That's interesting. I hate when there are mopeds and bicycles in areas that are supposed to be for pedestrians. If there are roads for cars at the very least pedestrians will stick to the sidewalks and all motor vehicle and bikes will stick to the road. When there are no cars allowed, but mopeds are allowed it becomes total chaos and an even bigger headache than before.

Bike riders are incredibly rude around here and do not obey traffic laws or give pedestrians the right of way. It is one thing to have a car cut you off while driving. At worst you may rear end them and do some damage, but if a bike rider cuts you off and you can't swerve or stop you are going to seriously injure them.

Even though many bike riders annoy the hell out of me I'm never angry enough to want to hurt somebody over something stupid like that.


What about restricting vehicles during certain times of day? Allow commercial vehicles and employees to get to their business places in the morning, but close down the streets once the tourists arrive in full force.

Old cities that were built with foot traffic in mind as the principle mode of transport do very well when cars are banned from some streets. I'm thinking of Boston and the Downtown Crossing area, where the street is closed to traffic, which has drawn shops and restaurants, and the waterfront has been redeveloped with pedestrians in mind.
Even cities laid out for cars can profit greatly from banning traffic from an area, I'm thinking of Third Street Promenade in Santa Monica.

I'm not sure banning all traffic makes sense, but setting aside pedestrian areas creates a wonderful cityspace.

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“The thought of his being president sends a cold chill down my spine.”

Senator Thad Cochran, Mississippi (R)
on McCain

“I decided I didn’t want this guy anywhere near a trigger.”
Senator Pete Domenici, New Mexico (R)
on McCain

“My anger did not help my campaign ... People don’t like angry candidates very much.”

McCain on McCain

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?

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.

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Around 200,000 Irish immigrants served in the Union and Confederate armies in the American Civil War, often forming their own regiments and, at times, fought each other. At Fredericksburg, the Union’s Irish Brigade faced the Irish McMillan's Guards of Cobb's 24th Georgia entrenched in a sunken road behind a stone wall. Ordered to make a suicidal charge, it became one of the most famous events of the Civil War. The re-enactment portrayed in the movie Gods and Generals:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7qVCxEupPag

We Dubliners like to be believe we suffer the most.. Tho I never knew it could be that bad in Galway. I only ever really pedestrian street now that you mention it. I prefer walking rather than sitting when its going no where.
No there are worse cities in Europe than Dublin for traffic its just when you are a tourist abroad you don t notice theses things.

Galway was never as bad as Dublin back then or now given the smaller size and population. Galway has certainly exploded in growth just like Dublin, though. I remember the N-17, N-18 and other Galway arteries being relatively free moving at one point--not no more at all. It was inside the town where things turned into a mess. If they hadn't pedestrianised inner Galway in the 1990s, that backup today would have most certainly backflowed what is now a busy, crowded, growing and suburbanising city. As for pedestrianising Dublin, I certainly like that for Temple Bar for starters, and that already partially exists.

__________________
Around 200,000 Irish immigrants served in the Union and Confederate armies in the American Civil War, often forming their own regiments and, at times, fought each other. At Fredericksburg, the Union’s Irish Brigade faced the Irish McMillan's Guards of Cobb's 24th Georgia entrenched in a sunken road behind a stone wall. Ordered to make a suicidal charge, it became one of the most famous events of the Civil War. The re-enactment portrayed in the movie Gods and Generals:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7qVCxEupPag

There are only very few historic cities that keep out motorized traffic in general. Examples are "Florence" or "Rothenburg ob der Tauber". But most bigger cities I know ... at least in Germany ... have large pedestrian areas in their centers anyway. I guess that should best be decided locally by the individual cities and the people that live their.

That photo is really nice Malvolio. Is that city called "Rothenburg ob der Tauber"? If not whats it called? Reminds me of France and Belgium. My trip to Germany must happen some day.
I know but in Dublin there was no planning for the future in the 50's and 60's. When cars came they took away the trams. So stupid looking back.The population is steadily rising and the amount of cars too.
We still are in the process of planning a metro- something that should have been done years ago.
I agree its up to the individual town but for my own I d be happy with a traffic ban only if they give us a decent system of public transport.

Oh no. That's the City Hall and the Marienplatz in Munich. Munich is one example of a city with a large pedestrian area in their center.

Nice city hall or whatever it is, and hard to find large old historical buildings like that in Germany. At least you didnt spoil it by putting a modern electronic watch on it like you did with that famous old church in Berlin. Who else than Germans would do such a thing?

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Ok then. It looks like Munich is just what I am looking for. I am a bit confused about where to go in Germany. Alot of Germans are telling me to skip Berlin and they always tell me to visit their home town.
Munich looks like the perfect city for me. Is there lots of WW2 history, museum and things to see as well as old towns with beautiful architecture? Thats really what I am looking for on my trip to Germany.

Well, it's hard to say where to start first. When you are looking for history and museums, the big cities are probably a good start. But you should not neglect the smaller towns. But I guess Munich is a really good start. Berlin obviously offers a lot of history, museums, culture to offer as well ... but apart from that most parts of the city imho are really ugly. But I guess most bigger cities don't look as overseas tourists might expect, as most of them had been totally destroyed in the war.

How's it going over there, O'sullivan... Galway has got alot worse in the last few years. We are deparately waiting for the new ring road for the city..

By the way don't expect to park on eyre sq, since they done it up(or down, the debate continues) parking is reduced. There was no parking space on Saturday night.

Galway has it's problems but they very much caused by possiblily the worsed local goverment in the first world. They are so bad that they were given 21m euro to treat or water. They never spent it and now the whole of the city and half the county has a virus in the water making it undrinkable. Say it might last 6 months.

The plan in Galway is to get rid of the cars. Pity they didn't think of any public transport. I mean we are working with complete idiots. The Goverment lost the rag with them over the water thing.

Still a great little city wouldn't want to live anywhere else and I have travelled alot.

Dublin is a mess. Worst maybe but Brussells, Paris, Mumbai(scary and very bad) are all bad too. Dublin just wasn't ready... I think closing down streets and puting Luas(trams) might be the answer. Also getting the train service up and running properly.. There should be a ship in service to heuston from the west and connelly for the north of the city and use some of the tunnels which already exist under the city.

Run a tunnel under the canals would be a start

Hehe..that's true. You see it everyday and I see all the ever growing number of changes by running into a new roundabout or some new clutter every six months or year or so. Last time I was in Galway was passing through/bypassing it last October on the way to Tuam and I didn't get to go down to the town for lack of time. I'll be back in Tuam at the end of this month for a few days following the conclusion of a trial in the Four Courts so I might go to Galway for an evening for the craic with family and friends. Indeed, Galway needs the ring road but they'll get to it given growth and traffic is constantly expanding. Remembering what it was like as a child--all through towns and boreens, etc--is almost ancient history yet only a few short years ago, although at times I do miss certain things...the little things...like always knowing I was on the final stretch to Tuam when turning left and seeing Malachy Hession's in Claregalway, etc. It's still there (soon to be gone by the last look of it), but now cluttered under modern crap in a heavy intersection . . . and of course Kyne's isn't Kyne's anymore, etc. Or seeing Tuam and other places rerouted and modernised. I see Oranmore today, and it is busy and modernised with trendy malls, coffee shops, etc. and I go there to hang with a cousin who just moved into a modern lovely place nearby. Yet, my earliest memories of it were sports pitches and Oranmore Milk being hauled around in the sun on open trucks...jesus I couldn't even imagine that today with the advancements, public expectations, health regulations, lol. I wouldn't trade the success for anything to avoid the dreary alternatives being more or less required to hop the boats and planes to get a chance at life. Still, there were aspects of the old atmosphere too that I miss. The peace, the massive number of old pubs all going away with the changing laws and demographics, etc. Heck, I really miss even the heavy decline of turf and its smell, etc that gets less and less due to regulations, modern homes, etc.

Some things don't change, however, and that is local government. Galway City shines despite it. The Galway City Council is for shite . . . mind-numbingly bad. The water things I heard ... you might as well drink the Corrib.

Dublin is indeed a mess, but I save myself most of the headache by driving near and and then catching the tram in at places like Red Cow, etc. One thing Dublin should keep doing is providing more tram services and putting more parking in the suburbs so people coming in can park and take the trams in.

__________________
Around 200,000 Irish immigrants served in the Union and Confederate armies in the American Civil War, often forming their own regiments and, at times, fought each other. At Fredericksburg, the Union’s Irish Brigade faced the Irish McMillan's Guards of Cobb's 24th Georgia entrenched in a sunken road behind a stone wall. Ordered to make a suicidal charge, it became one of the most famous events of the Civil War. The re-enactment portrayed in the movie Gods and Generals:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7qVCxEupPag