Maybe not
there's parking at The Square, Church Rd, N84 junction (Joyce's mensware), Tesco carpark (plenty).... issue is most people are lazy and expect to park outside to get their takeaway, shop etc.. now, granted some with limited mobility do need parking within close proximity but then allocate parking for them and come down hard on those who cynically abuse it. the town doesn't need more parking, it needs a change in expectations and behaviour 🤔🤪🤣
Great line: "Why are we still needed?"
5yrs on the go is the Cyclebus - how many km's of cycle or bus network have been added to the City Network in those 5 years? Answer: "0" ZERO
Brendan and his buddys in City Hall still searching, hoping, longing for that Silver bullet to "solve" Galway Citys Car traffic issues.
Agree with you re the lanes.
But young children shouldn't be travelling to school unaccompanied: even if there were high-quality cycle lanes, adult supervision would still be needed.
The barriers are always the same. We do not have enough high quality cycle lanes/paths/permeability gaps for parents to even cycle with their kids to school without setting up cycle buses. If we had that - they could be unaccompanied when walking or cycling like is done on the continent once they reach a certain age (not the continent across the atlantic mind)
Much of this network can be delivered within residential housing estates rather than pushing a "cycle bus" onto a road along the WDR for example; but get the usual reactions about that even though its a non-issue in the more established / mature areas of the City.
Could count the no of meters (not even km's) of cycle path lanes that have been built in the last 5 years and they are just around the modified N6 junctions - certainly not a suitable environment for children.
Millars lane is the classic example of the piecemeal approach to the way the Council operate - it has been there for decades as a gravel path, and when they finally had funding to surface it and light it and widen its linkages into neighbouring estates; they chickened out.
The Council Executive are cowards here - the common good is not been met.
To reduce Galway Citys Car traffic mess - these types of schemes will have to be done properly.
Its all the rivers fault
The river has nothing to do with it - you could build 3 more bridges and the traffic problems would still be there. Theres still a big destination problem - too many people driving to destinations that simply cannot fit all the cars in and out at peak times (Parkmore, NUIG, various schools)
Eco Eye?
How balanced 🙄
What’s the odds on them talking about the Bay to the South and the Lake to the North? About how everything goes to three junctions and the road between them? About how what goes for the city goes for the entirity of West Galway County?
Or is it all the same about how Galway City needs to take a road diet? How cars need to be made f*ck off?
Part of the problem with Galway is the national focus it brings from activism. If people knew about the roads forced to stay open with higher speed limits for through traffic into and out of the urban area, they’d look at roadbuilding *as part of* the drive to take vehicles off city centre roads. But nah. A chokepoint is too good a tool for the anti-car movement to force people off the road & go elsewhere. The national movement will not see this tool defeated.
And just like how no one’s getting state-built homes because of free-market ideologues, the people suffer at the hands of idological activists.
We have already seen the ideology of the car has not worked for the City for the last couple of decades.
We need to try something else that has worked in other comparable City's in Europe.
The City Council, County Council, Galway Chamber of Commerce still believe in what you say - so your ideology is still the dominant one.
God, that's an awful blinkered, self-centred perspective. Just to take two of his points:
Public transport not making any difference to "people like myself"
Aside from the subtext that it's people 'like himself' who matter more, does he not get the very basic fact that more people choosing public transport means fewer people driving and competing for space with other drivers like himself. So, yes, it could make a very real difference to him.
Pedestrians 'sauntering' across the road.
He gets p!ssy about someone pressing a button and then crossing when the way is clear, even though the pedestrian light hasn't turned green, but then complains that drivers have to sit looking at an empty crossing and a red light for 30 seconds. Does he not get the fact that:
a) if the pedestrian hadn't 'sauntered' across the road and had instead waited for the green man, the drivers still wouldn't get through the junction any faster.
b) he thinks that drivers being forced to stop at a red light looking at an empty stretch of road for 30 seconds, while sitting comfortably in a warm dry car, is an indignity worth writing into the paper to complain about. But he doesn't for a moment stop to consider that the reason the road is empty is because the pedestrian was asked to do the exact same thing; to stand and wait looking at an empty crossing and a red crossing light, but without the benefit of a comfy seat in a warm, dry space, to wait in. I guess they're just not 'people like himself'.
c) lights in Galway generally only allow enough time for the fittest to cross before they start flashing. It's nowhere near 30 seconds and it's very tight for someone less mobile to cross in the time allotted. On the other hand, most pedestrian crossing lights are set up to enforce a delay, no matter what the traffic levels. I fail to understand why, if someone is standing at a crossing, has pressed the button and is waiting to cross, they should be forced to wait so that priority can be given to someone else who is still 400 meters away, just because the someone else is in a car.
" self-centred perspective."
Thanks. That was exactly the word I was looking for after reading the letter but the word failed to find me.
the very basic fact that more people choosing public transport means fewer people driving and competing for space with other drivers like himself. So, yes, it could make a very real difference to him.
This concept is so ingrained in Irish life - why is it so hard for people to grasp this? It's not just this letter writer; many in City Hall struggle with it.
Or maybe they'll mention the Dublin Road Bus Connects. Or the Western Distributor Road bus lanes. Or the Tuam Road Bus Lanes from Claregalway. Or Park N Rides. All proposals that will in no way reduce the number of lanes used for driving.
However, even if they do mention these completely uncontentious proposals, that's all they are and all they will remain, forever and ever amen.
Who replaces Chief Brendan McGrath this year?
A summary of the EcoEye program on Galway Transport this evening
I thought that was a very disappointing program, with many opportunities missed. The School Cycle Bus chap spoke well though. and seeing some of the video of it, man some drovers need to lighten up and cool the jets a bit.
I wonder were the City/ County councils asked to partake? I don’t think it was mentioned if they were, or if they were asked and refused.
I think we all know what they would have said "well once the ring road gets built we can look at maybe, possibly, thinking about having a conversation about some things that could maybe be done sometime on some bits but it all depends on the ring road and we have to make sure that enough cars come into the city to use our parking"
Also, the clown riding the electric scooter one handed whilst using the phone, travelling in front of a truck……what an idiot!
rant/
Stopped at the traffic lights at Aldi in Westside at 8.30 this morning all lights were red and school warden just led a few kids across when five cyclists went straight through the red lights one turned right across all lanes towards Aldi absolutely crazy I had them on dash cam but cant post video
Those arseholes beeping and revving their engines at the cycle bus in Galway on Eco Eye ffs, carbrain is a mental disease.
Have ya looked back at the footage? The person who turned right across all lanes would most likely have had the GREEN CYCLE light as this junction which allows you to cross said 5 lanes. Ya might not see it sitting in a car as just don't have same view as someone walking or cycling would have. Its one of the limitations I find when I am stuck behind the windscreen.
After seeing that Eco Eye episode, it just seems that the council and the councillors have just given up on the city. Radical intervention needs to happen with the governing body to get them moving at this stage, it's gone way too far. The incompetence is breathtaking.
Eco Eye was embarrassing for the council and councillors, I hope they were watching.
This is very Galway;
Once we have the Greens in government and a green minister for transport, things will change..
I think the transport minister is as frustrated as everyone else, the council used to blame a lack of funding but now they'll not use the money and staff that are being offered.
They are not able; change is hard. The mindset change is beyond them when they have been conditioned to think like this. They have been putting ALL the eggs in the one basket for the last 3 decades. First the bypass, then the ring road. Its the City Executive I blame here mostly - not the Cllrs. Might need a sweep out of personnel at the top.
For example the City Roads Engineers & Executive 20yrs ago wanted to put in a Dual Carriageway on the Seamus Quirke Road /Bishop O'Donnell Road with multilane Roundabouts. Majority of Cllr's at that time opposed it, wanted bus lanes and traffic lights junctions. ABP agreed with them in 2003 - was nearly a decade later (during a time when there was very little capital spend going on due to the "Celtic Tiger" crash) that the City Executive got the Seamus Quirke Road /Bishop O'Donnell Road bus lanes built, this of course was after the first bypass proposal they had been working on for a decade failed to get over the line.
The local Connacht Tribune two front storys in the paper today - gives a good indication why we have the issues we have in the City - the City Council just do not have the ability to plan a City.
The reason we have this front page headline like this
"
is that we have a Council who are still doing this kind of thing in 2022/2023:
https://connachttribune.ie/blow-to-galway-city-council-housing-targets-following-knocknacarra-refusal/
An Bord Pleanála has rejected outright plans for the development at Keeraun, Ballymoneen Road which was due to be built on a controversial site for which the Council forked out over €10 million to purchase.
In its ruling, the Board said the proposal amounted to “piecemeal development of the area without the provision of adequate social and physical infrastructure” – with poor public transport a key issue identified in its consideration.
For anyone that missed it
Doughiska Road South (Roscam) bike lanes construction to start shortly
Its not a bad scheme, but disappointing implementation south of the rail line with the bike lanes only being put on one side of the road for no obvious reason
It really is a pity that Cycle Bus have to even use this stretch of WDR with its poor cycle lanes (not wide enough) - but highlights why the Cycle Bus still needs to exist. If Hawthorn Place was connected to Slí an Sruathan and Slí an Struathan was connected to Caiseal Ur that would be link available to any kids on the Northern Section of Clyabun Road to Gaelscoil Mhic Amhlaigh via the Gateway Retail Park. There are probably plenty of kids in those cars who are going to School who might walk or cycle if that kind of link was in existence. Above is just one example. Other links can be done from Ballymoneen etc
Residents of Hawthorn Place objected to proposed pedestrian access from WDR (close to Stiofan roundabout) as it would attract anti-social activity. Circa 2018
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