Galway traffic

Dempsey

When I first moved up to Galway I couldnt get over how slow people are to move off at lights. 4 years later, it still bewilders me how much congestion is caused by this. Is it that hard for people to watch the light sequence and be ready to go and move off quickly??

Am I the only one that notices this?

Green Peter

Did you not know all Galway people are colour blind!

ANDREWMUFC

I was in Galway 3 months ago and noticed this. Anywhere else in the country and here in Dublin people move as soon as the lights turn green

fergiesfolly

I've taken to giving the car horn a quick blast to wake them up. The BriarHill junction is a particular bugbear of mine. They seem bewildered by the junction and too afraid to enter it.
Has to be said though, the timings of lights changing on some junctions is too quick and doesn't let enough cars through.

topcat77

I've also noticed this and all I can think of is three possible reasons.

1. Mobile phones

2. Fear of insurance fraud (whiplash fraudsters).

3. Just stupid

demanufactured

fergiesfolly wrote: »

I've taken to giving the car horn a quick blast to wake them up. The BriarHill junction is a particular bugbear of mine. They seem bewildered by the junction and too afraid to enter it.
Has to be said though, the timings of lights changing on some junctions is too quick and doesn't let enough cars through.

I'm usually hammering it through there so I feel your pain..

Stoolbend

The biggest problem with Galway is people bombing through the lights 4 or 5 seconds after they've gone red.

You'd get t-boned if you reacted to a green light at the headford road shopping centre.

TheAnalyst_

Galway honestly has some of the worst traffic in the world and I've lived and travelled to a lot of places.

demanufactured

Kirwin Roundabout is a joke.

biko

Driving into town today, almost got hit three times by idiots drifting into my lane or pulling out into traffic without looking

Doltanian

There is incredibly slow reaction times to traffic lights here and at roundabouts too. I blame VRT special Paddy spec cars with Manual gearboxes whereas in an Autobox you just gun the accelerator and go.

Tilikum17

Roundabouts (Tirellan) - people in the wrong lane. Every ****ing day

Reventon93

biko wrote: »

Driving into town today, almost got hit three times by idiots drifting into my lane or pulling out into traffic without looking

This!
Today i had a newer skoda casually drift into my lane on top of me. And showed no reaction to me even though i was carrying on as notmal. You'd swear they were going into a clear lane.

And the sad thing is that this is pretty daily. People have no idea how to drive properly.

CiniO

Stoolbend wrote: »

The biggest problem with Galway is people bombing through the lights 4 or 5 seconds after they've gone red.

You'd get t-boned if you reacted to a green light at the headford road shopping centre.

You mean something like that:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0iiYKxWQI0

Stoolbend

CiniO wrote: »

You mean something like that:

All day long.

Considering their light would have gone red 3 to 5 seconds before yours went green it's just crazy how bad it is.

Supergurrier

I drive around galway most days in a big box body van for a furniture business based in the city and i do be at my wits end at times. Some people are borderline suicidal.

Only last week i had a cyclist go inside me as i merged down the hill from ballybane industrial estate as i indicated so with no reflective gear or lights in the dark of 5pm evening tell me to watch what i was at. Have some self awareness for gods sake im not omnipotent.

Bazzy

Everything works in galway at a slower pace

accept it and it'll get easier in fact embrace it and you'll enjoy it

I live in rural Galway went to get something in the shop down the road yesterday 3 hours later came back one of the neighbours was running a duct and I stopped to help 5 of us there in total in the end it's just the way it goes

Irish_rat

Bazzy wrote: »

I live in rural Galway went to get something in the shop down the road yesterday 3 hours later came back one of the neighbours was running a duct and I stopped to help 5 of us there in total in the end it's just the way it goes

Cool story bro.

nice_guy80

far too many junctions
I cannot understand why the junctions at Briarhill, Tuam Road and end of Bothar na dtreabh weren't done as flyovers
government are afraid to put the road to the west side into a tunnel due to costs - just get it built

Your Face

Stoolbend wrote: »

The biggest problem with Galway is people bombing through the lights 4 or 5 seconds after they've gone red.

You'd get t-boned if you reacted to a green light at the headford road shopping centre.

Fact

demanufactured

Bazzy wrote: »

Everything works in galway at a slower pace

accept it and it'll get easier in fact embrace it and you'll enjoy it

I live in rural Galway went to get something in the shop down the road yesterday 3 hours later came back one of the neighbours was running a duct and I stopped to help 5 of us there in total in the end it's just the way it goes

Nothing to do with driving.

joeKel73

Tilikum17 wrote: »

Roundabouts (Tirellan) - people in the wrong lane. Every ****ing day

Every time.

I can't tell if Galway drivers have no idea how to use roundabouts or just don't care.

Any time I beep someone in a wrong lane that nearly causes an accident they always seem annoyed and confused with a "but I use this lane every day" look.

Would love to put up signs at each roundabout entry for a month showing where each lane should be going.

Your Face

J o e wrote: »

Every time.

I can't tell if Galway drivers have no idea how to use roundabouts or just don't care.

Any time I beep someone in a wrong lane that nearly causes an accident they always seem annoyed and confused with a "but I use this lane every day" look.

Would love to put up signs at each roundabout entry for a month showing where each lane should be going.

Beeping at people on a roundabout doesn't sound too safe either.

Bazzy

demanufactured wrote: »

Nothing to do with driving.

It is it's to do with the attitude of the natives

Unlike Dublin and some other big cities there not in a rush rush rush everywhere

TheAnalyst_

Bazzy wrote: »

demanufactured wrote: »

Nothing to do with driving.

It is it's to do with the attitude of the natives

Unlike Dublin and some other big cities there not in a rush rush rush everywhere

They don't actually have a choice.

joeKel73

Your Face wrote: »

Beeping at people on a roundabout doesn't sound too safe either.

Perhaps I should be more receptive to getting side swiped by cars unexpectedly cutting across me or blocking my exit by taking all routes on the outside lane.

Your Face

J o e wrote: »

Perhaps I should be more receptive to getting side swiped by cars unexpectedly cutting across me or blocking my exit by taking all routes on the outside lane.

No, youre mistaken.
I never said you should be receptive to getting hurt.

Im pointing out that beeping someone will in many cases exacerbate the situation.

Nate--IRL--

Beeping will alert somebody to your presence, that they weren't aware of before. If they can't pay attention to the rules of the road and be aware of their surroundings, that they have to be beeped to prevent a collision, they should not be on the road.

Nate

demanufactured

Bazzy wrote: »

It is it's to do with the attitude of the natives

Unlike Dublin and some other big cities there not in a rush rush rush everywhere

Well there is actually... People have to get to work on time....

Bazzy

demanufactured wrote: »

Well there is actually... People have to get to work on time....

Yes and if the journey takes a certain amount of time you leave yourself that much time 2 or 3 seconds at 10 sets of lights will cost you less than a minute

if you beep you will get yourself stressed and worked up and it will do no good wait the couple of seconds

Stoolbend

2 or 3 seconds costs space. Space for more cars to get in front of you. You could miss a green light and have to sit through a full 6 minute cycle of lights where more cars get in front of you.

We should have red/amber before green like the UK.
People wouldn't be as quick to go through red if they thought the other car actually move on green.

topcat77

I say it won't be too long until cameras will be located at all traffic light junctions as in the uk. It will be a revenue source but also enforcement of driving laws. Entry into yellow boxes when exit is not clear, speeding and jumping lights will all result in fines and points. Personally I can't wait.

demanufactured

topcat77 wrote: »

I say it won't be too long until cameras will be located at all traffic light junctions as in the uk. It will be a revenue source but also enforcement of driving laws. Entry into yellow boxes when exit is not clear, speeding and jumping lights will all result in fines and points. Personally I can't wait.

Yep, the gobshytes will be brought down to earth when they are told their driving is not up to standard.

Dempsey

Stoolbend wrote: »

2 or 3 seconds costs space. Space for more cars to get in front of you. You could miss a green light and have to sit through a full 6 minute cycle of lights where more cars get in front of you.

We should have red/amber before green like the UK.
People wouldn't be as quick to go through red if they thought the other car actually move on green.

Such a simple thing, I dont know why it isnt implemented here

Dont get me started on cyclists....

mad-for-tar

Dempsey wrote: »

Stoolbend wrote: »

We should have red/amber before green like the UK.
People wouldn't be as quick to go through red if they thought the other car actually move on green.

Such a simple thing, I dont know why it isnt implemented here

Couldn’t agree more with this. Spent guts of 13 years living and working in UK where I found it worked well. I’m now back in rural Ireland, my current job sees me in and out of Galway most days of the week and have to agree with comments in general on this topic.

It’s like it comes as a huge shock to those waiting at the lights when they do turn green and then pull away at a pace like they are recovering from the shock of what just happened. Can be very frustrating and no wonder there’s those who jump the reds or floor it at the last second to avoid getting caught up in the next batch to get away from the lights.

Hard to know how to fix the problem, I guess driver education could be brought into it and awareness of the environment around you in such a situation. Learned many tips and tricks during my artic licence training a few years back and one was anticipation at traffic lights, watching the sequences including pedestrian lights and preparing yourself for a take off manoeuvre once they turned green in your favour. I guess also the modern smartphone hasn’t helped a lot with keeping awareness of your driving environment and some of these modern vehicles now with the equivalent of 2 ipads (exaggeration!) built into the dashboards causing many driver distractions on a daily basis.

Dempsey

When I was doing driving lessons, I was taught to watch the other lights to be ready to move. I assumed that everyone was taught this??

If future, I'm just going to smash the horn tbh

CiniO

Dempsey wrote: »

When I was doing driving lessons, I was taught to watch the other lights to be ready to move. I assumed that everyone was taught this??

If future, I'm just going to smash the horn tbh

I think that's a very brave assumption, considering vast majority of drivers in this country never got any driving lessons.

Bazzy

CiniO wrote: »

I think that's a very brave assumption, considering vast majority of drivers in this country never got any driving lessons.

Some on the road didnt have to do a test never mind lessons!!!

Craftylee

Bazzy wrote: »

Some on the road didnt have to do a test never mind lessons!!!

That would explain why most people don't understand what a yellow box is here... So painful

There either ignored completely, or people don't understand you can drive into them if turning right and you aren't blocking anyone else's right of way.

Wombatman

People get fed up stuck in traffic for so long and start to do dumb things.



http://www.thejournal.ie/galway-bad-traffic-2-3725966-Nov2017/

Outer ring badly needed. Light rail would be a nightmare.

frozenfrozen

I could not agree more about the Galway red light jumpers, every single red light bar none you see at least one person go through a proper red.

When I go through an amber there could be 5 cars behind me go through the red. If you were to stop on an amber there would be a pileup.

A few weeks ago I saw someone just slowly keep moving at the red light and drive the whole way through the junction at about 5km/h... they just never stopped for the red

Fieldsman

The reason drivers wait a while after the lights turn green is they expect the lights will turn a 'bit greener'. Seriously I'd hope the guards would fit a camera at the Menlo Park roundabout to catch drivers who enter on the left lane and then travel around to the third 3rd exit because there's less traffic on that lane.

JoeA3

The traffic in Galway is a bane for us all here... it's probably edging ahead of the weather in terms of "smalltalk" hot topics.

We used to have more roundabouts than cars at one point but gradually they've been going back to the future and replacing roundabouts with complex traffic light junctions. The infamous magic roundabout is long gone now.

I don't believe the drivers here are any worse than anywhere else. It's the constant gridlock that just drives people to take stupid chances, but that happens everywhere. The root of the problem is chronic bad planning and general ineptitude from the powers that be. We now have 2 major motorways funnelling into a single roundabout on the outskirts of the city. So it's gridlock from that roundabout right across the city every morning and the opposite in the evenings. The long talked about outer city bypass / new bridge is stuck in a never ending groundhog day of planning deadlock... until that happens (if ever), I don't see things changing much. Talk of a Galway style "LUAS" operation is total pie in the sky thinking too imo.

And as someone else mentioned, a lot of the junctions are very close together. You get past one set of lights / roundabout and within 30 yards you're at another. And while they've replaced several roundabouts with lights, a few roundabouts are still there and they just can't cope with the volume of traffic coming into them. The one at Cemetery Cross / Bohermore and the aforementioned one in Menlo spring to mind. Maybe when those finally get replaced with lights it will help a tad.

phelant

Bad Planning has a lot to do with it. One that always amazes me is the new entrance the university meters from the main thoroughfare (possibly only viable) through the city, the N6/N59 junction at the topaz.

Consequently, cars back up onto the quin-centenary bridge when the lights go red at the university junction. Would anyone else in the city have gotten this opening if they weren't the university? There are plenty of example of this kind of poor road planning that cause gridlock.

That and the fact that there are very low levels of traffic enforcement. I don't recall the last time I saw poor /dangerous driving result in blue lights and instant karma.

joeKel73

phelant wrote: »

One that always amazes me is the new entrance the university meters from the main thoroughfare (possibly only viable) through the city, the N6/N59 junction at the topaz.

Another stupid mistake with this entrance layout...

When leaving the university, the left lane is for left-turn and straight (Snipe Avenue), the right lane is for right-turn. The traffic light for the left-turn goes green first, followed ~30sec later by the straight-on and right-turn. But if anyone wants to go straight, they're in the left lane and blocking that first green light sequence for the left-turn.

Dempsey

I dont think another ring road is the solution, just will push traffic to new choke points and widen the range for people to commute by car into Galway.

The proper solution is to 'incentivize' public transport by creating dedicated public transport corridors between all major residential, commercial and industrial hubs, and have a park and ride system for all those people commuting into town. One person travel by car is real issue and the government needs to force a serious behaviour change in irish people attitude to modes of transport.

Audioslaven

Dempsey wrote: »

I dont think another ring road is the solution, just will push traffic to new choke points and widen the range for people to commute by car into Galway.

The proper solution is to 'incentivize' public transport by creating dedicated public transport corridors between all major residential, commercial and industrial hubs, and have a park and ride system for all those people commuting into town. One person travel by car is real issue and the government needs to force a serious behaviour change in irish people attitude to modes of transport.

Its not the attitude they need to change, they need to bring in proper modes of transport. You cannot blame people using their cars when there is no alternative

Dempsey

Audioslaven wrote: »

Its not the attitude they need to change, they need to bring in proper modes of transport. You cannot blame people using their cars when there is no alternative

And I said that you change attitudes by implementing an alternative first :rolleyes:

what_traffic

Dempsey wrote: »

And I said that you change attitudes by implementing an alternative first :rolleyes:

And that's the big problem that we face. People do not want to change, they want other people to change.

Audioslaven

Christ, I don't know what you want people to change to.:rolleyes: There is nothing to change to. Public transport is rubbish once you are outside dublin. Give people the options for example like rail from Tuam, castlebar, headford, to galway etc and they will use it provided it makes financial sense to people and runs at proper intervals. We are years away from that so suck up the traffic issue.

_Puma_

Cars running red lights is a major bugbear of mine. Stand at a junction during rush-our and i guarantee you at every sequence you have drivers running the red and at least one occasion where a pedestrian being forced back onto the path when they have a green to cross. Needs the Gardai to clamp down at junctions but i suspect they are too busy checking windscreens for tax.