Farcical Traffic Plans - Letterkenny

Cee-Jay-Cee

So some ****ers in Donegal CoCo think that traffic lights at the Polestar (port) roundabout are somehow going to alleviate traffic problems! Its like the people being paid to come up with solutions have absolutely no clue what theyre doing. Adding lights to that roundabout would only make the problem worse. How can they not see that?

The conjestion problems are caused by the lack of relief roads in the town so adding lights will not help that in the slightest. Slowing down the traffic leaving the town is only going to make things worse and for 75% of the day cause delays when traffic is moving freely.

No doubt the idiots will also put pedestrian crossings at each of the four exits on the roundabout slowing things up further.

They are also suggesting lights at ballyraine and the creamery roundabouts which will again create more problems than they solve. Having two sets of lights in such close proximity to each other don't work, full stop!

Why waste €4million on such a nonsense move, put the money towards relief roads to get traffic out of the town on other routes, not slow up the already clogged routes we have. No doubt they'll be 'smart lights' like those at the IT which spend more time on the blink than they do working correctly.

Smart lights should turn off during low volume traffic times not keep going and doing nothing but creating delays and further frustrating already frustrated drivers.

Traffic Plan proposal

muffler

Traffic lights at the roundabouts doesnt make sense to me but then again Im sure there must be some form of engineering reason behind it.

In any event it seems that Cllr. Dessie Sheils was looking for this 2 years ago.

fawlty682

It’s a unique Donegal fear of traffic lights and love of roundabouts. Obviously, bypass roads are need but will take years. Traffic lights releasing large numbers of vehicles at peak times is far superior to one/two/three cars escaping every few seconds, apart from being safer for motorists. Slowing down traffic. Roundabouts do exactly that.
Also, Letterkenny has least pedestrian crossings in all of Irish towns. The Council prefer to leave people stranded on traffic islands. These two white lines around the town have no legal meaning. We always remark, when on the continent or USA, that Letterkenny is the worst town on the planet for pedestrians. 8 lanes in Las Vegas, and you can cross safely with lights.
As for the town bus service, it’s a mystery. I regularly pass students walking down De Valera Road, battered with wind and rain. Another Letterkenny speciality. Traffic is an incurable mess and is a study in how not to plan a town.
Up here it’s different.

Technique

I travel regularly through the roundabout at the city side of the Foyle Bridge in Derry. It used to be a nightmare until they put traffic lights in place. It's now almost pleasurable to drive through. No inching forward for ages in traffic, on and off the clutch, edging out into traffic and maybe taking a risk to get onto the roundabout. Instead, when it's red you stop, when it's green you go.

I think it will be an improvement at the polestar roundabout. In fact, almost anything would be an improvement on the current situation.

fawlty682

Exactly. Roundabouts slow release traffic at low speeds. Traffic lights release traffic faster and at speed. Obviously, there are periods of waiting on red but you know you can drive on faster on green, rather than inching out dangerously.

Donegal Storm

I've seen two crashes on the Polestar in the past few months, both at peak times where it's horribly over capacity and the only way to make progress is to drive aggressively and take risks.

The issue with lights is that the roundabout flows fine for most the the day, it's usually just morning, lunch time and afternoon/evening rush where it's a mess.

Something has to be done though as I can't see the Bonagee link road happening any time soon, I posted in the roadworks thread about the Port Road works where they're removing all the right turns, hopefully they sort out these roundabouts as part of that scheme

Cee-Jay-Cee

fawlty682 wrote: »

Exactly. Roundabouts slow release traffic at low speeds. Traffic lights release traffic faster and at speed. Obviously, there are periods of waiting on red but you know you can drive on faster on green, rather than inching out dangerously.

I can see the benefit of lights on roundabouts to release traffic but to put lights over near arena 7, the Ballyraine roundabout and again at the polestar is a recipe for disaster. 3 sets of lights in the space of 500m is not going to work and especially when you have a set of sensor lights at the IT that won’t work in tandem with the new ones at the polestar.

How ever if they do go ahead I think they need to fit cameras and introduce on the spot fines along with penalty points for the idiots that drive into the yellow boxes (now on the roundabout) blocking other lanes. They would be a huge revenue generator in LK where half the idiots on the road don’t know what a yellow box means.

fawlty682

Surely lights at peak times can be operated as well as at IT. If there were lights at Ballyraine instead of a roundabout, it would be better. This roundabout obsession is strange as it is also dangerous for pedestrians. We simply have to accept that everywhere from Arena7 is a 50km limit. The lack of enforcement is a major problem. Surely a Garda could monitor the big flash points at rush hour instead of crying about No resources. There should be digital speed monitors like down in Sligo,Roscommon and other counties. I fully agree with yellow box fines. DCC have been stagnant for over 20 years while town developed.