The Taylor’s Hill/Threadneedle Road junction is a danger to schoolchildren and pedestrians, while displays of bad temper from motorists is create “noise pollution 24 hours a day”.
This is the view of the Anti-Austerity Alliance’s Galway City West candidate Tommy Holohan who said “there will be a serious or fatal accident” at the junction unless the Galway City Council tackles problems of congestion, traffic lights, and safety.
According to Mr Holohan, cars coming from Knocknacarra and turning left are coming up close to the lights with the result that the first car cannot see the filter light when the arrow goes green. This commonly results in the cars behind honking their horns to force the first car to turn left, and “noise pollution for the residents”, according to Mr Holohan.
He also pointed out that cars coming from the Taylor’s Hill direction travelling towards Knocknacarra are often blindsided by cars in front turning right.
Exacerbating the problem is that the “lights at this junction are not fit for purpose”. Mr Holohan says the filter light to turn left to Westside “cannot be seen”, and that traffic lanes need to be “laid out properly to make it easier for vehicles to enter and exit the junction safely.
Other problems result from the size of the junction, with not enough room for traffic on the left lane to exit the filter lane towards Westside, resulting in cars mounting the footpath. “This is a very difficult junction to manoeuvre through safely,” he said.
There are three different schools in the area - Taylor’s Hill, Coláiste Éinde, and Salerno - and Mr Holohan says pupils’ “lives are being put at risk” by the behaviour of motorists. He is calling on the city council to “put half a dozen plastic bollards on the footpath to stop the cars mounting the paths”.
