Active Travel

Cabaal

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124284071#Comment_124284071

Avg speed camera covering 7km of the road would also sort lots of issues and make it far, far safer.
Might even have no need for the median then.

Valhalla90

Irelands answer is to reduce the speed limit and not actually make any safety related changes and then benefit from the increased income of fines. The Tramore road needs to be upgraded and a dual carriageway would prevent head on collisions and improve overall safety. There seems to be also a justification that the general public should be willing to accept poor driving standards such as going well below the speed limits and not question it. Leave extra early for your commute. Maybe actually have a decent standard of road that drivers can pass each other safely.

914

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124290259#Comment_124290259

You do realise speed limits are a guide and not to be exceeded, so if someone wants to do less than the limit they are more than entitled to.

If someone is driving slower and an accident occurs there is less of a chance of any fatality, that is a pure fact.

Again the stretch of the Tramore road is 7 kms. Someone said the difference in time is 3 minutes by going the limit and by going a lot slower.

I don't think asking someone to leave 3 minutes earlier is a massive deal, if time is their greatest concern.

Cabaal

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124290259#Comment_124290259

Your solution to poor driving standards is to design race tracks.

The road is fine, the manner in which people drive on it is not. Thats the problem.
Slowing down and enforcement is the key here and his millions cheaper then building a big giant 4 lane race track.

Giving people alternative transport options such as more buses and cycle lanes is also key, 7km is a perfectly fine distance on a bicycle.

Deiseen

Dual carriage way with light rail in the middle. Focus development of Waterford City away from the Dunmore road and toward the Tramore Road with access to said dual carriageway and light railway.

914

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124292424#Comment_124292424

While light rail would be amazing I honestly can't see it happening, when we can't even get basic funding for essential services.

azimuth17

I use the Waterford/Tramore road every day. It is always busy. It must be among the busiest regional road in the country. It should be a national primary road. Does anyone know what the AADT (average annual daily traffic) figures are? Id say it is way busier than many national primary routes.

Deiseen

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124292447#Comment_124292447

I know but to me that's the only way to bring Waterford into the 21st century.

Imagine high density housing all along the road with quick access to the light rail / dual carriage way system.

Put some bike racks on the carriages aswell for some of the bike lads.

Valhalla90

If it was upgraded to a National N road at least it would be maintained and have a decent surface. It’s shocking at present. I don’t think our councilors even know it has a Regional road classification.

azimuth17

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124293368#Comment_124293368

One councillor wanted the council meeting of March 18th to be cancelled as he wanted to go on the piss!

Fulltime politicians if you don't mind. About as interested in Active travel as my left eyeball.

Bards

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124293668#Comment_124293668

...And those meetings don't get underway until the afternoon too, so you can imagine how pissed he planned on getting…great example from an elected representative. NOT!

JMcL

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124292515#Comment_124292515

The traffic counts are only available for national roads though WCCC have done them on the Tramore Road in the past - no idea where/if they're to be found. There's a daft.ie listing for Katie Reilly's that claims "20k" passing traffic per day which I'd take with a large pinch of salt (the N25 is around €10k/day).

Dual carriageways and light rail are just not going to happen from a cost/benefit point of view. A proper, subsidised (I'd go so far as saying free) bus service will do a lot of the heavy lifting. A green/blue/quietway along the Green Road would provide an active travel corridor to SETU (it's a leisurely 30 minute cycle - probably 25 on an e-bike) and cut out the fairly hostile Kilbarry-ring road section for a lot of people (though it would be a detour for those going to town). Proper enforcement of speed limits (not targets), and distracted driving would instil some manners. As I said before, there's not a huge amount of difference between 50km/h and 80 and plenty of studies that show that depending on the circumstances higher speeds don't lead to faster arrival times (yo-yo effect on traffic) - they certainly do lead to worse outcomes in crashes.

None of these things are expensive in the great scheme of things, and the main black spots are 60-90 minutes max in the morning and evening at the ring road - it's not chronic - and this is mostly down to singe occupant private vehicles.

Wanderer78

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124297949#Comment_124297949

you re not gonna convince folks to move from their cars onto a bus, it just wont happen, even if you make it free, the most cost effective way is light rail, but thats not gonna happen, so the future is the private car, and for foreseeable its gonna be ice cars, until sometime in the future, it ll be primarily ev's, so the future is even more traffic congestion, period!

Cabaal

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124297973#Comment_124297973

if thats the mentality of many people then it proves that very clearly traffic in Waterford isn't actually that bad.
If people won't change habits they are getting what they deserve.

However, I don't think that the case for many with at least some level of cop on. A reliable and not expensive bus service would take many cars off the road.

Make Tramore road 4 lanes, but dedicate two of those to bus only with some bus lane cameras.
It'll be a money maker for the idiots that break the law and it'll enable people on buses to get to their destination faster especially at peak times.

Park and ride is also a solution, everyone driving into the city simply isn't scalable much further.

Wanderer78

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124298713#Comment_124298713

again, the problem isnt necessarily the peoples behaviors, its actually the behaviors of our policy makers, our policy makers have a refusal to play any major part in creating the conditions to help change peoples behaviors, i.e. not willing to invest significant amounts in modernising our transport infrastructure, in particular rail.

our policy makers have been frightened to death by accounts that investing in such is not 'cost effective', when in fact we have global evidence to support, it generally is, not always of course, but…..!

this has been occurring for decades now, leading to a dramatic deficit in our transport infrastructure nationally, which is resulting in a default towards the private car, which is set to continue, and possibly indefinite, i.e. dont worry, very little is gonna change!

yes an improved bus service would indeed help, but no, the majority will not move from their private cars onto such a service, its just not gonna happen, no matter what!

its important to realise, not everyone is doing a single destination journey, with many doing multiple journeys across the day, picking up and dropping off kids, partners, and other journeys, hence why the private car is required, its actually cost effective to have light rail 'services', but again, its not gonna happen, hence the default!

914

I'd agree the majority of people won't move from car to either bus or cycle.

Free transport for those under 16/18, would encourage the next generation to use public transport and if it was convenient and reliable they may continue to use public transport or cycle as opposed to going the car route.

I don't think any active travel/public transport plans will shift the current generation but what you would hope is it would break the norm for following generations.

914

https://m.independent.ie/regionals/waterford/news/concerns-grow-over-delays-for-busconnects-transport-plan-in-waterford/a1898455295.html

Bus connect looks to be delayed even further

Jerry Atrick

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124299161#Comment_124299161

Are we surprised?