Farronshoneen Roundabout

azimuth17

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121444685#Comment_121444685

I am in Waterford city every day at various times. I think bus usage has increased dramatically. There is a valley period mid morning and early afternoon, but this may be normal. Overall bus usage is growing strongly in my view. The route Tramore to City has a lot of suburban traffic as well and now uses double deckers. In fairness Kilkenny is a relatively small town with only a recent history of a single bus route.Urban bus routes have existed in Waterford city since at least 1950

Wanderer78

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121445054#Comment_121445054

...id love to see the numbers on this, but my gut says, if its growing, it aint growing very rapidly, i see a hell of a lot of near empty buses wondering around this town, and i walk a lot, but thats only my observations, so we d need the numbers to be sure....

azimuth17

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121445132#Comment_121445132

TFI announced early this year I think, that bus trips in Waterford city in 2022, were well over 1million ?

Wanderer78

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121445256#Comment_121445256

any idea on the long term trends, is it increasing over time?

deisemum

The buses need to be reliable, clean and affordable. Since the W5 started from the hospital into town I tend to use it if it's just myself going into town as it's reliable unlike Kenneally's where I've been left waiting for ages most times I've gone to use it and even had to wait up to an hour on numerous occasions even in times when there hasn't been much traffic. Their timetable is a piece of fiction.

Anytime I've taken the W5 bus there's been plenty of passengers on it.

azimuth17

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121445265#Comment_121445265

I presume usage figures will be pubished by TFI in January.

johnnykilo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121444685#Comment_121444685

I thought the same when I lived 10/15 minutes walk to town and never needed the buses; any time I saw one it as either completely empty, or no more than 5 people on them. Now that I live further out of town and I've started to take the bus in terms of speed the W3 and W5 buses between 9 to 5 are always at least 50 - 75% full.

I got the W5 from John Street to Ardkeen a couple of Fridays ago in the afternoon and I barely made it on the bus. There were about 20 people standing, and I got the last standing space right up by the driver - it was like being back in Dublin again.

johnnykilo

Is there anyone responsible for this ongoing cluster**** out by Ardkeen? Like were these roadworks approved by the City Counsellors or is it just the Civil Engineering department in the Council who decided to do it, and who are not accountable to anyone?

deisemum

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121446404#Comment_121446404

It was the Engineer not the councillors who had the final say, the councillors weren't even told of the change in the plans.

corollake35

The layout is not what went out for public consultation. So, the public were not ever going to be aware of the loss of the filter lane coming out from town. Some untouchable somewhere made this decision. Now the public are pizzed off - any wonder?

Valhalla90

Problem is the public also don’t read and examine the plans for change when it’s announced.

Bards

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121448749#Comment_121448749

That's why we have councillors

They are supposed to act on our behalf and advocate for public's interests to the council exec

corollake35

This is the link to the now expired notice on the council's website.

Scroll down to download the drawing that was published showing works to be carried out. Reading the notice also explains the works.

Now, remember, they are not finished yet!

https://www.waterfordcouncil.ie/projects/public-consultations/expired/2022/Farronshoneen.htm

shinzon

have it on good authority that the original plan for this was for the two lanes to remain and thats what the council voted on but and get this the active travel site engineer of the works can over rule the vote without consultation with the council if he sees fit under whats called a section 38 licence which is what happened here which is why its just one lane now.

Shin

corollake35

I heard this too, but didn't want to say if not correct.

That spoke of the roundabout is rediculous now. The width of the footpath on the knightswood housing estate side must now be wider than the single lane coming from town?

Also there is no dropped kerb off the splitter island on that same spoke. I wonder if they are going to raise the road levelto meet the kerb?

The very thought that anyone can make decisions on the fly like that with nobody to question or object makes me mad. Pro cyclist, anti car type. Some (very few, but they will be vocal about this) will say it's for the better. To the other 99.9% of the population, this is no real upgrade at all.

Valhalla90

A signaled junction with two lanes would be better than this mess now!

Wanderer2010

How on earth do council engineers have so much power and no accountability. This really should have been flagged by our represented councillers and the decision debated and reversed.

I would put hard cash on the fact that none of these engineers who have torn up and destroyed the city with one way roads, illogical changes to the traffic such as New Street and Ozanam Street ever have to use these streets themselves.

Valhalla90

Don’t fix something that isn’t broken. This junction was fine previously. If anything money could be spent on numerous other projects in the city. The main Tramore road is a disgrace. Not one cats eyes remaining, Road surface is all chippings and poor quality tarmac.

GandhiwasfromBallyfermot

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121452324#Comment_121452324

Fine for cars maybe but not for pedestrians. Trying to cross the road is a nightmare, cars never let you cross even at the pedestrian crossing at Solas Centre.

Jerry Atrick

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121452453#Comment_121452453

Guaranteed going to be more accidents on the new layout. The whole procurement and implementation of the project is a disgrace.

The people not letting pedestrians cross is just basic lack of manners which is an ever-growing issue in modern society and moreover common out Dunmore Road direction.

Jerry Atrick

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121451470#Comment_121451470

Precisely this, they never use the roads. Have no idea what is best for road users and rely on data from traffic counter devices. Data is more nuanced than simply numbers.

Asdfgh2020

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121449070#Comment_121449070

I would think They will be raising the surface locally at the crossing points to create a table / speed bump

Asdfgh2020

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121452618#Comment_121452618

Do you think these decisions/road designs etc be left up to the ordinary joe/expert taxi driver types…?

corollake35

I find it hard to see the filter lane fitting back with the new footpath on the Williamstown Road? Looking like reduction to single lane here also.

It's plain to see the improvements are for pedestrians which is good enough. But, at some real expense to motorists. The environment will also suffer, with extra tailbacks, having cars sitting idle in even longer traffic jams.

I'm disillusioned with the public consultation process. This can never be trusted, can it? What's to say they threw up the drawing on the website, showing no alreation to lane structures, but always knew they would change, even before the public consultation, because they knew there'd be uproar?

Jerry Atrick

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121465610#Comment_121465610

Is it too much to ask for so called 'experts' to make informed and correct calls of judgment? These people are very well paid, there should be some form of accountability especially with public funding.

Asdfgh2020

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121468332#Comment_121468332

The new version of the roundabout will be hugely pedestrian friendly which ticks the ‘green box’ for justification and that is all that counts the fact that there will be more crawling and idling car engines is offset by the ‘modal shift’ that the frustration of being ‘stuck’ in traffic will result in. they the greens envisage a future especially for urban dwellers without the need for any kind of private vehicle. So this short term pain for the motorist is fully justified. We can Look forward to more of these types of projects 😀

corollake35

The disgusting thing is we have all been hoodwinked. We, the tax payer, who ultimately pay the engineers wage should have known about this. We have been played and missguided, duped and only see what was probably always the design after the fact.

Asdfgh2020

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121470015#Comment_121470015

There is/was a public consultation process on this back in April/may this year. Majority of public don’t / didn’t know about it or didn’t look at it closely enough to appreciate what was intended or planned to be constructed so in lots of ways the public has only itself to blame…?

corollake35

You are half right, yes, nobody looks at these notices because they go totally under the radar.

But you are missing my point. The public notice is still there to be seen on the council website, I've put a link to it somewhere already in this thread. The public consultation shows no reduction in lanes. That's my point. We were missled, not informed until after the fact and we figure it out ourselves. And who is responsible for this, for informing the public?

Asdfgh2020

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121470377#Comment_121470377

Must have a look at the link…..will be interesting to see when complete what the impact will actually be vs the current perception that it will result in longer tail backs and idling engines spewing even more co2 and other noxious fumes into the atmospshere…?

Will we witness hoards of bicycles, scooters and walkers criss crossing the roundabout due by to it’s new improved features…?