Advice on poorly maintained mini roundabout.

harmless

There are a few mini roundabouts in my town, there was no structures built just paint to mark the roundabouts.

One of the roundabouts has no paint left.
There are no signs to warn that you are approaching the roundabout.
It just looks like a standard crossroad again without a hint that it is actually a roundabout.


If there were an accident there and it was because one car used it as a crossroads and on used it as a roundabout who would be to blame?

donvito99

harmless wrote: »

There are a few mini roundabouts in my town, there was no structures built just paint to mark the roundabouts.

One of the roundabouts has no paint left.
There are no signs to warn that you are approaching the roundabout.
It just looks like a standard crossroad again without a hint that it is actually a roundabout.


If there were an accident there and it was because one car used it as a crossroads and on used it as a roundabout who would be to blame?

Get in touch with the council. If it's Dublin City they've taken down the web portal (last I checked) for reporting deficiencies with public space, so your best bet would be to email all of your ward's councillors.

If there was to be an accident, I would imagine that the person failing to adhere to the rules regarding roundabouts would be at fault, but they could argue away liability on the basis of the lack of signage.

harmless

I'm not in Dublin but I will contact the local town council.

There is also a issue close to the same roundabout/crossroads where cars are parked up on the footpath on all sides. These cars are there for most of the day, there are no yellow lines so I believe they could legally park on the road but they insist on parking on the footpath. It makes it very dangerous for walkers and because of the current 5km rule there's are a large number of people out exercising in the area every evening.

Would that also be something the town council council could do something about?
Does the parking inspector have the authority to issue fines for parking on the footpath.
It's so rampant a large amount of fines could be gathered and put to good use as the town doesn't even have a town park.

elperello

Parking on the footpath is an offence.

FCPN can be issued by local authority warden or AGS.

alias no.9

A painted spot makes little difference, at an unmarked junction, you yield to traffic coming from your right, the same as a roundabout.

harmless

elperello wrote: »

Parking on the footpath is an offence.

FCPN can be issued by local authority warden or AGS.

Excluding the main street, there are cars parked on the path all day on just about every other street in the town that has a foothpath.
It's been like this for decades but it's irritating me more now because I see all the joggers and people that just want to keep busy and improve their health constantly have to walk out into traffic as there is no space on the path.


I'd like to do something about it but I'm not sure where to start if the parking inspector and An Garda do not care.

Is there a reason the local council would not want to collect some easy money while making the town safer at the same time?

harmless

alias no.9 wrote: »

A painted spot makes little difference, at an unmarked junction, you yield to traffic coming from your right, the same as a roundabout.

True but you can't just come up to it and hook a right, you have to go around and not drive over the white circle in the middle. When done correctly it changes the way the traffic flows.

Even though the paint is gone I see some cars use it as a roundabout and some use it as a junction. It has greatly slowed down the flow of traffic as many get confused and are unsure what to do.

elperello

harmless wrote: »

Excluding the main street, there are cars parked on the path all day on just about every other street in the town that has a foothpath.
It's been like this for decades but it's irritating me more now because I see all the joggers and people that just want to keep busy and improve their health constantly have to walk out into traffic as there is no space on the path.


I'd like to do something about it but I'm not sure where to start if the parking inspector and An Garda do not care.

Is there a reason the local council would not want to collect some easy money while making the town safer at the same time?

Looks like a bit of a campaign may be needed.

As donvito said above you could contact a Councillor. Have a look at the local paper and see who is active in your area.

Then you can write to the council Director of Services for roads (look up website) and copy to the councillor you have chosen.

Follow up with phone calls if you don't hear back in a week or ten days.

Good Luck.

harmless

elperello wrote: »

Looks like a bit of a campaign may be needed.

As donvito said above you could contact a Councillor. Have a look at the local paper and see who is active in your area.

Then you can write to the council Director of Services for roads (look up website) and copy to the councillor you have chosen.

Follow up with phone calls if you don't hear back in a week or ten days.

Good Luck.

That was my main issue, I just didn't know where to start. Thanks for the advice!

alias no.9

harmless wrote: »

True but you can't just come up to it and hook a right, you have to go around and not drive over the white circle in the middle. When done correctly it changes the way the traffic flows.

Even though the paint is gone I see some cars use it as a roundabout and some use it as a junction. It has greatly slowed down the flow of traffic as many get confused and are unsure what to do.

Your line through a right turn junction shouldn't be dramatically different than a right turn mini roundabout either. The absence of a painted spot doesn't give you licence to cut the corner.

Charles Babbage

alias no.9 wrote: »

A painted spot makes little difference, at an unmarked junction, you yield to traffic coming from your right, the same as a roundabout.

Not if it is a T junction.

CiniO

alias no.9 wrote: »

A painted spot makes little difference, at an unmarked junction, you yield to traffic coming from your right, the same as a roundabout.

alias no.9 wrote: »

Your line through a right turn junction shouldn't be dramatically different than a right turn mini roundabout either. The absence of a painted spot doesn't give you licence to cut the corner.

I see a major mistake in your logic.

If it's a roundabout, then blue car should give right of way to red car, as red car is already on a roundabout or what we can also call "coming from his right".

If it's not a roundabout, then red car needs to give right of way to blue car, as blue car is going straight on a junction, and red is coming from opposite direction and turning right.

These are basic rules of the road.

Whether it's a roundabout or not, makes a very significant different here.

harmless

And that is exactly what happens if you were to watch the traffic at this now invisible roundabout for a few minutes you would see many drivers very unsure of who has right away.

The flow is actually still better than when there were traffic lights at the junction but worse than when there were clear roundabout markings.
All for the sake of a drop of paint.

newmember2

harmless wrote: »

And that is exactly what happens if you were to watch the traffic at this now invisible roundabout for a few minutes you would see many drivers very unsure of who has right away...

You'll see that anyway as nobody uses indicators.

Isambard

CiniO wrote: »

I see a major mistake in your logic.

If it's a roundabout, then blue car should give right of way to red car, as red car is already on a roundabout or what we can also call "coming from his right".

If it's not a roundabout, then red car needs to give right of way to blue car, as blue car is going straight on a junction, and red is coming from opposite direction and turning right.

These are basic rules of the road.

Whether it's a roundabout or not, makes a very significant different here.

that's not an unmarked junction though. You give way to traffic from your right where they have crossed the Yield line. It is in effect a roundabout.

harmless

elperello wrote: »

Looks like a bit of a campaign may be needed.

As donvito said above you could contact a Councillor. Have a look at the local paper and see who is active in your area.

Then you can write to the council Director of Services for roads (look up website) and copy to the councillor you have chosen.

Follow up with phone calls if you don't hear back in a week or ten days.

Good Luck.

Director of Services, Roads, Transportation, Infrastructure has not even acknowledged that they have received my email.
I do not know any of the town councilors personally.

Where to next?

elperello

harmless wrote: »

Director of Services, Roads, Transportation, Infrastructure has not even acknowledged that they have received my email.
I do not know any of the town councilors personally.

Where to next?

Further up the food chain.

Write to the Chief Executive (formerly known as County Manager).

As for the councilors It doesn't matter if you know them personally, just pick one that you think might take an interest and go for it.

Be sure to include your full address.

harmless

elperello wrote: »

Further up the food chain.

Write to the Chief Executive (formerly known as County Manager).

As for the councilors It doesn't matter if you know them personally, just pick one that you think might take an interest and go for it.

Be sure to include your full address.

Thanks again for the info.
Do you think I'm being a bit impatient as it has only been a few days since I sent the email? I had expected a response just to let me know they had received my mail but perhaps I won't hear back until they have fully investigated the matter.

elperello

Yes you may be a bit impatient.

In my experience a week to ten days is about right to wait for a reply.

Acknowledgement of receipt is uncommon enough.

Feisar

donvito99 wrote: »

Get in touch with the council. If it's Dublin City they've taken down the web portal (last I checked) for reporting deficiencies with public space, so your best bet would be to email all of your ward's councillors.

If there was to be an accident, I would imagine that the person failing to adhere to the rules regarding roundabouts would be at fault, but they could argue away liability on the basis of the lack of signage.

I’m not arguing more asking but is it currently a roundabout?

harmless

elperello wrote: »

Yes you may be a bit impatient.

In my experience a week to ten days is about right to wait for a reply.

Acknowledgement of receipt is uncommon enough.

I guess the civil service works differently from the private sector. I'm used to companies issuing an almost immediate response to indicate they have received my request.
This issue has been around from decades and has been amplified by the current situation with so many people out exercising on the footpaths in a 5km radius of the town. The final straw for me was when I recently saw a young man in a wheelchair struggling really bad to navigate the footpath. He had the choice of giving up and going back where he came from or putting himself in danger going out on to the road.

It's unreasonable for me to expect this issue to be fixed overnight, if some progress can be made over the course of the coming months then I will be happy.

AndrewJRenko

harmless wrote: »

I guess the civil service works differently from the private sector. I'm used to companies issuing an almost immediate response to indicate they have received my request.

I guess your private sector works different to my private sector.

harmless

AndrewJRenko wrote: »

I guess your private sector works different to my private sector.

Do they have any obligation to respond to me?

Skodafan

There's a few like that here in Ennis and all. It took was a complaint to. The council and they rectified

elperello

harmless wrote: »

Do they have any obligation to respond to me?

Check and see if your local authority has a customer charter.

This one from Fingal has a section dealing with correspondence.

https://www.fingal.ie/sites/default/files/2019-04/Fingal%20Citizen%20Charter%2002.10.18.pdf