more traffic chaos

Hoffmans

Via wcc the chaos they are creating in town is Insane, quays ,dunmore road ardkeen now they have closed arundle sq for a month
Cars having to do u turns outside burger king what will they try next ?

PolaroidPizza

They might try putting a qualified city planner in charge. ...theyve tried pretty much everything else

Wanderer78

you should go to dublin lads, on a friday!

obezyana

Why is it closed?

mooseknunkle

Whats going on down the quay?

Wanderer78

mooseknunkle wrote: »

Whats going on down the quay?

im wondering, are they gonna try put it back the way it was? sounds like theyre getting bored in the office!

deisemum

Talk about timing in the run up to Christmas.

longshanks

Arundel square is closed for Winterval, stalls etc are being set up now.
Quit your balling.

JohnC.

I saw cars doing a u-turn outside Burger King because they drove down there by driving around a Road Closed sign and then were surprised to find the road closed. Idiots gotta idiot.

Max Powers

Kahless wrote: »

I saw cars doing a u-turn outside Burger King because they drove down there by driving around a Road Closed sign and then were surprised to find the road closed. Idiots gotta idiot.

good one. Just one sign, ridiculous...cowboys....I should be able to drive/park wherever I like, bloody council/NRA/Government.

katydid

obezyana wrote: »

Why is it closed?

Winterval, I suppose.

BadCharlie

My friend came back from London has been living there for 15 years. He went via Dublin and said if you think Dublin traffic is bad well come to London.

When he comes to Waterford he just starts laughing.

I know i get p**d off behind the car wheel at times. But we are not having it bad at all.

katydid

BadCharlie wrote: »

My friend came back from London has been living there for 15 years. He went via Dublin and said if you think Dublin traffic is bad well come to London.

When he comes to Waterford he just starts laughing.

I know i get p**d off behind the car wheel at times. But we are not having it bad at all.

In general, he's right. If you think the chaos on Friday was bad, try getting out of London on the M25 on a Friday...

I think though what's getting to people is not the kind of traffic chaos that can't be helped due to high volume, but the fact that in many cases, the problems are deliberately created by people who seem to share one grey cell between them. There was absolutely no need for the chaos last Friday - a four year old child could have told the people in the council that if you reduce traffic from two lanes to one in three directions onto a roundabout where you then take away the inner lane, you are going to cause traffic jams.

The same with the situation on the Quay, which has demonstrably worsened the traffic situation for people trying to get around the city.

This kind of thing shows not just stupidity, but total disregard for the people of Waterford whose taxes pay these people's wages.

Deise Vu

I think people are being a bit harsh here. The experiment was ended early as it clearly wasn't working and I presume the people involved were dubious about it in the first place or there would have been permanent changes from the outset. If someone had asked me how would the roundabout at Ashe Road or the Hospital work, I would have been highly dubious too but they work brilliantly. The configuration at the hospital roundabout actually even stopped rat-running through Viewmount. Sometimes you have to try something new and see how it goes.

Much more lunatic, in my opinion, is the carry-on with parking out at the temporary courthouse on the Tramore Road. Jurors having their cars clamped when they aren't even allowed out to top-up their ticket without a Guard for company. Even a Judge was saying it is ridiculous to expect everyone to pay a full day's parking when the chances are they won't be selected for a jury. I can understand that you can't have free parking in town or it would be abused, but who seriously thinks anyone is parked out by the Half-way for any reason other than genuine court work / duty? Another case of fleecing motorist just because they can.

Max Powers

katydid wrote: »

In general, he's right. If you think the chaos on Friday was bad, try getting out of London on the M25 on a Friday...

I think though what's getting to people is not the kind of traffic chaos that can't be helped due to high volume, but the fact that in many cases, the problems are deliberately created by people who seem to share one grey cell between them. There was absolutely no need for the chaos last Friday - a four year old child could have told the people in the council that if you reduce traffic from two lanes to one in three directions onto a roundabout where you then take away the inner lane, you are going to cause traffic jams.

The same with the situation on the Quay, which has demonstrably worsened the traffic situation for people trying to get around the city.

This kind of thing shows not just stupidity, but total disregard for the people of Waterford whose taxes pay these people's wages.

Don't agree with that, there was always traffic there, even if there is a slight increase in delays it is well worth it IMO to have a much nicer, safer, pedestrian/bike friendlier quay.
We don't have a significant traffic problem in Waterford city, certainly when compared with Dublin/Galway, even the traffic in KK is worse as they don't have real alternatives for avoiding the centre.
As always there is an undercurrent of bitching as a national sport here and people need to come to realisation that driving into the city centre will result in you being slowed down, traffic, stopped for pedestrians etc, recent complaints about a pedestrian crossing highlight the whinginess, if the crossings weren't there the complaints about trying to cross the cork road, manor street etc etc would be rife

katydid

Max Powers wrote: »

Don't agree with that, there was always traffic there, even if there is a slight increase in delays it is well worth it IMO to have a much nicer, safer, pedestrian/bike friendlier quay.
We don't have a significant traffic problem in Waterford city, certainly when compared with Dublin/Galway, even the traffic in KK is worse as they don't have real alternatives for avoiding the centre.
As always there is an undercurrent of bitching as a national sport here and people need to come to realisation that driving into the city centre will result in you being slowed down, traffic, stopped for pedestrians etc, recent complaints about a pedestrian crossing highlight the whinginess, if the crossings weren't there the complaints about trying to cross the cork road, manor street etc etc would be rife

Not better for car drivers who are stuck there at five o'clock on a Wednesday afternoon...

I don't have a problem with sharing the road with pedestrians and cyclists, but I have a problem anywhere they narrow two lanes into one, creating a bottleneck. Unless there is a very fast traffic flow they wish to slow down for safety reasons.

katydid

Deise Vu wrote: »

I think people are being a bit harsh here. The experiment was ended early as it clearly wasn't working and I presume the people involved were dubious about it in the first place or there would have been permanent changes from the outset. If someone had asked me how would the roundabout at Ashe Road or the Hospital work, I would have been highly dubious too but they work brilliantly. The configuration at the hospital roundabout actually even stopped rat-running through Viewmount. Sometimes you have to try something new and see how it goes.
.

It was as clear as the nose on your face that bringing traffic from two lanes to one in three directions onto a roundabout, and getting rid of one lane on the roundabout would not work. You don't need a degree in town planning to work it out.

The configuration at the hospital works because they created an extra lane, not took one away. I was just coming towards the Tesco roundabout from the Williamstown one today, and noted the sign that had gone up not too long ago - a couple of years maybe - announcing the change in lanes to make the filter lane to the left at the Tesco roundabout. It was introduced to ease the flow of traffic, and it worked. Then they wanted to go BACK to one lane. THAT is nuts.

Deise Vu

katydid wrote: »

It was as clear as the nose on your face that bringing traffic from two lanes to one in three directions onto a roundabout, and getting rid of one lane on the roundabout would not work. You don't need a degree in town planning to work it out.

The configuration at the hospital works because they created an extra lane, not took one away. I was just coming towards the Tesco roundabout from the Williamstown one today, and noted the sign that had gone up not too long ago - a couple of years maybe - announcing the change in lanes to make the filter lane to the left at the Tesco roundabout. It was introduced to ease the flow of traffic, and it worked. Then they wanted to go BACK to one lane. THAT is nuts.

Leave my nose out of this!:D
As I understand it the idea was that if traffic was slowed down it might actually clear the roundabout faster as there are many motorists, especially inexperienced and older drivers who are nervous to enter roundabouts when traffic is busy so they end up clogging up the traffic behind them.

I don't know why they picked the Tesco roundabout which seemed to be working fine to me but there should definitely be something done with the Faronshoneen roundabout to slow traffic coming off the Outer Ring Road. Fellas approach that roundabout like its a chicane on the Monte Carlo Grand Prix. There will definitely be a bad accident sooner or later and in the meantime, traffic coming from the Grange side has to approach the roundabout with extreme caution eyeing up some gob****e 50 yards off on the ORR who wants a podium position or bust.

As I said earlier, the planners tried an experiment, it didn't work and they wrapped it up early. I would prefer that they are trying than doing nothing at all.

katydid

Deise Vu wrote: »

Leave my nose out of this!:D
As I understand it the idea was that if traffic was slowed down it might actually clear the roundabout faster as there are many motorists, especially inexperienced and older drivers who are nervous to enter roundabouts when traffic is busy so they end up clogging up the traffic behind them.

I don't know why they picked the Tesco roundabout which seemed to be working fine to me but there should definitely be something done with the Faronshoneen roundabout to slow traffic coming off the Outer Ring Road. Fellas approach that roundabout like its a chicane on the Monte Carlo Grand Prix. There will definitely be a bad accident sooner or later and in the meantime, traffic coming from the Grange side has to approach the roundabout with extreme caution eyeing up some gob****e 50 yards off on the ORR who wants a podium position or bust.

As I said earlier, the planners tried an experiment, it didn't work and they wrapped it up early. I would prefer that they are trying than doing nothing at all.

Ah come off it. You put two lanes into one, get rid of a lane on the roundabout, and think that the occasional nervous driver getting onto the roundabout without dithering will compensate for the build up of traffic? I would rather they did nothing than did something as idiotic.

You mightn't be so blasé if you had to spend twenty minutes getting from Homebase to the KFC roundabout last Friday..

I agree that the Faranshoneen roundabout could certainly be looked at. Traffic lights at the end of the Ring Road, maybe.

kuang1

Is it true that an ambulance attempting to get to the hospital got stuck there on Monday which hastened the abandonment of the 'experiment'?

And btw was there any statement made by WCC about the intention of the experiment?

I'm always saying how much more appeased the public could be if things like this were communicated clearly and deliberately in advance.

thomasm

Wait until these night lights in Ferrybank at the junction from dual carriageway to abbey road are switched on. I suspect traffic will be back to the bridge. It will also become rear end central up that hill

cococoady

They didn't totally take away the new layout out by Tesco tho did they? They made the roundabout itself back to two lanes but the lead up to the roundabout is still brought into one lane from two from all directions. Last time I was out there was Monday night so maybe that's changed since.

wellboytoo

cococoady wrote: »

They didn't totally take away the new layout out by Tesco tho did they? They made the roundabout itself back to two lanes but the lead up to the roundabout is still brought into one lane from two from all directions. Last time I was out there was Monday night so maybe that's changed since.

Back to its original state completely now

Cabaal

katydid wrote: »

Not better for car drivers who are stuck there at five o'clock on a Wednesday afternoon...

I don't have a problem with sharing the road with pedestrians and cyclists, but I have a problem anywhere they narrow two lanes into one, creating a bottleneck. Unless there is a very fast traffic flow they wish to slow down for safety reasons.

I do believe that was one of the reasons why the quays changed though, one of the other reasons was to put off HGV's from entering the city

If you're getting delayed so much going down the quays then why not take the bypass?

katydid

Cabaal wrote: »

I do believe that was one of the reasons why the quays changed though, one of the other reasons was to put off HGV's from entering the city

If you're getting delayed so much going down the quays then why not take the bypass?

Go miles out of my way - out the Cork Road on a busy afternoon, and then pay a toll to get from the city centre to Ferrybank??? I'll take my chance on the Quay.

It's put off HGV's alright. And tourist buses and ordinary commuters.

tonc76

katydid wrote: »

Go miles out of my way - out the Cork Road on a busy afternoon, and then pay a toll to get from the city centre to Ferrybank??? I'll take my chance on the Quay.

It's put off HGV's alright. And tourist buses and ordinary commuters.

If you choose "to take your chance" when there are alternative routes available, and not just the bypass, give up moaning about it.

Wanderer78

katydid wrote: »

Go miles out of my way - out the Cork Road on a busy afternoon, and then pay a toll to get from the city centre to Ferrybank??? I'll take my chance on the Quay.

It's put off HGV's alright. And tourist buses and ordinary commuters.

you gotta love privatisation!

Gael23

Cabaal wrote: »

I do believe that was one of the reasons why the quays changed though, one of the other reasons was to put off HGV's from entering the city

If you're getting delayed so much going down the quays then why not take the bypass?

It was done to force Trucks to use the bypass.
I have made this point before but a day will come where someone will die because of an ambulance not being able to get along they quay to an emergency.

wellboytoo

Gael23 wrote: »

It was done to force Trucks to use the bypass.
I have made this point before but a day will come where someone will die because of an ambulance not being able to get along they quay to an emergency.

A red herring

Squidvicious

thomasm wrote: »

Wait until these night lights in Ferrybank at the junction from dual carriageway to abbey road are switched on. I suspect traffic will be back to the bridge. It will also become rear end central up that hill

To be fair, something needed to be done there. It was getting too hard for traffic to cross that junction to/from Abbey Road. That said, I'd have thought that a roundabout would have worked better. Rumour is that the Council went for lights as they were a cheaper option - don't know if that's true, though.

katydid

tonc76 wrote: »

If you choose "to take your chance" when there are alternative routes available, and not just the bypass, give up moaning about it.

Well, sitting for twenty minutes on the Quay, or sitting for twenty minutes on the Cork Road trying to get out to the Butlerstown roundabout to get over the toll bridge to go BACK to Ferrybank may be an alternatives routes, but hardly a viable one.

Sure, there's the rat run up around Barrack's Stre et, but that's pretty stressful.You shouldn't have to sit in traffic for twenty minutes to go the short route from the Tower to Ferrybank along a straight road.

wellboytoo

katydid wrote: »

Well, sitting for twenty minutes on the Quay, or sitting for twenty minutes on the Cork Road trying to get out to the Butlerstown roundabout to get over the toll bridge to go BACK to Ferrybank may be an alternatives routes, but hardly a viable one.

Sure, there's the rat run up around Barrack's Stre et, but that's pretty stressful.You shouldn't have to sit in traffic for twenty minutes to go the short route from the Tower to Ferrybank along a straight road.

So what you want and a lot of people who are in the same camp as you is a racetrack down the Quays so you can do 60kph to your destination and damn the fact it is through the Centre of our City.!

lassykk

wellboytoo wrote: »

A red herring

This is not a red herring. The people who want to shout from the rooftops about how great the quay looks these days would like us all to believe this.

I travel the quay quite a bit and more than once I've been stuck in traffic and an ambulance comes around the corner at the Reg and can go absolutely no where. Sirens blaring but no where to go because we have to have the place looking nice.

It was by no means perfect when there were two lanes but at least there was some hope for the emergency services to get through then

tonc76

katydid wrote: »

Well, sitting for twenty minutes on the Quay, or sitting for twenty minutes on the Cork Road trying to get out to the Butlerstown roundabout to get over the toll bridge to go BACK to Ferrybank may be an alternatives routes, but hardly a viable one.

Sure, there's the rat run up around Barrack's Street, but that's pretty stressful.You shouldn't have to sit in traffic for twenty minutes to go the short route from the Tower to Ferrybank along a straight road.

Preferred route and alternatives with no need to go near the bypass. Trip starts at Viewmount so bypass could be an option.

I take it that the stress of going up around Barrack St. is worse than the stress of wasting 20 mins on the quay??

wellboytoo

lassykk wrote: »

This post has been deleted.

It is a red herring, you can make the same assertion about O Connell street manor street or any other narrow street, the same thing can happen, the bottom line is the Quays look a million times better than they did , are much safer for we the people on foot, and the traffic management is infinitely better ie, the roundabouts have all but eliminated right turns. What you call stuck in traffic and what someone on the M50 call stuck in traffic are vastly different,

lassykk

wellboytoo wrote: »

It is a red herring, you can make the same assertion about O Connell street manor street or any other narrow street, the same thing can happen, the bottom line is the Quays look a million times better than they did , are much safer for we the people on foot, and the traffic management is infinitely better ie, the roundabouts have all but eliminated right turns. What you call stuck in traffic and what someone on the M50 call stuck in traffic are vastly different,

You aren't comparing like with like at all. O'Connell Street or Manor Street are not the main route that an ambulance would be taking unless they were attending somewhere in close proximity to those streets. An ambulance would have little or no reason to be on these streets regularly. Also, I assume Manor Street is a reference to a future development as it has been single lane as long as I can remember.

There is a vast area covered the ambulance service that requires using the quay as the primary route (anywhere across the bridge). In the past this route was clearly better for that purpose (2 lanes versus 1) than it is now. That is my argument here and I don't think it can be denied or claimed as a red herring.

For what it's worth, my primary route to and from work has been improved since the new layout has come into place so I'm not arguing about the traffic situation. I do see it every morning and I'm grateful I don't have to go out to the Dunmore Road every single day any more but that wasn't the point of my issue with the new layout.

JohnC.

lassykk wrote: »

This post has been deleted.

They can still get through if drivers are awake. I drive that road every day I work. There are always people parking here and there along the cycle lane. They don't stop traffic passing. If an ambulance is coming, drivers can also pull over for a few seconds and the ambulance will have no problem passing, just like everyone else is able to get past illegally parked cars. There is room there.

katydid

tonc76 wrote: »

Preferred route and alternatives with no need to go near the bypass. Trip starts at Viewmount so bypass could be an option.

I take it that the stress of going up around Barrack St. is worse than the stress of wasting 20 mins on the quay??

Why would you start at Viewmount? I'm talking about going from the city centre to Ferrybank. I'd hardly go via Viewmount!

Look, the bottom line is we have a long straight road that takes you directly from one end of the town to the other. It should take a few minutes to drive along. It's wide enough for two lanes each way, to ease the flow of traffic. Instead of enforcing the use of the two lanes - i.e. ticketing and towing cars parked in the inside lane - they narrowed the lanes to one in several places. When you narrow two lanes to one, you create a bottleneck. A bottleneck causes traffic jams and a journey of three minutes can take twenty.

WHY?

katydid

wellboytoo wrote: »

So what you want and a lot of people who are in the same camp as you is a racetrack down the Quays so you can do 60kph to your destination and damn the fact it is through the Centre of our City.!

My destination IS the centre of the city. And I have no interest in using the Quay as a racetrack, simply of driving along at normal speed. I often drive it on a Sunday morning, and even with the nonsensical roundabout, it takes about five minutes. When traffic is busy, where there were once two lanes, there is now one. So the traffic in the two lanes is now doubled up into one, causing a bottleneck.

It's hardly rocket science to work out that two into one goes very slowly.

wellboytoo

katydid wrote: »

It's hardly rocket science to work out that two into one goes very slowly.

That was the whole point!

katydid

wellboytoo wrote: »

That was the whole point!

To cause traffic jams? That makes sense. They seem determined to bring Waterford city to its knees. Between sky high rates for businesses, and traffic jams, ridiculous parking prices they're doing a great job.

deisemum

wellboytoo wrote: »

It is a red herring, you can make the same assertion about O Connell street manor street or any other narrow street, the same thing can happen, the bottom line is the Quays look a million times better than they did , are much safer for we the people on foot, and the traffic management is infinitely better ie, the roundabouts have all but eliminated right turns. What you call stuck in traffic and what someone on the M50 call stuck in traffic are vastly different,

I think the Quay is actually more dangerous for pedestrians now because there are a hell of a lot more pedestrians taking chances and darting across the road away from pedestrian crossings and lights than there were before the work on the Quay started.

JohnC.

So it's not the Quay which is more dangerous to them, but themselves.

comeraghs

I think The Quay is hugely improved from the chaos that it was for several years in the noughties.

There is a lot more traffic on the roads these days than there was 20 or 30 years ago so comparisons to the 70's & 80's & blaming the council make no sense.

The 'CELTIC TIGER' era traffic was worse than now and the speeds some tools were doing through a busy city were ridiculous, The round-a-bouts have made it much safer for all.

wellboytoo

katydid wrote: »

To cause traffic jams? That makes sense. They seem determined to bring Waterford city to its knees. Between sky high rates for businesses, and traffic jams, ridiculous parking prices they're doing a great job.

You're being disengenuous now the verb was slowly, it was done to slow traffic down ,not create traffic jams as well you know

dzilla

Mmmmm jam

Max Powers

deisemum wrote: »

I think the Quay is actually more dangerous for pedestrians now because there are a hell of a lot more pedestrians taking chances and darting across the road away from pedestrian crossings and lights than there were before the work on the Quay started.

Id say you wrong in fairness; slower traffic speed, more crossing points, less cars swerving from lane to lane, less trucks, a central median, it all points to a lot safer.

Max Powers

lassykk wrote: »

This post has been deleted.

this tripe again, the ambulance service was considered in new road design, im pretty sure an ambulance driver was even on this forum or in the paper saying that the new layout does not lead to additional delays when compared before. There was always traffic on the quays which may have caused ambulances to slow down. we have been over and over this with some ridiculous suggestions about a special lane down thru the car parks for ambulances being suggested incredibly.The whingers cant decide what to whine about because they havent realised that in a city centre, there is a good chance you will get caught in what even in Irish terms is not major delays.
Can we add ambulance delays to the 'too many poles' arguement about the quays.

PolaroidPizza

Max Powers wrote: »

this tripe again, the ambulance service was considered in new road design, im pretty sure an ambulance driver was even on this forum or in the paper saying that the new layout does not lead to additional delays when compared before. There was always traffic on the quays which may have caused ambulances to slow down. we have been over and over this with some ridiculous suggestions about a special lane down thru the car parks for ambulances being suggested incredibly.The whingers cant decide what to whine about because they havent realised that in a city centre, there is a good chance you will get caught in what even in Irish terms is not major delays.
Can we add ambulance delays to the 'too many poles' arguement about the quays.

if they put half the money it has cost doing up the quays into removing tolls from the bridge, they would have removed most of the traffic without all the mess.

obezyana

PolaroidPizza wrote: »

if they put half the money it has cost doing up the quays into removing tolls from the bridge, they would have removed most of the traffic without all the mess.

The thing is tho if the bypass wasn't a toll it wouldn't of been built and then people would be whinging about that. I don't agree with the toll but it's just the way it is.

Personally I think it's the traffic lights by the tower that's causing delays. I'm travelling it 5 days a week each morning when it is busy and the Quay moves until it gets to near the tower hotel. It backs up from there towards the WCFE then it's fine.

From the park side again the lights at the tower mess things up so it seems like the quays are jammed.

deisemum

Max Powers wrote: »

Id say you wrong in fairness; slower traffic speed, more crossing points, less cars swerving from lane to lane, less trucks, a central median, it all points to a lot safer.

It's been my experience that there are more people darting across the road and not at the crossings. It's because of the points you've posted that more people are chancing it.