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Getting around Galway

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Comments

  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 26,179 ✭✭✭✭Mrs OBumble


    Does anyone really think that with great cycle lanes, A 4 year-old could travel to school by themselves? Really? Or even an 8 year old?



  • Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Social & Fun Moderators, Regional West Moderators Posts: 60,721 Mod ✭✭✭✭Gremlinertia


    No one is thinking that, expansion of cycle bus groups etc have validity though aren't everything either but the idea that the assumption is to send a 4yo to school alone in this day and age is preposterous.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 12,327 ✭✭✭✭ben.schlomo




  • Posts: 15,362 ✭✭✭✭ [Deleted User]


    Galway counts for approx 30,000 of the half million penalty points issued last year




  • Posts: 15,362 ✭✭✭✭ [Deleted User]


    The xmas park and ride is kicking off shortly

    The annual Christmas Park and Ride Service will run from Galway Racecourse to the city centre from Friday 8 December until Christmas Eve, Galway City Council has announced.

    Buses will run every 15 minutes in both directions Monday to Saturday from 9.30 am to 9.15 pm. On Sundays, the service will run every 15 minutes from 11.00am to 7.00pm and every 30 minutes from 7.00 pm to 9.15pm.

    Fares are €1 per person each-way, and children and pensioners travel for free. All-day parking at the racecourse is included in the bus fare.



  • Posts: 15,362 ✭✭✭✭ [Deleted User]


    The Portumna to Ballinasloe Local Link service is being expanded

    Route 547 will now operate five daily return services Monday to Saturday as well as three daily return services on Sunday. The route will offer enhanced connectivity to Portumna, Eyrecourt, Laurencetown, Ballinasloe and Ballinasloe Train Station.




  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 8,163 ✭✭✭dinneenp


    Is there any reason that there couldn't be a park and ride from the car park at Loughgeorge? For anyone east of Claregalway it'd be great & take away a lot of traffic through Claregalway...



  • Posts: 15,362 ✭✭✭✭ [Deleted User]


    The car park at the pub in Loughgeorge you mean?

    To be honest there should already be P&R's on all arterial routes. Its nearly 25 years GCC have been talking about "identifying suitable sites".

    That being said, without full bus lanes and bus priority at the relevant junctions, they will never get used, so in the case of Claregalway, the bus lane would need to go from Loughgeorge all the way to the city center. Anything less and you won't see much of a modal shift



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 8,163 ✭✭✭dinneenp


    Yeah, that's where I mean. There is a bus lane into CG and on a weekend that small stretch can be absolutely backed up. And it tends to flow again until you get to the Parkmore Business Park turn off.



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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 26,179 ✭✭✭✭Mrs OBumble


    Indeed. Bus lanes for the whole route and junction priority are a nice to have. Bus lanes at key backlog stretches are the essential bit.

    @dinneenp suggest you ask Galway County Council to organise one. (Though they will probably refuse and tell you to shop local in Tuam instead!)



  • Posts: 15,362 ✭✭✭✭ [Deleted User]


    The one at the pub seems small and is it not owned by the pub?

    The parking area behind, looks like it might be the local sports club,might be a better option.

    Both are a bit small though but then I have no idea what the demand might be.

    It's worth flagging to the local councils



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,347 ✭✭✭ratracer


    It’s not the local sports club that own that afaik, it’s the Galway GAA Centre of Excellence.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,069 ✭✭✭what_traffic


    Thanks, was looking at the wrong map. Was looking at the "Desire Maps". Doh



  • Posts: 15,362 ✭✭✭✭ [Deleted User]


    A survey of 353 cyclists in Galway city produced some interesting results

    • 88% (294/353) feel the city council do little to encourage cycling
    • 70% (233/353) feel businesses have a long way to go to make cyclists welcome
    • 62% (207/353) of the cyclists surveyed also own cars
    • 44% (152/353) use a bike as its faster than the car to get around the city




  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 26,951 ✭✭✭✭zell12


    88% (294/353) feel the city council do little to encourage cycling

    Fake news! Are the other 59 Council employees? Galway is the most hostile cycling city in the country, when it should be the opposite given its huge student population



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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,069 ✭✭✭what_traffic


    Would be interesting if there is a breakdown what area's of the City responses were. While Galway City as a whole is not great for cycling, depending on where you live and work one can just be lucky to have the legacy infrastructure in place. Mostly West of the Corrib near the City Centre come to mind - places like Salthill, Shantalla or Newcastle if one can access the University Campus easily. East of the Corrib is far more challenging



  • Posts: 15,362 ✭✭✭✭ [Deleted User]


    Councillors all want a speedy decision for the ring road but for different reasons




  • Posts: 15,362 ✭✭✭✭ [Deleted User]


    Just to let ye know I'm parting ways with boards so if anyone has any further updates they want added to the kissing gates or desire lines maps, feel free to reach out on Twitter



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,411 ✭✭✭xckjoo


    Thanks for all the informative posts over the years!



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 520 ✭✭✭rustyfrog


    +1, you're always a reliable source of well articulated project updates. All the best.



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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 26,951 ✭✭✭✭zell12


    Where is the Park n Ride in Bearna supposed to be? Eamon Ryan said in Dail it is off WDR in Cappagh, anything more specific?

    One of the five sites being considered is on the Barna corridor on the R336 close to the Cappagh Road and western distributor road junction. The other two are further advanced and include the one at the Oranmore junction - junction 19 - and the one just north of Claregalway. They are quite large. The one at junction 19 has 550 spaces, the one north of Claregalway has some 320 spaces while the proposed Barna one is slightly smaller with 190. I take the Deputy's point about access from the west.



  • Registered Users Posts: 2,848 ✭✭✭?Cee?view


    Im



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,069 ✭✭✭what_traffic


    Perhaps in the City Dev plan? thought I read in local paper a while back that it was to be North of Cappagh Park itself? Personally think it makes more sense to have a P&R in Bearna at this stage and have a City Bus Service extend to Bearna like the 404 for Oranmore. #404 and this Bearna Service should run every 15mins



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,600 ✭✭✭Laviski


    with all the bus connects, Luas, cycling upgrades it just goes to show people prefer to travel by car.

    so lets get the ring road built.





  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,069 ✭✭✭what_traffic


    Also showed Galway City Commuters have the shortest commute time - 23 mins. Just as well we have so many people walking and cycling to work in the City



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,553 ✭✭✭at1withmyself


    I think DaCor was right to depart when someone reads that article and they think people prefer the car.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,600 ✭✭✭Laviski


    the data from the cso is there.

    government has put a lot of money into promoting cycling and installation of cycle lanes and yet cso states more people cycled as their form of transport back in 1986 than in 2022. Perhaps people just do not like to cycle in rain/cold no matter how you sugar coat cyclepaths.

    The real waste from that data is how poor public transport is. "Train, DART or LUAS" increased alot but it started from practically nothing, where the LUAS deployment and DART advancements brought the numbers up. But the "Bus, minibus or coach" shows how piss poor the service is that there was no big growth.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 26,179 ✭✭✭✭Mrs OBumble


    Yeah, because most people who work here are not Galway City commuters. They commute from Galway county, as well as Clare, Mayo, Roscommon, Limerick etc.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,546 ✭✭✭sgthighway


    This is correct and while most comments on this thread bore me it is a example of a good headline that in reality paints the wrong picture. You are 110 % correct.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 520 ✭✭✭rustyfrog


    Obesity numbers are high, we should open more fast food outlets.

    Road deaths are on the increase, we should increase speed limits to better facilitate them.

    ...



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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 26,951 ✭✭✭✭zell12


    That means they live 3km from work, and still drive through the traffic jams 😀



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,069 ✭✭✭what_traffic


    Yeah thats pretty obvious to anybody who lives and works in Galway.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,069 ✭✭✭what_traffic


    No they have not. Where is the DART and LUAS in Galway - show me where the installation of all these cycle lanes in Galway City has occurred? City Bus services have improved .Try and keep it local will ya?



  • Registered Users Posts: 170 ✭✭berrecka


    Such a good way of putting it! And in fairness, the City Council have done FA active travel measures and the buses in the city are terribly unreliable, so there is a long way to go. Hopefully their new plans will help accelerate this modal shift.



  • Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Social & Fun Moderators, Regional West Moderators Posts: 60,721 Mod ✭✭✭✭Gremlinertia


    Enough, no discussion about a poster current or not.

    Grem



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,600 ✭✭✭Laviski


    i am keeping it local by using data collected from CSO, build the bypass is what i said. why waste money into cycle initiatives that are not working on a national level for 30 years. stop wasting money on cylce infrastructure keep the space for bus lanes if they are going to anything as a certain cohort prefer the bus lanes to cycle lanes that exist locally today.

    people prefer the car, be it due to the weather or specifically in the case for galway not wanting to get on bus that goes directly into town rather than cross city to places of work where they need to go.

    its laughable on your reference to cycle lanes, there the main one going cross city that is there for a while and others too since. Can't help ya if your blind but probably choose to ignore them as its not to your high standard.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 12,327 ✭✭✭✭ben.schlomo


    "And others too since". Do enlighten us as to the many kms of cycle lanes newly built in Galway. I look forward to finding out about them.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,411 ✭✭✭xckjoo


    What cycle lane crosses the city? Nearest I can think is the one the skirts around it on the Quincentenial and that's riddeled with disconnects. I tend to avoid it whenever I'm cycling for safety reasons.

    Ya some people will never cycle. Some people will cycle every day no matter the conditions. And then there's those of us in the middle that use it when it makes sense but are put off due to the conditions.

    Agree that public transport should be the top priority. Everyone can use it (assuming the infrastructure is provided). But I'd be curious to see the levels of investment in each over the years. I'd be willing to bet the amount that's gone to supporting the use of private cars is orders of magnitude more than all the others put together.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 82 ✭✭TnxM17


    Why do you want to build a 'ring road' when most of the traffic in Galway is going to the city?



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  • Registered Users Posts: 323 ✭✭duck.duck.go


    It’s going through the city because there is no other option to get around the city unless you travel through another county via backroads



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 305 ✭✭CuriousCucumber


    So those of us not going to the city can avoid this traffic

    It shouldnt be normal to take 30 minutes to travel 14km from Oranmore to Knocknacarra



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 7,209 ✭✭✭timmyntc


    But true bypass traffic is less than 5% of all traffic in galway. The galway transport survey showed this. Almost all galway traffic either starts or ends in the city.

    Removing 5% of traffic will not fix congestion at all.



  • Registered Users Posts: 323 ✭✭duck.duck.go


    Why does traffic from east (where most employment is) need to pass through city center to reach the west (where there is a ridiculous number of residential) instead of going across a new bridge far from city center.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 7,209 ✭✭✭timmyntc


    There is already huge congestion for traffic starting outside city north and to east coming into employment centers on east side of city (parkmore, ballybrit).

    Any new road will hit all this congestion as cars try to exit new road to get into these business parks. Which will then back up into the new road, and then the travel times via new road suffer. At which point people start driving through the city again instead, and before you know it we are back to square one.



  • Registered Users Posts: 323 ✭✭duck.duck.go


    Which the plan for the Galway bypass did address

    I see you avoided answering why traffic even needs to go near city center to go from one side of city to another



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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 82 ✭✭TnxM17


    Obviously Parkmore in the east is a major employer. But the biggest draw for traffic is still the city within the N6 between people working in the city or using the University or hospitals. Add to that school run traffic and a 'ring road' will suit very few.



  • Registered Users Posts: 323 ✭✭duck.duck.go


    Buses that are stuck in same traffic (that doesn’t need for most part go near city center) suit even less it seem in real life



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 82 ✭✭TnxM17


    Which is why bus connects is being rolled out. But this should be tied in with a proper Park & Ride system for the traffic that generates outside the city.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,321 ✭✭✭Unrealistic


    We've been through this before but it's worth covering again for those who still don't get it. A windscreen view might give you the impression that there is cycle route across the city from Knocknacarra to Ballybrit but the reality is very different. The cycle lanes only exist where they provides the least safety benefit, along side the road on straight stretches, but they disappear completely at the junctions where they are needed most.

    If you're travelling from Cappagh Road you have to travel through seven roundabouts before you get to the Quincentenial Bridge. The cycle lane doesn't start until after you've passed through the first two roundabouts and then you get a narrow painted strip along the side of the road that just disappears at each of the next four roundabouts. The Deane Roundabout (Bishop O'Donnell Road) is bad, and I've had a couple of very close calls there, but the Browne Roundabout (back of the hospital) is absolutely terrifying. If you ever wondered why you see so many grown adults cycling down the wrong side of the Seamus Quirke Road to get to the hospital, university or city centre in the mornings, the reason is not because it makes their journey's quicker, it is because going around the Browne Roundabout to take the 3rd or 4th exit is too frightening to even consider. I take the 2nd exit there, so I get to stay in the outside lane, but I was still hit by an impatient/inattentive driver recently, even though I was lit up like a Christmas tree.

    After you get over the bridge and along the Headford Road you have to navigate the Kirwan junction (Menlo Park Hotel) where the cycle lane just disappears again. There you have two choices:

    1) you get off the bike and walk through junction as a pedestrian, queuing at the signal controlled crossings, to get to the bike lane heading out Bothar na dTreabh.

    2) act like a driver and move out into either of centre two of the 4 lanes approaching this junction. This is a manoeuvre only the very brave would consider.

    At all the regular crossroads along the way (7 in total) you have to contend with drivers cutting across you as if you didn't exist, when they are turning left. Then, once you get to Ballybrit, you have to join a 100km/h dual carriageway if your final destination is Parkmore. I did that once and, even though I'd consider myself a robust cyclist, I'd never do it again.

    Anyone who thinks there is a useable cycling route from the western residential areas of Galway to the employment centres on the east of the city has clearly never tried to cycle it. Galway City Council has spent less than zero on cycling infrastructure. Instead it has tacked on substandard rubbish to general roads projects to allow them to be classified as 'active travel' and get roads built and resurfaced using national 'active travel' funding. The main benefit of the existing cycle lanes, far from making cycling safer or encouraging people to cycling, is actually to increase motor traffic speeds by moving people on bikes out of the way on straight stretches.

    This is the kind of roundabout you build if you want to encourage cycling (and walking):

    But this is what we have instead in Galway:


    This is the kind of cycle path you build if you actually want to encourage cycling:

    But this is what we have instead in Galway:


    Right now the only people who cycle in Galway are the particularly stubborn/reckless, who really want to cycle and do so in spite of the dangers, and those forced to do so from economic necessity. The fact that many people choose not to use dangerous, disconnected cycling infrastructure is not an argument to provide less cycling infrastructure. We can see from other parts of Europe, places with worse weather than Galway or steeper hills, that it is entirely possible to get 35-50% of commuting happening by bike, freeing up road space for those who still do need to drive and making everyone's journey quicker. But to achieve that you need to provide useable infrastructure and we haven't even begun to try.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,411 ✭✭✭xckjoo



    I'd say most of it bypasses the city centre by going over the Quincentenial bridge. But the reason any of it goes through the city is because that's where the city is and so transport links were built there. They then built the Quincentenial to allow people making the trip you're talking about bypass the city centre. Now they want to do the same again to fix the problem they were supposed to have fixed with the same approach 30 years ago.

    The other problem is that most of the commuters are coming from outside the city to the east. Ring road won't help there.



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