‘Luas on Wheels’ bus service for Galway

McGiver

ben.schlomo wrote: »

Definitely isn't a useless service, every twenty minutes, majority do turn up, it's annoying when they don't but use the app and you should know in advance. Works for me when I need it.

One of the best routes in terms punctuality/predictability. Never any missed buses. Unlike the 405.

McGiver

Mrs OBumble wrote: »

You may scoff that there are only two patches of bus lane, but the were well chosen: both make journeys quite a bit faster than before they were there. More would be better, but I wouldn't write off the bus service without them.

Alright, so where do we go from here next? I mean with the public transport.

xckjoo

ben.schlomo wrote: »

Definitely isn't a useless service, every twenty minutes, majority do turn up, it's annoying when they don't but use the app and you should know in advance. Works for me when I need it.

I always seem to find a few buses that aren't on the real-time or disappear off it. I find that frustrating but it's a great addition overall. Shout-out to the Android app called "Galway Bus". I find it much better than the official one. Nicer interface.

Mrs OBumble wrote: »

Despite that, and despite the rubbish facilities, the stop at GMIT is always busy, with lots of people getting on/off.


402 is on a 30 minute rotation in the daytime, 60 at night (yes, during evening classes).

404 is still on 60 minutes.

405 is on 20 mins, but does seem to be the one that BE sacrifice if they need to cut services. However it's still the best option if you're doing to the north end of the campus, or coming thru from Rahoon / Westside.


You may scoff that there are only two patches of bus lane, but the were well chosen: both make journeys quite a bit faster than before they were there. More would be better, but I wouldn't write off the bus service without them.

I'll scoff away. Not sure why you're defending the amount of space given to bus lanes but it's far too little. If I take the 402, I get approximately 30s of bus lane between GMIT and Eyre Squre.



405 seems to get severely delayed going through Ballybane and around by HP (not surprisingly) so it can be a frustrating one to wait for. I think that's more down to poor prediction of delay than anything though. I've never had it not show up, but it has been 20-30 mins late.


What's the GMIT north campus? Unless there's somewhere I don't know about, the Dublin Road stops are still more convenient than the 405, unless the 405 suits where you live.

Bobeagleburger

The 405 is an excellent service imo.

Extending it to HP was a clever move.

zell12

RoboKlopp wrote: »

The 405 is an excellent service imo.
Extending it to HP was a clever move.

Praise for BÉ :eek: or Galway City Council :eek: :eek: or maybe TII ?

Mrs OBumble

zell12 wrote: »

Praise for BÉ :eek: or Galway City Council :eek: :eek: or maybe TII ?

The NTA make the route decisions.

Not sure whose idea it was: a HP manager said that they asked for it when their new building was planned.

Bobeagleburger

If non city services from commuter towns could run earlier in the morning, it'd allow people working on the the east side of the city to make connections without making a huge dent in commuting time.

The reason I'm just mentioning the east side it because that's where the main issues seem to be.

McGiver

RoboKlopp wrote: »

The 405 is an excellent service imo.

Extending it to HP was a clever move.

Is that a joke?

Bobeagleburger

McGiver wrote: »

Is that a joke?

Which bit?

The first part is from personal experience.
The 2nd part is common sense.

Fitz*

Mrs OBumble wrote: »

The NTA make the route decisions.

Not sure whose idea it was: a HP manager said that they asked for it when their new building was planned.

Having a bus shelter was one of the requirements of the new building when it was being planned I thought.

RoboKlopp wrote: »

The 405 is an excellent service imo.

Extending it to HP was a clever move.

RoboKlopp wrote: »

Which bit?

The first part is from personal experience.
The 2nd part is common sense.

Surely not..... how often do you get the 405? Ever have to rely on it to be in a certain place at a certain time only for it to not show up for 45 minutes?

McGiver

Red_Wake wrote: »

Should allow people to use bus lanes if 3 or more people in the car to encourage carpooling.

And how you going to manage/enforce this? Impossible imho.

McGiver

RoboKlopp wrote: »

Which bit?

The first part is from personal experience.
The 2nd part is common sense.

1st part - Have you used public transport in Europe? Compared to that the 405 is abysmal. In Europe, if I can generalise, buses turn up as scheduled (or say with 5 min delay in a worst case) and you don't need some bloody app to be able to tell when it's going to show up. Services not showing up at all or skipped happen only in case of some natural disaster unlike here

2nd part - it took them one year to extend the route from the entrance of their industrial park to the HP. I always wondered why they didn't bring the bus inside the park. I had actually used the service but stopped because having to walk from the stop to my office in an industrial area for 10 minutes wasn't nice. I mean you've got a business park with several office blocks so it's a common sense to bring the bus inside, not outside of it. Incredible lack of common sense and conceptual thinking.

Mrs OBumble

FitzShane wrote: »

Having a bus shelter was one of the requirements of the new building when it was being planned I thought.

Yes, it was.

But building a bus shelter which planning required does not guarantee a bus service, or support for the existence of a bus service.

Red_Wake

McGiver wrote: »

Red_Wake wrote: »

Should allow people to use bus lanes if 3 or more people in the car to encourage carpooling.

And how you going to manage/enforce this? Impossible imho.

The Garda Traffic Corps would be responsible for ensuring a level of compliance. It would be similar to speeding enforcement, some slips through the net, but you catch enough people that it serves as a deterrent.

ben.schlomo

McGiver wrote: »

RoboKlopp wrote: »

Which bit?

The first part is from personal experience.
The 2nd part is common sense.

1st part - Have you used public transport in Europe? Compared to that the 405 is abysmal. In Europe, if I can generalise, buses turn up as scheduled (or say with 5 min delay in a worst case) and you don't need some bloody app to be able to tell when it's going to show up. Services not showing up at all or skipped happen only in case of some natural disaster unlike here

2nd part - it took them one year to extend the route from the entrance of their industrial park to the HP. I always wondered why they didn't bring the bus inside the park. I had actually used the service but stopped because having to walk from the stop to my office in an industrial area for 10 minutes wasn't nice. I mean you've got a business park with several office blocks so it's a common sense to bring the bus inside, not outside of it. Incredible lack of common sense and conceptual thinking.

We're not talking about European bus routes where they have infrastructure in place to aid public transport. We are talking about public transport here, pointless to compare.

McGiver

Red_Wake wrote: »

The Garda Traffic Corps would be responsible for ensuring a level of compliance. It would be similar to speeding enforcement, some slips through the net, but you catch enough people that it serves as a deterrent.

Right, you mean the speeding enforcement that doesn't happen?
I can tell you about 1 km spot where 90% of cars go at least 10 kmh more than the speed limit on that road at any time. I am yet to see the speed limit enforced there.

McGiver

ben.schlomo wrote: »

We're not talking about European bus routes where they have infrastructure in place to aid public transport. We are talking about public transport here, pointless to compare.

It's always good to have an external reference point.

What infrastructure are you missing?

ben.schlomo

McGiver wrote: »

ben.schlomo wrote: »

We're not talking about European bus routes where they have infrastructure in place to aid public transport. We are talking about public transport here, pointless to compare.

It's always good to have an external reference point.

What infrastructure are you missing?

Bus lanes, bike Lanes, multiple public transport options etc etc etc.

Mrs OBumble

xckjoo wrote: »

What's the GMIT north campus? Unless there's somewhere I don't know about, the Dublin Road stops are still more convenient than the 405, unless the 405 suits where you live.

Just coming back to this now I'm on a desktop.

This map shows it: https://www.gmit.ie/sites/default/files/public/directorate/docs/galway-campus-map.pdf

The northern gate is approx the same distance from the Dublin Rd bus stop as from the St James Rd stop. But the walk from the latter is downhill.

xckjoo

Mrs OBumble wrote: »

Just coming back to this now I'm on a desktop.

This map shows it: https://www.gmit.ie/sites/default/files/public/directorate/docs/galway-campus-map.pdf

The northern gate is approx the same distance from the Dublin Rd bus stop as from the St James Rd stop. But the walk from the latter is downhill.

Wasn't sure if there was another part of campus I didn't know about .



The Dublin Road stop leaves you closer to the Southern Reception (library) so it'll keep you drier on those lovely winter mornings. You can get around the rest of the building internally then. These are the exciting things that occupy my brain on sleepy morning commutes :cool:.

McGiver

ben.schlomo wrote: »

Bus lanes, bike Lanes, multiple public transport options etc etc etc.

The city I am from had none of these when the public transport was set up. Even, now it has no bus lanes, yes you hear that. There is no need for them - you just need proper roads. Bus lanes are a UK phenomenon, which you are trying to unsuccessfully copy here :cool:

The only infrastructure missing here was (and is) a competent council with a bit of common sense. Now, it's a bit late trying to fix this. And therefore you need all the workarounds, but even those the incompetent lot are not capable of.

jjpep

McGiver wrote: »

The city I am from had none of these when the public transport was set up. Even, now it has no bus lanes, yes you hear that. There is no need for them - you just need proper roads. Bus lanes are a UK phenomenon, which you are trying to unsuccessfully copy here :cool:

The only infrastructure missing here was (and is) a competent council with a bit of common sense. Now, it's a bit late trying to fix this. And therefore you need all the workarounds, but even those the incompetent lot are not capable of.

Bus lanes are common all over Europe, particularly in larger cities. Not sure where you're getting the idea from that's it mainly a UK thing. In fact I would have said the UK is probably a little bit behind Germany when it comes to number of bus lanes.

McGiver

McGiver wrote: »

The city I am from had none of these when the public transport was set up. Even, now it has no bus lanes, yes you hear that. There is no need for them - you just need proper roads. Bus lanes are a UK phenomenon, which you are trying to unsuccessfully copy here :cool:

The only infrastructure missing here was (and is) a competent council with a bit of common sense. Now, it's a bit late trying to fix this. And therefore you need all the workarounds, but even those the incompetent lot are not capable of.

I get the feeling you would rather just complain about random things, just the impression I'm getting from some of your posts.

Care to share the name of the city?

Bus lanes work, simple as. They allow buses to keep to a schedule, by moving at a reliable speed with little to no obstructions.

What would you define as a proper road? In Galway we have one way streets, 2 Lane roads, dual carriageways. What kind of "proper road" does Galway need?

McGiver

[Deleted User] wrote: »

I get the feeling you would rather just complain about random things, just the impression I'm getting from some of your posts.

Oh no here comes the "you can't complain too much because you are a blowin, but we can"... :rolleyes:

[Deleted User] wrote: »

Care to share the name of the city?

Brno, Czechia. The 2nd largest city, 400k population - 13 tram lines (one of the oldest tram network in Europe, continously in operation since 1869), route length 70kms + 13 trolleybus aka electric bus lines (longest TB network in CZ), route length 54kms + 54 bus lines (don't know the route length sorry buses have the lowest share of passengers transported). I also lived in Prague and Oxford. Public transport Brno and Prague is excellent, in OX was somewhat mediocre but at least it works. [/quote]

[Deleted User] wrote: »

Bus lanes work, simple as. They allow buses to keep to a schedule, by moving at a reliable speed with little to no obstructions.

Yes, they do, but outside of the UK you would tend to find them in bigger cities (Berlin, Hamburg, Madrid, Munich) where they are used for high throughput bus transport in infrastructure heavy scenarios and as a complement to underground, light rail and commuter trains. A bit different situation than Galway.

McGiver

jjpep wrote: »

Bus lanes are common all over Europe, particularly in larger cities. Not sure where you're getting the idea from that's it mainly a UK thing. In fact I would have said the UK is probably a little bit behind Germany when it comes to number of bus lanes.

Yes, but in much larger cities - Hamburg, Munich, Berlin, Mannheim if we talk Germany. The reason for bus lanes there is slightly different than it would be in case here. And it is mainly a UK thing, because the Brits had gone away with trams in 1920s and replaced everything with buses. In such a scenario you are forced to put bus lanes everywhere. That's a different case than continental Europe, particularly Germany (Austria and Czechia), where bus lanes are used to increase throughput and free flow in car packed city centres.

xckjoo

McGiver wrote: »

Yes, but in much larger cities - Hamburg, Munich, Berlin, Mannheim if we talk Germany. The reason for bus lanes there is slightly different than it would be in case here. And it is mainly a UK thing, because the Brits had gone away with trams in 1920s and replaced everything with buses. In such a scenario you are forced to put bus lanes everywhere. That's a different case than continental Europe, particularly Germany (Austria and Czechia), where bus lanes are used to increase throughput and free flow in car packed city centres.

Ya. We followed the British model in most things in this country. We got rid of the tram lines around the same time I think. We also didn't have much bombings in any of the wars so didn't get the modernization of city design other European cities got, nor the money to do it even if we wanted to.



When we finally did start to have money to develop infrastructure (thanks EU!), the days of private car ownership were here so everything was built as a (poorly planned) reaction to that, without realising it was unsustainable on a population-wide level.

McGiver

xckjoo wrote: »

When we finally did start to have money to develop infrastructure (thanks EU!), the days of private car ownership were here so everything was built as a (poorly planned) reaction to that, without realising it was unsustainable on a population-wide level.

That's right. And I think the biggest mistake was not to invest into infrastructure during the Tiger Years, when the money was literally free and ubiquitous. I suppose Galway actually didn't get much built during those years in terms of infrastructure.