M6 - Galway City Ring Road [planning decision pending]

Did you read the paper you shared: there’s a crucial line in the summary.

”we find positive effects of road density and road paved on total factor productivity (TFP) in countries with middle low and low income (using parametric and non-parametric estimations”

Is Ireland a middle or low income country?

Citing the M50 as something “that wasn’t a problem” shows an incredible lack of memory. We are now about to enter the third iteration of the M50: first was 2x2 lanes each way with at-grade junctions; the second was an enormously expensive scheme to grade-separate those junctions and add additional running lanes; the third is a managed motorway with variable speed-limits and the potential for per-kilometre usage charging in future.

It is demand for transportation that is linked to population, not demand for roads. Road space is only one mechanism for satisfying demand for transportation. It is, however, the cheapest in terms of capital spending. The alternatives (light rail, integrated bus network, etc) require ongoing operating expenditure, which is something that our government has always been very reluctant to approve. You would have thought that the lesson of Luas (which operates at a surplus) would have convinced the government that public transport can be something other than a drain on the exchequer, but old habits die very hard: fire-and-forget solutions like roadbuilding look like easy wins.

(I am fully aware that not all who would use the M6 could use a light rail system instead, but the key is to take the very many who could go by public transport out of private cars, thus freeing space on the existing roads for commercial users and those who have no other option but to drive)

I notice you lads have no solution for those in say Barna, Spiddal, Moycullen, etc, etc or do you suggest they also get ebikes. 🙄

And as someone who had to cycle across Galway city for a couple of years many moons ago, I can't say I enjoyed all those days of p***ing rain.

@Sam Russell I think this shows that the problems in Galway are not caused by road capacity: each change to Moneenageisha increased the capacity of that junction, but very quickly the traffic overcame it.

I see Galway’s primary problem being that people have no option except to commute by car. Public transport provision in Galway is tiny, and the dispersed population west of the city makes it hard to service with buses (plus, buses have to fight with other traffic, making them less attractive than sitting in the same traffic in your own car). If you gave me the budget, I’d run an fast light-rail along the coast here, with P+R parks at every stop: drive to the station, park for free, get the tram into town. It’ll be a better option for enough people that it would free up road space for those for whom driving is still the best (or only) option.

As for the roundabouts, TII design guidelines suggest using roundabout junctions where the road standard changes (it’s explicitly part of the design standard for going from 2+2 to single-carriageway): I imagine a simple merge or tapering would result in traffic where drivers who were not paying attention to the end-of-motorway markers, and so are still travelling at 120km/h, mixing with those who were, and have slowed down. Sometimes, like at M9, the roundabout is a relic of a plan that has not happened. (I believe that M9 was to have continued seamlessly onto an updgraded N24, with that roundabout being the exit for N25)

@Ulises Damp Bubble I have no idea what part of my post you’re referring to with the below. Care to elaborate?

Building better PT will mean that those who can't do anything but drive will hit less traffic - while the rest who can take advantage of mass transit, will, because its quicker/easier.

Building a 600million euro road around the city to distribute traffic will not make things better, it will be overcome with traffic within 5 years and then the car drivers will be begging for another road!

The papers were - how short is your memory?

There was plenty of demand for an outer M50, but eventually it died off as more people realised the problem is distributor traffic. Exact same as Galway - problem is distributor traffic not bypass traffic. Its people trying to get into the city, or go from 1 part of the city to the other. Public transport should facilitate that, not more roads.

Don't see many recent posts since the above warning on this forum being: on the subject of the construction of the road as granted PP by ABP; or decisions on funding and contract aspects.

Just the same old arguments going back and forth.

A JR was inevitable given our dysfunctional planning appeal system but a shame nonetheless. It's a shame for the people of Galway, as this effectively freezes the Galway Transport Strategy for the coming years, and essentially eliminates any realistic chance of radical redistribution of Galway's road space. The ring road will remain just as necessary after the JR concludes, but it will only continue to increase in price, and will just be delivered instead by an SF/FF government at greater expense several years down the line.

I guess the rest of us will benefit from increased road funding though in the meantime, so maybe Galway's loss is the rest of Ireland's gain. Is olc an ghaoth...