AARON KENT
Fine Gael Councillor Jim D’Arcy has called for a review of the Farronshoneen roundabout and the traffic systems of the surrounding area, suggesting priorities need to be clarified as a roundabout with narrow junctions neither prioritises the pedestrian nor allows for the flow of traffic.
This builds on Cllr. D’Arcy’s comments in recent weeks which called for Waterford to emulate Galway by replacing narrow roundabouts with traffic light crossroads. Surprisingly, the Council’s executive management seemed to accept these suggestions.
Speaking at the February meeting of Waterford Metropolitan District Cllr. D’Arcy, said that Waterford Council cannot blame the national government if its traffic management not clear and funding is not pursued to achieve them.
“If we’re serious about prioritising pedestrians we have to take a look at the roundabouts, particularly into the hospital as well into the future,” said Cllr. D’Arcy.
“We can’t time blame central government all the time, we need to put in applications. For instance, the funding to remove Farronshoneen roundabout will cost a fortune, we know that but we have to start somewhere.
“Can we get a workshop so at least we do our business well here in Waterford, so we can present it to central government? We need the funding if we are going to take out roundabouts to keep the traffic flowing but to prioritise pedestrians.”
Cllr. D’Arcy had called for Waterford to follow Galway and replace Farronshoneen roundabout with a traffic light system.
“The only course of action left is to replace the roundabout with lights -something similar to what worked in Galway where roundabouts were replaced by lights on their outer ring road. This speeded up traffic, while still prioritising pedestrians and cyclists. It was a costly exercise in Galway, but it worked,” he said.
“Roundabouts don’t prioritise pedestrians or cyclists. The best example of this is the roundabout at the University Hospital entrance. The Farronshoneen roundabout, while meeting regulations, is mayhem, as lights on a roundabout are a dichotomy in the sense that once the lights are used, it ceases to function as a roundabout, Cars are parked on the roundabout with everything at a standstill.
“This monument to section 38 needs to be binned. Let’s admit it’s not working because it causes unnecessary delays. All users of the roundabout have already come to this conclusion. Let’s apply for funding and make it a junction with signalised lights,” Cllr. D’Arcy added.
Removing Farronshoneen
Perhaps surprisingly, Cllr. D’Arcy’s call for a workshop to clarify priorities met with agreement from senior engineer, Paul Johnston: “We need to be clear on this. If the issue is to see what can be done on relieving congestion in certain areas that’s one thing, but we need to figure out what the priorities are here and maybe the strategic workshop on the Metropolitan and the City issues is the place to start on this”.
Mr. Johnston seemed to accept the idea that traffic systems may need a major overhaul. “Farronshoneen roundabout is one issue, and it’s not an Active Travel issue in fairness. The solution to that is much bigger. We need to look at, as Cllr. Darcy mentioned, the possibility of additional access routes, the third river crossing or crossings would be another issue that needs to come to the forefront,” he said.
“Active Travel will provide for Active Travel, it will have a knock on effect on traffic and traffic congestion, similar to BusConnects. I think the councillors need to get together with ourselves as the executive and discuss the priorities in regards transport and transportation,” Mr. Johnston said.
Michael Murphy, Senior Engineer for Active Travel, took these comments a step further, saying, “the [Farronshoneen] report is with you all at this stage. There isn’t any plans for changes to the roundabout and you’ll see that from the report. The problem there is the speed of the traffic so traffic management measures is something we might look at”.
“A similar problem occurred in Galway with the roundabouts on the outer ring road, they’ve actually been removed. All the roundabouts in the Galway ring road are now changed to traffic light crossroads because of the similar issue we have in Farronshoneen, unequal flows of traffic,” he said.
“The ultimate solution is what was done in Galway, is removal of the roundabout, but that again is outside of Active Travel’s remit,” Mr. Murphy added.
Funded by the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme
