Galway traffic

You fail to understand. Its not an either or. Its both. Adequate public transport and cycling infrastructure or an outer orbital route will not do anything other than alleviate today's problems. Tomorrows problems will need both.

You make a point here, however there are people who are against the ring road because they don't believe that post the opening of the ring road that the city council will invest in sustainable travel, time and time again the council have bowed to the wishes of the few over the common good. The Engineers in the traffic department of Galway City Council recommended that lough atalia would be changed to a two lane one way system, however the city councillors bowed to pressure from residents to prevent this from happening. How come park and ride plans weren't incorporated into the ring road ?

Yeah was about to post pretty much this.

People have lost faith in the council actually implementing any significant changes in the city centre. They'll make some token projects, they'll get diluted down or withdrawn because someone wants the road space for parking.

The plan for the roads inside the ring road should be fully designed out, approved and ready to go alongside the ring road. Otherwise we'll have the usual excuse that there isn't enough space until the next road is built.

I don't think anybody is saying cars should he eliminated, but the priority for road space allocation should be flipped.

As a loaded example, if we build the ring road, can we remove some on-street parking along the prom to install a cycle or bus lane?

That wasn't politically acceptable before, I don't see that becoming more likely or the political strength being there to back it.

I noticed the traffic in the west of the city was much lighter this morning than yesterday. Similar weather. I wonder if this has much impact on it...

Also Friday morning traffic tends to be light.

walking? Surely you meant to write 'pedestrians rat running through Bowling Green'? 😉

You post that links to an article from the 1970s / 80s? which specifically mentions moving bus stops from Eglinton Street to Eyre Square and building shelters. I comment that this was done, a long time ago - and that triggers a set of photos of city fringe bus stops that don't have shelters. Baffling.

You don't like here any more, so perhaps are unaware what those bus stops are mostly used for - which is mainly getting OFF the bus. There is one which a lot of people use to get on the bus, and so have to wait making use of a shelter (Francis St). But here, the front of the church provides far more natural shelter than any bus shelter ever could.

The network of bus shelters is not complete.

But it has grown hugely over the last 10 years. And passenger-boarding data has been used to make sure that new shelters are put in places where they are most needed, which is mainly in the suburbs.

This seems like a somewhat backward way of selecting which stops 'deserve' to be rewarded with a shelter. But it probably is the only method really.

It's a bit cart leading the horse. Like it's human nature to want to be sheltered from the wind and rain etc. If a passenger is in close proximity of a bus shelter, they will use that shelter. If there are 2 stops close by and only 1 has a shelter, they will use that stop. The boarding data won't reflect that. People might not use certain stops because of this reason. I know years ago I used to get the 405. It used to regularly not show up. There was no shelter there, or any for 3+ stops either side. I didn't have the option of walking to the next stop, so the next best option was to walk away from the direction I was traveling and back into Eyre Square and wait there instead. The stop I waited at, and where there is a large lack of shelters on the entire stretch of road, may continue to not have a shelter as it does not show to have much passenger uptake.

Another example last year there was a shelter built for a stop in Mervue. Not exactly the busiest stop for the route, and the 2 stops either side of this particular stop already have shelters, including 1 that is 200m away. The stop at opposite side of the road doesn't even have concrete access from the stop to where the bus stops. You had to walk through (wet) grass and do a little hop up onto the bus. Or hop off of the bus onto the grass when exiting. Definitely a risk for some people.

Surely there are better ways at finding out which stops need shelters? To be fair, it's probably tricky enough and using the limited data available is probably the best best option, but from a limited list.

Noticed this tweet, 1970s businesses threatened to do something to get people walking on a new bridge

Yep, Wales embracing alternatives to the private car is definitely a unionist move to prevent any future independence from England. It's got to be. Wake up people, you'll not hear this truth on the mainstream media.