Junction of Claremount & Cork Rd (at Waterford Crystal site)

Baby4

This post has been deleted.

StringerBell

The entire Cork road from McDonalds to past WIT is a joke these days thanks in large part to the recent pedestrian lights added, about 50 yards from a busy roundabout. You can be stuck on the roundabout with drivers cutting and swerving all around you at school times and end of work day traffic

eagerv

I can never understand why many of the traffic lights in town go through the pedestrian sequence even when nobody has pressed the button..

Squidvicious

I think that pedestrian lights are a problem all over town. You've got serious problems on the Dunmore Road with traffic and I suspect that a lot of the problems are caused by the pedestrian lights just before and after the hospital. Similarly, the ones on the part of the Quay near the Tower Hotel and on Parnell Street cause delays. Now, you might say, what's the problem? They only hold up people in cars by only 30 seconds or so. However, as Stringerbell points out, this can gum up other junctions and roundabouts leading to long tailbacks. I don't advocate getting rid of pedestrian lights necessarily. However, they stay green for pedestrians for far too long. Pedestrians could walk back and forth several times in most cases before the lights would change. Give the pedestrians less time to cross - fine for most of us. Then leave it flash amber for older or slower pedestrians but allowing cars to move off if the junction's clear. It won't solve all the problems but it'd certainly help.

crazyman

Another option would to remove the traffic lights and put in flashing yellow lights, similar to those outside humdingers on the Dunmore Road, with a central median for pedestrians to stop half way. This way the traffic would only be held up momentarily while the pedestrian(s) cross that half of the road.

Deise Vu

Squidvicious wrote: »

I think that pedestrian lights are a problem all over town. You've got serious problems on the Dunmore Road with traffic and I suspect that a lot of the problems are caused by the pedestrian lights just before and after the hospital. Similarly, the ones on the part of the Quay near the Tower Hotel and on Parnell Street cause delays. Now, you might say, what's the problem? They only hold up people in cars by only 30 seconds or so. However, as Stringerbell points out, this can gum up other junctions and roundabouts leading to long tailbacks. I don't advocate getting rid of pedestrian lights necessarily. However, they stay green for pedestrians for far too long. Pedestrians could walk back and forth several times in most cases before the lights would change. Give the pedestrians less time to cross - fine for most of us. Then leave it flash amber for older or slower pedestrians but allowing cars to move off if the junction's clear. It won't solve all the problems but it'd certainly help.

Anything you need to know about traffic planning is contained in one sentence uttered by Owen Keegan when he was in charge of Dublin traffic, something on the lines of: "Anyone who thinks we will speed up traffic in Dublin needs their head examined". Even for an untouchable public servant you would imagine he would be bounced out of his job immediately after that statement. He wasn't, he is now CEO of Dublin City Council.

It would be take intricate forward planning to design road networks that work better. It is so much easier instead for our city planners to work to the Keegan mantra and justify making a hames of every project that slows traffic on the grounds of making cities more pedestrian friendly. That fact that less and less pedestrians come into the city every year is irrelevant. Apparently what works for New York or Paris will work in a small provincial town too.

It all might be a bit more palatable if it wasn't the case that every second car in Bolton Street car park didn't have a city council employee sticker on it and, whenever there is something like the harvest festival on, they didn't completely reserve the overflow car park for themselves (on a weekend!!!).

Four legs good, two legs bad. Learn to live with it lads, it ain't gonna get any better.

reni10

The pedestrian lights on the Dunmore road cause all types of tailbacks at peak times. They need to all function with green for a few seconds and then flashing to amber for some more time, this simple change of sequence would certainly speed things up.

Also the lights need to work in sequence so that if the lights at Powerscourt are Red then the lights are Ballinakill are red at the same time so you don't have the current ridiculous situation of you have a tailback to the Powerscourt lights when that is red and then you move through to the Ballinakill lights and that then turns red so you are held up twice!
Just sequence the lights properly, surely in this day and age someone can program a few traffic lights!

gscully

All you have to do is look at the new pedestrian crossing at the Superquinn/Supervalu roundabout on the IRR to see how stupid the traffic planners are in this city.

While I'm at it, why are these lights programmed to stay on red until ready for green? Why is there no flashing amber to allow traffic to proceed with caution like there is opposite Kelly & Dollard?

Trick of the Tail

Yet more evidence, if it were needed, of the incompetence and ineptitude of the traffic planners in Waterford.

I imagine this team of imbeciles is headed by a cardigan-wearing, bearded civil servant who cycles to work and dreams of a utopian city where evil cars and banned and everyone cycles everywhere.

Obviously with their shopping slung over the handlebars.

There is a distinct lack of expertise and realism in the unelected idiots that determine planning and traffic management in Waterford.

Wanderer78

wait till we get our flying cars. they ll be fooked then!

Max Powers

crazyman wrote: »

Another option would to remove the traffic lights and put in flashing yellow lights, similar to those outside humdingers on the Dunmore Road, with a central median for pedestrians to stop half way. This way the traffic would only be held up momentarily while the pedestrian(s) cross that half of the road.

I wouldn't think the flashing lights is an option as Irish drivers seem either thick or ignorant when it comes to stopping for people at those.
I think a lot of these complaints about green man being on automatically when it should only be on after its pressed are indeed malfunctions of some sort with the lights that need and do be fixed. I also think the general theme is complaining about being slowed in your car, so what if there is a pedestrian crossing right after the lights near the old glass/ballybeg, thousands of people use those to cross the road everyday, its a residential area, building a bridge is not an option due to costs, suitability etc. A lot of this boils down to, you are driving in the city or suburbs, you will/should be taking it handy and should be stopped for pedestrians to cross.

Baby4

This post has been deleted.

Wanderer78

i think the whole ring road area is showing signs of very poor planning. many of the exit and entrances to businesses and facilities in that area are very poorly planned. surely theres better options out there? i think many of the exits and entrances are way too close to the roundabouts.