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Originally Posted by la lorientaise
I am completely torn on this subject. O'Sullivans photos of Galway city couldn t be more different to tailbacks and rush hour traffic in Dublin.
There are 2 sides to Dublin on the one hand There are plenty of streets that are for pedestrians and i love that part of it. Its nice to walk in peace and not to be worried about someone running you over.
However the streets into town can be scary with all the cars who don t seem to notice or care about pedestrians.
On the one hand I d love to see city traffic banned forever and be able to walk on the street without having cars hooting and having to run for your life across the road.
However the public transport and road size are not good enough. I live in the suburbs only 7km from the city centre. On a bad day it takes me 1 and 1/2 hours to get home. Why? traffic jams going on for miles.
You can get really fed up of it. However at X mas when I started back early it took me 15 mins. Why because there was no traffic.
In the end me and my mum who works in town as well decided to drive in and we get in 25 minutes because we take back roads
Normally I would agree be completely against people using their cars to go into town as well. That is until I finished college and started working in town.
But try telling that to a girl (myself) who queued for 30 minutes, has seen 3 buses fly by her, soaked to the skin, crammed standing on a bus 1 hour 45 minutes. It was that particular day that made us change our mind and start bring in the car.
I have to say its huge improvement. Can you blame people for wanting to avoid the bus and public transport hell???
I would only agree with cars being blocked from town if they gave us a perfect transport system with enough room for every one. How many towns in Europe are prepared to offer us that?
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As cars, trucks, bikes, etc, back up on the small crowded shop streets, the flows behind them get blocked. It's like a clogged toilet with people still pulling the lever hoping it will finally flush. Instead it just overflows and gets worse. Given the massive growth of Galway over the past 10 years, I can only imagine how much worse the ever-growing congestion would be with the downtown clogged.
I used to drive in inner Galway as a licenced teenager right before it was pedestrianised and it was a nightmare with clogging. You'd get a headache sitting and shifting back and forth with first gear and brakes, all backed up, going nowhere and me making everyone miserable and them making me miserable in one big slow jam. I quickly learnt that it was much easier and faster to just park by Eyre Square and just walk down to wherever I was going and I'd get some exercise and a better experience in the process. The only time having the car would be a bit quicker would be a night when I was going to pubs when most shops are closed. But, that caused a nuisance to pedestrian traffic going between the pubs and the grubs. It is far more attractive and enjoyable now, IMO, for the pub and grub scene with the pedestrian scene and I'm sure the businesses would clearly agree looking at their cash registers and the people who pile in there now more than ever.
As for handicapped people, making shop deliveries, etc, arrangements and exceptions are made for that and there hasn't been a material difference.