New telephone booths

Have seen a few of the new telephone booths about, most are in appropriately sized locations where there is space to manoeuvre freely around them like the one at the top of Bridge Street across from Supermacs or the one opposite Eyre Square while I do question how useful an unenclosed phone box/booth is given how frequently rotten the weather is in Galway at least it doesn't impede peoples movements. However, the one on University Road seems terribly planned, its not a big footpath and people will have to go single file around it or get very close, it would be very difficult to get around if you had a buggy or wheelchair I think, especially as its right beside a pedestrian crossing so people may be waiting right beside it in order to cross. Seems a bit mad to not have put it in the Millenium park or on the University campus or somewhere with a bit more space or even to just have designed a slimmer one so people could get around it more easily.

Interested to hear if anyone else has seen these new phone booths and what they think

Green Peter

I think they also sell digital advertising space as well which is the real reason they are there. To make money for the council. I could be wrong.

Squeeonline

yeah that's awful planning for wheelchairs and prams, especially so close to a hospital.

There was already a phone booth there but not as bulky as this! It's not even up against the wall...

zell12

Complain to the Council. Mention point 4 to the social inclusion/disability officer that GCC signed. Also that pedestrians are deliberately being coralled on a heavily used footpath which GCC administer for all. Would they install a similar physical restriction on a heavily used road?

Citrus_8

Making a narrow pedestrian path even narrower is an ignorance. These planners and whoever gave a permission are definitely car users and never walked down the street to the local places.

Planning application 20/133 for anyone interested.

Some conditions attached but mostly about the ads - no animation or flashing.

It is wider than the old one 900mm vs 1096.

Wheety

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117795661#Comment_117795661

This is it really isn't it? Dress it up as a facility for homeless people to access services but it's really just another billboard.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117796433#Comment_117796433

Also doesn't include that it appears to be much further out from the wall but was meant to be aligned the same distance out as the previous phone box.

It should be inside the entrance of Millennium Park.

I was having a lovely morning and now I'm annoyed at a phone box on University Road - screw you boards! :P

ThePentagon

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117796447#Comment_117796447

Same with the bus shelters installed last year. Any practical utility provided for the public is coincidental.

biko

Looks like wheelchair users and people with wide buggies will have a hard time.

When there was talk about getting rid of all remaining payphones, people said that was an attack on the homeless and on women in abusive relationships, now that Eir have come up with a solution that enables them to keep some payphones but bring in advertising to pay for the upkeep people still complain. Damned if you do, damned if you don't.

jkforde

Lazy design, why couldn't the phone facility be bolted to the wall, no footprint necessary. 🤔

gordongekko

Why don't they move the traffic lights down to the junction at the canal where they'd be of some use to both pedestrians and vehicles

Ger Roe

They are all over the country..... new public access phone and an ancilliary advertising hoarding. Apparently, because it has a phone line attached, the advertisement aspect does not require the planning approval aspects that a traditional advertising stand would require. You would never get permission to put an advertising stand in most of the locations where these phones are located.

As regards being a phone service..... we have over 100% mobile phone ownership in the country and these days no one remembers a number to dial anyway. If there was a screaming emergency, I would bet that you would never be too far away from someone who could make an emergency mobile call.

Some clever advertising exec has secured themselves prime spot exposure all over the country, by doing a cozy deal with local councils. While I admire the deal from a totally opportunistic commercial perspective on behalf of the advertising agency, there should be an investigation (might yet be one) about what deal was done with whom and what the actual benefits are - Does the implied public benefit of maybe of making an extremely rare phone call outweigh the inconvenience of street clutter and advertising exposure?

There was a reason why the old phone boxes were removed.... we all got mobiles. Now that we have even more mobiles, there is apparently an urgent demand and need for them to be reinstated?... Call me a cynic, but I don't think so.

Ger Roe

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117805632#Comment_117805632

Because then the advertising display would not be in prime position.

Paddico

ANyone on here actually use phone boxes anymore?

Remarked to the other half yesterday that I saw someone in a phone box earlier. However, this is not Galway, or even the ROI but still enough of an 'event' to merit a comment (IMO). I'd imagine it's much the same here as there ...

ingalway

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117805198#Comment_117805198

If they just did it with some common sense and took into account wheelchair users and people with prams/buggys then there would be no "damned if you do, damned if you don't". It's pure ignorance in 2021 that this is not thought through properly.

Mrs OBumble

"As regards being a phone service..... we have over 100% mobile phone ownership in the country "

 https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058205485/new-telephone-booths#:~:text=As%20regards%20being%20a%20phone%20service.....%20we%20have%20over%20100%25%20mobile%20phone%20ownership%20in%20the%20country

Agreed , but some women cannot use a mobile phone to call some numbers, because of the way some PWPs behave.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117805198#Comment_117805198

I've got no problem with the majority of the new phone booths, this one seems incredibly poorly placed to me. To me its not a zero sum game that we either have poorly placed phone booths or none at all.

I have noticed that all of the new phone booths seem to have been placed further (one opposite the Cathedral and one at the top of Bridge street) than the old phone boxes but it doesn't make most of the footpaths single file or difficult for wheelchairs/buggies like it does at the University.

Saw the one on eyre square opposite the shopping centre entrance has been grafittied already 🙄

Squeeonline

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117807122#Comment_117807122

Also a lot of people have 2 phones, a work phone and personal phone. That doesn't mean that everyone has a phone, though I expect it is close.

thecretinhop

its just the useless council covering themselves in saving wifes from beatings while slipping claw wedge into de back pocket. they wud bd 20 planning officers all over de gaff if we put this on shop...

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117809658#Comment_117809658

Profound

thecretinhop

thank u

zell12

The advertising images has been switched on University Rd.

It looks awful and seriously takes away from the mature genteelness of the location

Stevolende

yeah noticed this when I was walking on that road. Had come from looking at curraghs in the University quad and just thougt why would they put that there like that. Doesn'tr help that the pole is right behind it either.

MIght have made more sense to put it in sideways though that might mean user gets wetter or something.

Was a little surprised to see new payphones going up too. Did think mobile phones mighty just make them defunct.