Farronshoneen Roundabout

Valhalla90

Very weird that they just changed the plans and reduced it to one lane. Surely that can’t be done as there is a design, contract etc. it’s a mess regardless. I’m all for pedestrian safety and improvements but making roads smaller and creating traffic backlogs isn’t really the best for the environment either, since a lot of these projects are stemming from the Green Party.

azimuth17

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121470995#Comment_121470995

Came through from ORR towards UHW at 12 noon, no problem. Two lanes on the ORR approach (one currently closed) from Cork Road , one single new lane apparently on the John's Hill entrance side. Very wide footpaths in evidence. Pedestrians plus bikes?

corollake35

Everyone knows that putting down the infrastructure to facilitate cycling, walking, Scooters etc. is not going to see an uptake in these activities. We don't have the climate for it. The ring road from the Cork road to Farranshoneen roundabout is one long uphill climb, I don't know how many kilometers? We don't have the topography to lend to these activities as a sole means of transport either.

The best of intentions out there, and screw all else. But not practical for the average Joe, going to work, dropping kids to creche, as a sole means of transport. And Waterford is not big enough to lay on cross city public transport. I believe you'd be lucky at all if the Kenneally's bus arrives at all on the Williamstown Road.

Asdfgh2020

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121471607#Comment_121471607

When all done and dusted will be interesting to compare the commute times at peak periods to the pre works layout commute times…..? Will the increase in crawling/idling time be minutes or tens of minutes longer. Would it be too much to expect that the ‘engineers’ in charge would have recorded these times so that a valid comparison can be made…!

Jerry Atrick

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121472686#Comment_121472686

Yes it would be expecting too much. The roads/traffic engineers in council are about as useful as a chocolate teapot.

Asdfgh2020

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121476380#Comment_121476380

What do these guys actually do then apart from dreaming up projects that piss off annoy the public at large……..you have a very cynical / arrogant negative view of council personnel. some of the projects recently like the subject of this thread are highly questionable but on the other side of the spectrum you have the bilberry rd improvements/greenway upgrade which I think can be said was/is a really excellent project effective apart from the section where you cross at the bridge …?

Jerry Atrick

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121477247#Comment_121477247

Am I cynical when it comes to government entities and productivity metrics? Absolutely I am.

It's a given that they complete works that are of a high standard and welcome. My issue is with traffic measures taken by council with limited consultation that have resulted in horrendous results for road users. The green agenda is pie in the sky for at least another decade at best.

914

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121481800#Comment_121481800

There were open consultation on this project for a number of weeks, granted it was 18-24 months ago, anyone was free to make submissions/proposals

Jerry Atrick

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121483856#Comment_121483856

Yes but why have public consultation when the actual works differ from what was proposed? I don't know, seem to be quite a few posters here love sitting in traffic and getting nowhere around the city?

914

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121484092#Comment_121484092

Maybe the changes are based on public opinion?

Out of interest, what is different? Only the two lanes from Grange to one lane?

Also our of interest what was your proposal to the plans?

Asdfgh2020

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121484453#Comment_121484453

Construction phases of any project always have the biggest impact and piss off the public most as it affects their regular pattern of predictable commuting…..when this is complete the likely long term impact will be more Q’ing at certain times (mostly pm I’d guess) on the outbound from town approach to the fearronsooneen roundabout…? Looks like all other approaches to the roundabout will maintain their two lanes…?

corollake35

I doubt they are going to have 2 lanes off Williamstown Road when the cones are moved. It will mirror the other side of the roundabout I'm thinking. So, yes, at peak times traffic wil be more congested by design.

Posters here saying you had your chance to say something during the public consultation aren't getting it. The public consultation drawing showed no reduction in lanes. Nowhere, all along, that I can find, is there any notice of this altered plan? I'm thinking they always planned this, just fed the public a rosey drawing, then hit site and "do your own thing".

How can there be no one to answer to?

Jerry Atrick

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121484453#Comment_121484453

Changing layout of lanes from the public consultation plans is a pretty major change.

Pedestrian/bike accomodating kerbs to road level in all islands off the roundabout. Protection barrier on said islands off all arms. Keep all roads at two lanes as they already are. Possibly put a pedestrian crossing (yellow flashing lights) about 20yds up road towards Farran Park. There is no need for 12ft of footpaths in these areas for limited foot traffic. Making the footpath almost as wide as the road is complete madness.

Asdfgh2020

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121485814#Comment_121485814

I was told before that Local Authorities/Council’s have a huge amount of statutory powers regarding alterations to road layouts etc that don’t need any public involvement…gets harder when they need to buy/acquire land for a project but in case of this project doesn’t look like they needed to buy any additional strip of land to accommodate the ‘improvements’…….however the new footpath width on the Willuamstown road as you approach the roundabout as you go into town could have done with being wider but would have involved land purchase so probably the reason it isn’t happening…?

Cabaal

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121471607#Comment_121471607

ah the good old climate excuse, shame it doesn't stack up.

For starters there's large amount of cyclists in places like Finland, even in the winter. Do you want to know why? It's good infrastructure that does it.

But lets compare Waterford to Amsterdam:

Waterford annual values:

Daytime maximum temperature: 13.30 °C

Daily low temperature: 6.3 °C

Precipitation: 858 mm

Rain Days: 135.6 days

Amsterdam annual values:

Daytime maximum temperature: 14.20 °C

Daily low temperature: 7 °C

Precipitation: 810 mm

Rain Days: 127.2 days

We're largely the same yet Amsterdam has massive amounts of cyclists. Why? Because from the 1970's and 80's on-wards they built infrastructure that attracted people to cycle more. Prior to that a large amount of the streets were full of really bad traffic congestion and the country as a whole saw lots of road deaths including numerous children. Stuff like rain is a none issue, jackets and overpants are wonderful inventions and rain becomes a non issue once you have decent one's.

As for your topograpghy claim. I honestly have to ask when was the last time you cycled?

The hill is perfectly do-able. But even if you found it a challenge an ebike will flatten any hill for you and ebikes are far and above outselling EV's all across Europe including Ireland. Its clear you've never cycled one.

Waterford is a really nice place to cycle, once the motorists aren't trying to kill you.

Dum_Dum_2

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121500122#Comment_121500122

Viewed as a necessity every household should have, the motor car is a sunk cost. Your asking people to walk past their car and cycle to their destination.

You can take a few steps back and ask why it is viewed as such, but ultimately is a number of conspiring factors giving cause and effect to each other, including convenience, poor public transport, suburban to suburban traffic flows, urban topography etc.

corollake35

@Cabaal

Yes, it's a long te since I cycled. Due to health even electric is not an option. I'm far from anti bike.

Cycling is what I used to live for. I used to able to strip a bike to bare frame and build again, including building wheels from scratch.

My real beef is with the public consultation drawing. We've been lied to by the council. I can't believe that the current layout was only thought of as works were under way. We, you and me, we're sold a pup.

Asdfgh2020

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121503138#Comment_121503138

apart from the removal of the relatively short section (50m) of left turning lane as you approach the roundabout coming out from town what other ‘major changes’ have there been…?

This change will no doubt cause longer Q’s at peak times but don’t think it will be as catastrophic as soon contributors are making it out to be…if an average car is say 5m long then chopping off 50m of lane will add 10 cars to the Q of traffic at peak times hard to predict how many minutes / tens of minutes this will equate to but hardly that many…?

Bards

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121508696#Comment_121508696

They are halving the throughput at this roundabout thus doubling or quadrupling the queues.. Remember the experiment of a European style roundabout at Tesco entrance.. Lasted about a week before the council had to abondon that brilliant idea

Asdfgh2020

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121509046#Comment_121509046

Think you will need to explain this a bit further………how is omitting a 50m section of a lane halving the capacity of the overall roundabout….?

I don’t recall the European style roundabout experiment…?

corollake35

Traffic builds exponentially. It has a continuous knock on effect back down the line.

I don't remember the tesco roundabout experiment either?

Jerry Atrick

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121509046#Comment_121509046

Lasted about 3 days...filtering two lanes from Farronshoneen roundabout to Tesco into one lane. Absolutely fantastic idea at the time!

azimuth17

Pardon me for asking. The roundabout had eight lanes, two each from four directions entering it. If it is only on the John's Hill entrance that they are closing one lane and all other entrances stay the same, this means that there will be seven lanes entering the roundabout and not eight, a reduction of one eighth or 12.5%? In the interest of pedestrian safety on that very narrow approach, which had a very narrow foorpath.

corollake35

Work on the Williamstown Road is not finished. I doubt they can shoe horn a filter lane in for the ring road now?

No denying that the footpath along there was a disaster.

What's vexxing is we were never informed.

The council threw up a drawing for public consultation last year showing no alteration to lanes. We were misled.

Asdfgh2020

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121510491#Comment_121510491

Drove through there this pm and had a good ‘goo’…….definitely only one arm/leg of roundabout has been reduced to single which is the outbound arm/leg from centra towards the roundabout…..all others will continue to have 2 lanes

Jerry Atrick

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121511949#Comment_121511949

That is one lane too many, in my book, on one of the busiest roundabouts in the county.

Asdfgh2020

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121513652#Comment_121513652

Care to elaborate…..can’t see this having that much impact…?

BBM77

https://www.wlrfm.com/news/council-says-poor-driver-behaviour-to-blame-for-farronshoneen-works-issues-339745

Revelation! Council say it was all our fault.

Asdfgh2020

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121517551#Comment_121517551

Stupid headline

Bards

Local elections coming up... I gurantee this will be high on the list to rectify and bring back the 2 x lanes from farran park towards Tesco, or implement a slip before the roundabout similar to rice bridge heading towards Sally park