M6 - Galway City Ring Road [planning decision pending]

I presumed when ya were coming from Headford Road direction - you took the right turn onto Sandy Road instead of going straight into Liosbaun and then hit the Cemetery Cross Roundabout?

Many people I hear complain about Car Traffic in Galway City - don't actually live in the City. I do live in the City and its not something my neighbours complain about. Mindset change is a factor. Many people in the City adjust travel patterns and take longer car trips cross City at OFF peak times. For those short trips many people walk, cycle or take the bus in the City Centre. CSO data backs this up but I also see these travel patterns on my street in the estate I live and my workplace(which has flexi time). Avoiding the RURBAN or Outer Suburb car commuters who are travelling at those peak car traffic times is common.

Those wheels will cause increased wear on our dirt tracks and there will only ever be dirt tracks

And that's the crux of the issue. The reports show only a very small percentage (5% I think it was) of the journeys are ones that don't go into the city and would be facilitated by this ring road. We're already bypassed North-South where it matters.

So traffic from Knocknacarra to Parkmore or Athenry to Newcastle or Doughiska to Spiddal wont be facilitated? All traffic that currently needs to traverse the centre which should not have to.

Its not a bypass its a ring road.

I guess you just forgot she was a green party senator before the election.

Sometimes the truth hurts, the voters of Galway weren't fooled!

Because they want to pretend there's a difference. The greens were thankfully somewhat restricted by a program for government but used this mechanism and public funding to hinder projects they didn't agree with. It's an abuse of government funding and taxpayers money

As I said, a ring road and a bypass are not the same thing.

Can I ask what you mean when you write "ring road"? Do you mean distributor? It's not a proper distributor either. It's neither a distributor nor a bypass. It's a re-run of the N40 and the M50, both of which caused huge problems for their respective cities due to the lack of an integrated approach to urban transport planning. Councilors want it "to facilitate development" and citizens want it "to bypass the city" and these two are in direct conflict. If you expand the city out around this roads proposed junctions it explicitly no longer bypasses the city.

When people say things like "Galway has been crying out for a ring road for decades" I genuinely don't understand this argument within the roads forum. Does Galway need a bypass? I'd say yes. Does it need a distributor? I'd say yes. Does it need a "ring road"? I can't say yes, because "Ring Road" is a vague nebulous term synonymous with previous failed transport plans. As far as I'm concerned, "Ring Road" effectively means "just build a road and hope it solves everything".

Very very many

Distributor road would be a more appropriate term. The major problem for Galway traffic is that there are essentially 4 pinch points that most traffic is funnelled through. A distributor road distributes traffic that doesn't need to go through these points around them. Yes it gets them to the pinch point they do need to use quicker but when they get there other traffic that doesnt need to use that point has been diverted around. And the big thing is it frees road space in the centre for PT, cycling and pedestrian infrastructure. You will find that all cities of similar size with good public transport infrastructure will have some sort on orbital or distributor road keeping necessary traffic away from where it doesn't need to be.

OK I disagree, I think any new road should be a bypass, personally. I feel like there shouldn't be a distributor this far out, with so much greenfield already available undeveloped along the N6. There would still be a need for a bypass even if a distributor is built out here. I realise there is not a high demand in terms of traffic but I think a bypass is needed. Maybe even just a 1+1.

With a bypass in place, there's no reason the distributor could be created from the existing N6, with lots of additional work obviously. Then everyone is pretty much satisfied in terms of car demand and we can all have a conversation about "all the other modes of transport that just can't possibly be facilitated until this road is done".

But they've tried to have their cake and eat it with the current design basically, "it will facilitate development" and also "it will be protected from development". Some of the junctions need to be dropped, and it needs to not be a distributor design at the West.

It is categorically not a distributor at present, it's not even remotely like a proper distributor: not enough junctions, not based on strategic urban growth, only one transport mode catered for, etc.

You are splitting hairs on the definition of what is proposed for Galway, but let's be honest here Galway badly needs something. As I wrote in my previous post Galway is been left behind by the likes of Limerick and Cork as it has never been given anything in the form of a bypass or a ring road. A ring road would be something like the M25 in London, yes the M50 is not a proper ring road, but it's actually such a shame that Bertie Ahern was shot down on his idea of an Outer Orbital route for Dublin http://irishmotorwayinfo.com/inex/roads/m45/m45.html which have prevented all Dublin bound traffic from been funnelled onto the M50. At the end of the day we all know that any form of a LUAS in Galway, or proper bus corridors will take decades to come to fruition, so just build what is proposed before Galway chokes to death on it's own traffic.