lane" is to help motorists overtake cyclists while at one and the same time pushing cyclists into a very obvious hazard in the form of a build out.

It would seem the intent of the designers is to encourage motorists to drive right up beside cyclists who normally would be expected to be pulling out around an obstacle.

Classic case of roads engineers using cycle lanes to remove priority from cyclists and reduce safety.

snubbleste

They removed a huge chunk of the footpath to facilitate a bike path. Do they have plans to remove the rest

The whole junction looks a mess now.