Why is the traffic in Letterkenny so awful?

Jlayay

Just recently moved up from Cork, noticed that all the main roads are jammed with cars in the morning and afternoon hours. Even at night the roads are much busier compared to Cork. Haven't seen it this bad anywhere outside Dublin.

Is there a particular reason for it? Just bad infastructure/planning?

zell12

It is simply the volume of cars. Letterkenny serves a large hinterland of car-dependent one-off housing

JoannieG

Where do you start? Not enough bridges over the Swilly. Traffic lights at McGinley Motors. Little darlings who have to be dropped off the the school gate. People not being able to drive on roundabouts or merge into traffic. Poor public transport. The list is endless.

timmyntc

Too many cars, no public transport.

If you work in letterkenny, you drive. No exceptions

sandyxxx

L'kenny is the gateway to the North,North-West, and huge swathes of the West of the county,.....everyone travelling to and from that huge geographical area pretty-much travels in close proximity to, if not through, the town and its environs....the "relief roads" are all built up and commercialised rendering them almost useless..

fawlty682

Town needs bypass road at the Dry Arch. Instead, the Council are spending millions on the Four Lanes, with Fox contractors, who are milking it, and will only increase congestion. Of course, we have nice trees and footpaths to view while stuck in traffic.

NIMAN

Population exploded and infrastructure planning didn't.

byte

Were plans ever made for a bypass road from Dry Arch to the Ramelton road?

I vaguely recall it being talked about when I lived there 15 odd years ago!

timmyntc

No amount of bypasses will fix letterkenny because the majority of traffic is all going to letterkenny, not through it.

Only way to fix would be a proper town bus service/park and ride, and bus lanes on main roads into it, and that will never be politically acceptable because people do not like giving priority to buses over their cars.

Unless flying cars come along letterkenny is doomed to have awful traffic for the next century

muffler

A bypass will not solve the problem but it would be a massive help. There are thousands of people employed in businesses / firms located off the Ramelton road. Think of through traffic to Ramelton and beyond, think of people who head out that direction to work in or visit the hospital, think of the amount of traffic that go up the High road via the Ramelton road. Add in schools in that area and if traffic coming from Derry/Ballybofey roads can be routed round the town from the Dry Arch roundabout then that brings a massive relief to traffic entering the heart of the town.

The Council / TII have it spot on with a proposal to provide that bypass from the Dry Arch to the Ramelton Road. Funding and an appetite to proceed are all thats needed now.

Technique

Here's the proposal for the bridge over the swillly from the dry arch roundabout. It's the phase 2 map. I heard 2028 originally mentioned for completion but that will probably end up being pushed out.

https://www.donegalcoco.ie/yourcouncil/public%20consultation/ten%20t%20priority%20route%20improvement%20project/

Next week will see two years since the start of the four lane upgrade. The cycle lanes and footpaths were much needed, but it's still the same number of lanes in and out of Letterkenny as before the upgrade so don't expect any ease in congestion.

timmyntc

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120916050#Comment_120916050

It will just move the congestion points from polestar to ramelton road, and there will still be congestion at polestar roundabout, and port road, and everywhere else.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120916128#Comment_120916128

Adding lanes does not ease congestion - the congestion builds up from port road out to polestar and back that direction. Adding more lanes between dry arch and polestar will do nothing for traffic.

Technique

Traffic lights at the Polestar Roundabout will help the flow of traffic. All it takes is at the moment is an overly cautious driver at the front of the queue and nobody's going any where for a while.

retalivity

Didnt the Council CPO the old pitch and putt behind the pin tavern, 10-15 years ago, with the expectation that a bridge would be built and join up with the half bypass from Optum down to the Ramelton road? Nearly sure I heard that at the time when it closed years ago...

Technique

The shop at the dry arch roundabout was CPO'd for this purpose.

CastorTroy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120916128#Comment_120916128

2 years? It started, I think the November or December before COVID so 2019.

The next we'll hear about the bypass is the next election when they include it in their fliers as things they've done.

And it took 4 years to work on an existing road so how long would it take to build a brand new one that involves building a bridge? Though I guess they won't have to worry about traffic management while building it.

Speaking of management, I see roadworks must be happening from Glencar roundabout up to Killylastin. So that's that, Optum Roundabout and 4 Lane/Polestar. Anywhere else they're doing works? Seems they're making it hard for people to find a route out of town.

NIMAN

As bad as Letterkenny is, Stranorlar and Ballybofey are also major pains in the ar$e too.

timmyntc

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120919061#Comment_120919061

Twin towns are one case where a bypass would actually work - most of traffic actually is through traffic on way to south donegal.

Letterkennys problem is that it is the destination for 90% of people. Its the biggest employment hub in the region, got most of the shops, supermarkets, etc.

A bypass of the town will only help a small proportion of people who want to drive from west donegal to east donegal or vice versa. For all of us who live or work in letterkenny nothing much would change.

cosanostra

Ultimately it comes down to poor planning or lack of planning may be a more appropriate term. You have bottlenecks on exits off most roundabouts, so with the polestar the ballyraine exit lands you into another roundabout causing traffic to build up on the polestar blocking traffic trying to leave the town from the tesco roundabout. At the Tesco roundabout cars heading into tesco end up sitting on the roundabout queuing to get in to the shopping centre causing bottlenecks on approach roads. Now they're adding in more pedestrian crossings every 100m which isn't going to help

muffler

Someone mentioned to me earlier today that traffic lights are being installed at the Polestar roundabout.

timmyntc

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120998626#Comment_120998626

Thats a problem of roundabouts in general - they are great for low traffic but bad for peak. Signalised junctions do peak throughput of cars much much better, but then you have people complaining because everyone thinks traffic lights = more waiting, when in high congestion traffic lights still actually function whereas roundabouts grind to a halt as soon as 1 exit backs up.

JoannieG

Don't hold your breath waiting for a bypass. One was promised when I was at the Regional (now the ATU) in the early '80's.

Fox Tail

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119796623#Comment_119796623

Eamon Ryans worst nightmare!

Get them on the bus!

batman1

Those 4 lanes that are taking forever and costing a huge amount are terribly designed. Unlit ankle height blocks all along to separate cyclists. Manys a car will come a cropper...

md23040

Letterkenny could be much worse compared to pre-covid, as most businesses on Hyrid, TCS got rid of 60% of its 1000+ workforce and SITA seems to still be WFH as the car park always empty. Expect Windyhall roundabout to get more pear shaped as Fin Tru move in with probably 200 workers in November and 90% single car journeys, and that HSE or school or whatever, building works near completing opens at the roundabout will cause a total mess. Letterkenny a total disaster IMO and purposely start work at 8.30 and finish at 4.15/30 but might start at 8am as that time of the morning getting busier and at 4.15pm getting longer tailbacks and delays every week getting worse.

pizzahead77

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121178554#Comment_121178554

There's a new community hospital and a development for the ATU going in up around that roundabout on the High Road

CastorTroy

Any idea what's the story with the works at and around the Optum roundabout in Letterkenny?

Can't see anything online for it and didn't see any signs saying it was going to be happening or a timeline.

Roundabout and roads reduced to single lane and plenty of traffic.

slimboyfat

Are the works on the new pedestrian and cycle starting?

https://www.donegallive.ie/news/local-news/1496194/new-letterkenny-pedestrian-and-cycling-facility-finally-approved.html

NIMAN

Simple, too many cars on not enough roads.

JupiterKid

Atrocious planning - Letterkenny is probably the worst planned large town in Ireland with horrendous urban sprawl, serving an utterly car-dependent one-off rural house infested hinterland.

Recipe for disaster.

muffler

Bad planning or lack of same for sure. But the mess can't be attributed solely to the planners. You just have to look at the amount of land that is undeveloped because the owners prefer to sit on it rather than release it for development. Greed is an awful thing.

timmyntc

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122608357#Comment_122608357

That also comes down to council not applying/enforcing various land taxes at their disposal (granted RZLT is yet to come into play)