Ballybofey road 'improvements'

Firblog

Have they widened that segment of noad by the roadside bar at all? Nearly seems narrower now than when they started, don't think you could legally pass a couple of cyclists hogging the middle of the road along that stretch.

Cee-Jay-Cee

Firblog wrote: »

Have they widened that segment of noad by the roadside bar at all? Nearly seems narrower now than when they started, don't think you could legally pass a couple of cyclists hogging the middle of the road along that stretch.

Cyclists have as much right to use the road as you do. And cycling two abreast is safer (and completely legal and recommended) for them as it prevents impatient idiots from barrelling past when cycling single file and forcing them into the ditch.

howdoyouknow

Firblog wrote:

Have they widened that segment of noad by the roadside bar at all? Nearly seems narrower now than when they started, don't think you could legally pass a couple of cyclists hogging the middle of the road along that stretch.

Most of the work done at the roadhouse bar area has been a traffic calming measure to improve improve road safety as there have been numerous accidents there over the years. They've kept the road the same width and but added footpaths along with grading works to improve vision lines at the roadhouse/cappry junction and twin town oil/goland junction. They've also realigned the angle of the junction at the roadhouse to slow traffic exiting onto the cappry road.

muffler

Firblog wrote: »

don't think you could legally pass a couple of cyclists hogging the middle of the road along that stretch.

Mod: Just be careful with your comments. Thats just trolling

Firblog

Cee-Jay-Cee wrote: »

Cyclists have as much right to use the road as you do. And cycling two abreast is safer (and completely legal and recommended) for them as it prevents impatient idiots from barrelling past when cycling single file and forcing them into the ditch.

Just wondering if you could answer the question, if a cyclist is cycling out say 1ft from the centre of the road, can they be passed on that stretch without breaking the law? given that we have to allow a certain distance (1.5m?) between car and bike?

Anyone got any idea what is the width of the road there?

Just popped into my head there, does a motorcyclist have to allow that much room when passing a cyclist?

muffler

Just to be clear.......this thread is about the roadworks on the Ballybofey - Donegal Town road in the vicinity of the Roadhouse Bar which is fine. But if anyone wishes to discuss cyclists / cycling then there are other more appropriate forums for that.

Firblog

OK, perhaps I have been taken up wrong on this thread by my referring to cyclists in my OP.

What I wanted to highlight was the waste of an opportunity by the council, they were carrying out very significant works on that stretch of road and didn't think of widening it at all - or so it seems to me.

They could have used the space now taken up by the footpaths to provide a good wide area for people cycling and walking to use in more safety; physically separate to motor vehicles - instead what they have done is make no improvement to the road in that respect, which would leave us in the situation whereby traffic on the main road in the county could be slowed to the speed of the slowest cyclist ( who is legally exercising their right to use the road ) along that stretch because a motorist cannot legally overtake the cyclist, even if the driver goes onto the other side of the road to overtake, they will still be breaking the law.

This is not a post about the law, it's not a post about cyclists causing traffic hold ups, it's about the poor job that the council have done, and their lack of any thought about providing a separate space to cyclists and walkers when doing a major road upgrade; which would improve all road users experience when out and about.

water-man

Don't be out that road too often but thought it a good job. A couple of points:

1) Speed reduced (best way to do that is by keeping road narrow)
2) Foot path on either side (think it should should of went the whole way into Ballybofey (maybe it will).
3) But dedicated cycle lanes would have been a good inclusion.

If only all entrances to the towns were giving the same consideration.

Firblog

water-man wrote: »

1) Speed reduced (best way to do that is by keeping road narrow)

Have to totally disagree with this point, narrowing a road that is rated for cars to drive @ 100Kmph is only going to increase the chances of 2 cars colliding - and that that speed increase the chances of a fatality.


If reducing speed is the aim, all you have to do is change the speed limit, and enforce it.

howdoyouknow

Firblog wrote:

If reducing speed is the aim, all you have to do is change the speed limit, and enforce it.

Just noticed yesterday that the speed limit has been reduced on the narrowed section from 100kmph to 60kmph.

Works seem to be almost finished there now. Road sweeper was cleaning up when I was passing yesterday afternoon

Firblog

Drove that section in daylight yesterday, lots of rubber on the kerbs.. surely a sign that it was badly designed if people bouncing their tyres of the kerbside.

muffler

I live locally and havent heard anyone else raise that issue

Firblog

muffler wrote: »

I live locally and havent heard anyone else raise that issue

Have you seen the rubber on the kerbing? Do you think that is normal?

muffler

Firblog wrote: »

Have you seen the rubber on the kerbing? Do you think that is normal?

Of course its normal. I could say that its down to the dreadful driving in this county that I see every day of the week but I would rather say that its more noticeable now because the kerbs are relatively new. Give it time and they will be like any other kerbs.

Cee-Jay-Cee

They left it narrow in order to slow the traffic at those two turns. The road down to the Fintown road is a very busy road as is the Roadside bar, lots of cars entering and exiting at that point. Cherry note kitchens is on the other side with a lot of traffic exiting and entering that junction.

It’ll not kill you to slow down for a few hundred yards to ensure safety at those turn offs/junctions.

Firblog

Cee-Jay-Cee wrote: »

It’ll not kill you to slow down for a few hundred yards to ensure safety at those turn offs/junctions.

I've never ever heard of slowing down killing anyone, but thanks for pointing it out that it wouldn't kill me specifically.

What might kill me is the fact that they've made the road so narrow which will increase the chances of being hit by a driver who is speeding & coming in the other direction - I'd think that was nearly as obvious as slowing down not killing someone; but it seems you can't be too sure whether someone actually knows these obvious things or not, so I think it's best to follow your lead and point them out to anyone reading this thread...

Kevwoody

Firblog wrote:

What might kill me is the fact that they've made the road so narrow which will increase the chances of being hit by a driver who is speeding & coming in the other direction - I'd think that was nearly as obvious as slowing down not killing someone; but it seems you can't be too sure whether someone actually knows these obvious things or not, so I think it's best to follow your lead and point them out to anyone reading this thread...

Hang on a minute, the speed limit here has been reduced to 60km/h, with traffic calming measures implemented. One of those measures, is to reduce the width of the road.
It's entirely possible that the rubber marks were caused during construction, when stop go was in place and trucks had to squeeze past machinery.
If people can't drive through there without bumping the kerbs, they shouldn't be allowed on the road.
The upgrade here is a massive improvement on what was there before.

Firblog

Just a couple of observations from the responses to my initial post, please go back and read it; no where in it did I mention or have any quibble with the reduced speed limit or any of the traffic calming measures.

The specific issue I raised was that the council having spent - what I assume was - a huge amount of money on that section of road way, did not bother to widen it. Now road widening is regarded as an action that can be taken to improve road safety, let me quote from here (the International Road Assessment Programme - the NRA use their toolkit)


"Lane width has an influence on safety, especially at certain key road locations. Vehicles typically use more of the travel lane on bends than on straight road sections, and head-on crashes can happen on bends when drivers accidentally (or intentionally) ‘cut the corner'.

Widening the lanes on a bend can reduce the risk of head-on crashes by giving drivers more room to get around the bend without crossing into the opposing lane. Similarly, widening turn lanes can improve safety, especially for larger vehicles. Widening traffic lanes on straight sections of multi-lane roads can reduce sideswipe crashes.

On urban arterial roads, lane widths of between 2.75 and 3.75 metres are typically used. Through traffic lanes on rural roads less than 3.0 metres wide tend to have higher crash rates, and a lane width of 3.5 metres is often recommended (except where the presence of cyclists means that wider lanes are needed). It is usually safe for lanes approaching signalised urban intersections to be narrower than high speed through lanes on straight road sections."

This thinking is of course at odds with

Kevwoody wrote: »

Hang on a minute, the speed limit here has been reduced to 60km/h, with traffic calming measures implemented. One of those measures, is to reduce the width of the road.

Surely traffic calming measures should not involve any measure that lessens the safety of the road? and to be honest, reducing speed limits doesn't do as much to calm traffic as enforcing reduced speed limits (of course with the road being so narrow, there will be no gatso or garda car with a speed camera able to position themselves along there, so that's unlikely to happen)


To me that whole section has been a huge missed opportunity, they spent a lot of money and the road ended up being less safe for road users than it could/should have been.

howdoyouknow

I don't think the road is any narrower than it's was before. I'm not going to whip out the tape next time im on the road but I've lived close by all my life and I had this thread in my head the last few times I've passed through the section of the road with the new traffic calming measures.


In general the road surface is probably wider than it used to be except at the roadhouse junction, where the road surface and angle of the road to cappry has been altered to force traffic to slow down when making the turn on to cappry road.

There was previously an unofficial inside lane at the junction which has now been replaced with a doorpath. So the road is visibly narrower at this point now.

The new footpaths and kerbs may make some drivers feel a bit more enclosed than the old soft verge but it's definitely not narrower than it was before.

As for the black marks on the kerbs from tyre rub they have been there since the tarring was finished I suspect from multiple passes of the road sweeper.

Firblog

Just noticed there on Monday, there is a sign up for hidden dip on before the Roadhouse, coming from Donegal Town direction.



Wondering, did they manage to engineer it into the road, or fail to engineer it out while doing the 'improvements'?