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Roundabout city

Mailcoachinn

Why are there so many roundabouts in Portlaoise?

I have actually gotten dizzy driving through the town

What is the deal with Laois CC? Why are they so obsessed with building more roundabouts?

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Wildly Boaring

Milton Keynes..... what a mess

Locals reckon if you have a car there for too long it'll start to lean over as your suspension wears unevenly going in circles all day.

And the whole place looks the same.

Boredom city.....

doolox

Roundabouts allow good drivers to get ahead and move in heavy traffic. Traffic lights are the devils spawn because most drivers are slow, inattentive and reluctant to accelerate fast away from a green light. Hence in traffic light junctions you have a lot of dead time between stopping one line of traffic and starting another and allowing pedestrians to cross junctions.

The biggest monstrosity of all is putting pedestrian lights near roundabouts just out of the line of sight for traffic. You get a situation where a driver gets through a roundabout and is then immediately confronted by a red light and has to stop. Inevitably a following car does not see the stopped car and the red light and runs into the back of the stopped car. The positioning of these pedestrian lights too close to the exit of roundabouts is shambolic and a political sop to pedestrians, most of whom hate roundabouts anyway.

Liamalone

doolox wrote: »

The biggest monstrosity of all is putting pedestrian lights near roundabouts just out of the line of sight for traffic. You get a situation where a driver gets through a roundabout and is then immediately confronted by a red light and has to stop. Inevitably a following car does not see the stopped car and the red light and runs into the back of the stopped car.

There's one like this near me, anytime I see the lights go red I'm waiting for a smash.

Wildly Boaring

doolox wrote: »

The positioning of these pedestrian lights too close to the exit of roundabouts is shambolic and a political sop to pedestrians, most of whom hate roundabouts anyway.

Eh they supposed to fly over the junction?

Only place for the lights logically.

Unless you want them to walk 100m down the road so your metal box can make progress through their neighbourhood

OldMrBrennan83

Wildly Boaring wrote: »

Eh they supposed to fly over the junction?

Only place for the lights logically.

Unless you want them to walk 100m down the road so your metal box can make progress through their neighbourhood

That's exactly what they should do.

Harry Palmr

Teyla Emmagan wrote: »

That ring road around Waterford is absolutely horrific. You can barely get the car above 3rd gear for about 20 minutes with all the effing roundabouts.

Rubbish, the speed limit is 80 and 5th gear is perfectly possible for all but the final section which is 50.

JohnnyFlash

Walkinstown roundabout is grand. Stick the nose out a bit, wait for a gap, then put the foot down and shoot out. Indicate as you leave.

Skylinehead

Ballycoolin is a veritable sea of roundabouts.

indioblack

Jim 77 wrote: »

The "Magic Roundabout" is a central roundabout with 5 satellite roundabouts where you move in opposite directions on the inner and outer roundabouts, whereas the Walkinstown one is busy but pretty standard. I've driven both and the Magic Roundabout was a lot more difficult.

The one and only time I've used the Magic Rounabout in Swindon was in 1972 - the year it was constructed. They must still have been completing it when I rode through on my motor bike and there wasn't much traffic at the time.
I didn't have the patience to figure it all out - so I just rode across it.

[Deleted User]

doolox wrote: »

Roundabouts allow good drivers to get ahead and move in heavy traffic. Traffic lights are the devils spawn because most drivers are slow, inattentive and reluctant to accelerate fast away from a green light. Hence in traffic light junctions you have a lot of dead time between stopping one line of traffic and starting another and allowing pedestrians to cross junctions.

The biggest monstrosity of all is putting pedestrian lights near roundabouts just out of the line of sight for traffic. You get a situation where a driver gets through a roundabout and is then immediately confronted by a red light and has to stop. Inevitably a following car does not see the stopped car and the red light and runs into the back of the stopped car. The positioning of these pedestrian lights too close to the exit of roundabouts is shambolic and a political sop to pedestrians, most of whom hate roundabouts anyway.

The worst aspect of having lots of traffic lights (many at questionable locations) is that drivers tend to turn into drones, staring blankly at the lights, waiting for the green to switch on.
This has the affect of making many drivers less observant of their surroundings and other traffic as all they are thinking about is that bloody light is too slow to change!

Green, GO GO GO, there could be a mass orgy going on on the pavement and no one will see it.

Ashleigh1986

Roundabouts work well in one place .....on paper.
To many crap drivers in Ireland to let it work in principle.
At least with lights the gob****es know green is go ,red is stop .
In galway they are going to eventually take all roundabouts out .
At rush hours they get blocked up by gob****es driving out and blocking them up. Can't wait to see the last of them !!!!!

r93kaey5p2izun

Thought this would be about Lucan.

OldMrBrennan83

AllForIt wrote: »

Why are there so many roundabouts in Portlaoise?

I have actually gotten dizzy driving through the town

What is the deal with Laois CC? Why are they so obsessed with building more roundabouts?

The last two mini ones they put in were needed in an absolutely massive way.

Rubberlegs

Harry Palmr wrote: »

Rubbish, the speed limit is 80 and 5th gear is perfectly possible for all but the final section which is 50.

Have been known to go into 6th gear myself, it really isn't that bad!

JupiterKid

Roundabouts work very well where roads of equal importance and equal traffic volumes meet...up to a point. The first roundabouts in Ireland were in the Marino estate in the 1920s, followed by estates such as Crumlin, Cabra, Drimnagh and Ballyfermot in the 1930s, 40s and 50s.

In the 1970s and 80s Ireland went roundabout mad, putting them on junctions where there really should have been a grade separated junction. Ever seen the old Swords bypass?

Now, they are being gradually removed at the busiest junctions where they simply cannot cope with traffic volumes. But they still have their place and do work well in the scenario I outlined in my first paragraph.

As for Galway, well that city is an utter planning and traffic disaster. Portlaoise? The less said about it the better...

Tom Mann Centuria

The Plough roundabout in Hemel Hempstead in the UK has six mini roundabouts going around the main roundabout.

Aongus Von Bismarck

Ashleigh1986 wrote: »

Roundabouts work well in one place .....on paper.
To many crap drivers in Ireland to let it work in principle.
At least with lights the gob****es know green is go ,red is stop .
In galway they are going to eventually take all roundabouts out .
At rush hours they get blocked up by gob****es driving out and blocking them up. Can't wait to see the last of them !!!!!

I don't think removing the roundabouts in Galway will have much on an impact on the quality of driving in the place. I'm from the county originally, and when I return I'm always shocked by how brainless most of the drivers are there. Absolutely idiotic and dangerous, even by the shambolic standard of most Irish drivers.

Gormless looking bogmen and women driving round in dilapidated jalopys. No concept of signalling, situational awareness, or making sufficient progress. The Headford Road must be the scene of the worst driving in Ireland on a regular basis.

JupiterKid

Aongus Von Bismarck wrote: »

I don't think removing the roundabouts in Galway will have much on an impact on the quality of driving in the place. I'm from the county originally, and when I return I'm always shocked by how brainless most of the drivers are there. Absolutely idiotic and dangerous, even by the shambolic standard of most Irish drivers.

Gormless looking bogmen and women driving round in dilapidated jalopys. No concept of signalling, situational awareness, or making sufficient progress. The Headford Road must be the scene of the worst driving in Ireland on a regular basis.

And of course your driving (or is it rather your personal chauffeur’s?) in your 7 series BMW on the Autobahns is absolutely perfekte, ya??

[Deleted User]

Port Laoise (that's two words, everybody - and yes, the last syllable is an "ah" sound in the pattern of Deirdre, Aoife, Gráinne etc not an "eesh" sound no matter how many nincompoops say otherwise).

OldMrBrennan83

[Deleted User] wrote: »

Port Laoise (that's two words, everybody - and yes, the last syllable is an "ah" sound in the pattern of Deirdre, Aoife, Gráinne etc not an "eesh" sound no matter how many nincompoops say otherwise).

Nah, it's the way everyone says it. Pronouncing the e just sounds completely wrong.

Ashleigh1986

Aongus von Bismarck ....couldn't agree with you more.
Headford road in galway is like a past time in Ireland.
They come in that road and think .... "What da fxxk is this"????
It's a roundabout which you signal what you are about to do .
Fxxk that .. I will just drive on .
Muck savages in for the day causing grief/ stress to anyone that has to deal with them on the road or shops .

[Deleted User]

Aongus Von Bismarck wrote: »

I don't think removing the roundabouts in Galway will have much on an impact on the quality of driving in the place. I'm from the county originally, and when I return I'm always shocked by how brainless most of the drivers are there. Absolutely idiotic and dangerous, even by the shambolic standard of most Irish drivers.

Gormless looking bogmen and women driving round in dilapidated jalopys. No concept of signalling, situational awareness, or making sufficient progress. The Headford Road must be the scene of the worst driving in Ireland on a regular basis.

Your caravan has been clamped.

Capt'n Midnight

Galwayguy35

Ashleigh1986 wrote: »

Aongus von Bismarck ....couldn't agree with you more.
Headford road in galway is like a past time in Ireland.
They come in that road and think .... "What da fxxk is this"????
It's a roundabout which you signal what you are about to do .
Fxxk that .. I will just drive on .
Muck savages in for the day causing grief/ stress to anyone that has to deal with them on the road or shops .

Typical townie.

Wildly Boaring

https://www.google.ie/maps/place/51%C2%B049'13.0%22N+0%C2%B048'56.2%22W/@51.820279,-0.8161486,181m/data=!3m2!1e3!4b1!4m14!1m7!3m6!1s0x4877b6c6c66c36cd:0x125df4c90cabaf30!2sBedford,+UK!3b1!8m2!3d52.1359729!4d-0.4666546!3m5!1s0x0:0x0!7e2!8m2!3d51.8202789!4d-0.8155987

Ayesbury

Used drive this beaut twice every day
3 roundabouts in a row with no real space to stop between them and pedestrian crossings between them

Messy
Can't say it works too well either. If anything large is trying to get through they can get stopped in number 2 or 3 and kinda block no 1.

Graces7

Galwayguy35 wrote: »

Typical townie.

I first "met" Galway city at around 5 am one winter morning as I was moving from deepest Kerry to Connemara. Three cats and a dog with me and every time I slowed for traffic lights, dog started barking.

My memory was of lights high on poles and even then traffic in every direction... Oh I spotted Dunnes!

So many lights and then junctions and lanes...

Ballina and Castlebar I can manage... But Galway to a newcomer.

MikeyTaylor

Milton Keynes too.

ToddyDoody

Jimmy. wrote: »

Waterford C.C. is equally as bad. I reckon it’s inbred people.

Some might take offense to that.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roundabout

mortimer33

CeilingFly wrote: »

The funny thing is that the walkinstown roundabout rarely has an accident

I think the Portlaoise roundabouts work well - it's as much a traffic calming measure as a traffic flow measure. Alternative would be speed ramps and traffic lights

Traffic needs to be slowed down on that roundabout. Some headcases drive through it without indicators as if they are taking a bend in an F1 race. I use it very often and I've seen plenty of near misses. I think a reduction of 3 lanes into 2 would help. The third (outer) lane is always blocked by cars creeping out so definitely no need for it.

Melodeon

Patww79 wrote: »

Nah, it's the way everyone says it. Pronouncing the e just sounds completely wrong.

It does though allow us locals to easily identify the pretentious outsiders

Anyhow, the correct spelling is Maryborough, pronounced "Marbra".