farronf.bsky.social
Limerick. Active travel advocate
39 posts
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273 following
Regular Contributor
Active Commenter
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Look at the car trip percentages.
26% of car trips cross the river.
Three quarters of car journeys do NOT cross the Corrib.
Modal shift, within existing constraints, would significantly ease congestion.
We need new thinking. Light Rail. Greenways. Safe travel to school.
@farronf.bsky.social
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I forgot to post the network defined in the report itself here as I copy pasted stuff from the other site.
These are the main arteries into and around town. 141km is an approximation of lane length.
That also includes Western Distributor Road which is not colored in but makes up junctions 10-15.
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I travelled from Connemara to Limerick Tuesday last week and hit the city around 10am and the current network is fine for a trip like that.
Obviously the problem is the amount of people commuting by car at peak hours. There are better ways to solve that than doubling down on it
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But I just don't see the neccesity. The numbers just don't stack up. The % of traffic bypassing the city at peak times is tiny, and even assuming the amount travelling into/out of the city and crossing the river it just doesn't make sense.
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And why do I care about this? I live in Limerick now and usually post about there. But I'm a Galway native, I lived in the city for 8 years. I grew up in Connemara and travel back there sometimes so you might think I'd be all for this.
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There are other options. Options that require bravery from our elected officials.
The Galway Luas feasability report indicated it would reduce traffic by 10%. Sure it would be expensive but it would be truly transformative for Galway as a city. And be a lot more equitable.
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This is what supporters say the ring road will allow. But I won't believe it until I see it as a strict obligation for the ring road to get the go ahead.
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My only real hope is that it is a conditional approval where it leads to areas in the city being pedestrianised. Bridges in the city centre being changed to bus gates. Lanes being reallocated to cycling infrastructure.
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I do however think that this project will get the go ahead with the current government in charge. A few roads to please the independants. "The people want tar" and all that.
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I can only hope that ABP do not have the wool pulled over their eyes as all the problems that saw the planning revoked before has not gone away.
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Why has this not been done? There is no mention of any accounting for this at all. Are Galway County Council
trying to pull a stroke?
The public and planners deserve better and more complete information than what has been presented here.
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The Galway Ring Road ticks ALL three boxes.
Yet no VDM was used. No elasticity-based trip-generation. Just a “forecast-only” model assuming fixed trip demand.
That’s not enough for a €700m megaproject when we have climate commitments.
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TII’s guidelines describe Variable Demand Modelling (VDM)a process that tests if new roads will generate extra trips.
They say VDM should be used when:
1️⃣ A scheme significantly alters travel times
2️⃣ The network is already congested
3️⃣ The scheme likely induces new demand
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All indications are that this extra space will just fill up until we reach another congestion equilibrium. What then? Another ring road under Lough Corrib?
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I don't know if either are the case, but this report does not present anything for induced demand so we cannot possibly take it at face value.
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This network defined in the report I make out to be 135km(141 inc W Distributor Rd) of lanes in the city. Lets round that up to 150km as I don't claim to be super accurate.
GRR would add about 55km of lanes. So lets say 37%. So long term will traffic actually increase by 19-37%?
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📚Schiffer, Steinvorth and Milam (2005)
This paper shows the relationship between lane miles and vehicle miles travelled. This suggests a 10% increase in the short term leads to just a 0-4% increase in traffic. But long term this goes to 5-10%.
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Lets redefine the 2% increase car usage by mode. That comes out to a 3.5%-4% increase in traffic at peak times compared to without the RR and without calculating induced demand.
The numbers above would suggest that should be closer to 40%.
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📚 SACTRA Report (UK, 1994)
"A 20 % increase in travel speeds will induce a 10 % increase in traffic volumes in the short term and a 20 % increase in the long term."
GRR predicts network speed increase from 19->27 kph short term. ⬆️42%
And 16->23 long term. ⬆️44%
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Study after study shows new roads fill with NEW traffic over time, not just rerouted journeys.
"Generated Traffic and Induced Travel" a meta research paper by Todd Litman presents findings from a multitude of sources. One source as follows:
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The modelling uses the Western Regional Model (WRM), which captures mode shift (e.g. car to bus) based on time and cost.
But it doesn’t account for new trips created by the extra road capacity.
That’s induced demand, and it’s missing from the ring road report..
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But, is that 2% even realistic? Not if the modelling ignores how new roads generate new trips.
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Firstly the report itself shows a 2% increase in car mode share during peak times. This goes against the Galway Transport Strategy goals to reduce car dependency.
Supporters argue: “2% is fine, because it diverts traffic around the city centre.”
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His coverage is actually more valuable than minutes ever could be.
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Please take a look. I'd appreciate any and all feedback.
Note that searching does require a GitHub account which is easy and free to setup.
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The current implementation for that is far from perfect as I'm limited on the hardware side. But I hope to improve that side of things.
I also hope to process more types of files if there is interest. Currently I limited it to agendas and minutes.
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Additionally 1012 of those files are scanned pdfs meaning the text cannot be easily searched and may not be readable by people who rely on screenreaders. This project also aims to convert them to plain readable text.
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limerick.ie is a fantastic resource and has 1222 publicly listed meetings since 2014. Counting agendas and minutes there are 2056 file available.
But finding information can be like looking for a needle in a haystack.
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So now I can easily find the original question and reply which otherwise I probably never would have seen.
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Replies to questions aren't currently scanned in this project but I can access meeting detail, see that there is a file with replies to questions and access the original file directly on limerick.ie
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As an example, I'm interested in what discussions there have been around cycling so far this year. I can search like this and see where it has came up.
I can see there was a question on the agenda regarding extending the UL greenway which is of interest to me.
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Local government decisions affect us all. But the info is often buried in PDFs few people ever read.
This project is about making that info easily searchable and available to all. If you’re interested in any topics that might have come up in council meetings take a look.
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This is built directly from the PDFs published on limerick.ie, but arranged by date + readable via GitHub's built-in search
Want to find every mention of “bus lane” in 2024 meetings? You can.
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Please attend the Public Consultation on Thursday 6th March. Tell your local councillor you want this area to thrive. Don't fall for scaremongering based on outdated assumptions.
This is an Active Travel scheme in name only, it is really a Revitalisation opportunity that must not be missed 16/17