Over the years, Galway has been the focus of national media for many positive reasons, from our bustling creative scene, our musical talent and beautiful scenery, however our most recent broadcast into homes across the country have been entirely for negative reasons.
This week’s RTÉ Prime Time show was aired live from Galway with the focus being on the ongoing issue with traffic and congestion. In a report released last week by Inrix, a US headquartered company which specialises in mobility analytics and connected car services, found that Galway was listed 39th globally for worst traffic delays, second to Dublin at 12th place. This report places Galway as the 7th worst city for congestion in the continent, with commuters experiencing 94 hours worth of delays.
The European cities ahead of Galway for congestion were, Paris (138 ), Palermo (121 ), Dublin (114 ), Rome (107 ) and Brussels (98 ) with Galway ahead of Lyon (92 ), Bucharest and Bristol (91 ). Galway is the only city listed where the population of the city sits at below 100,000, with the closest being Bristol at 470,000 versus Galway city’s estimated 83,000 and county’s estimated population of 276,000.
For some, the saving grace for Galway’s traffic woes was to be the N6 Galway City Ring Road which was projected to cost some €600 million and would run from the M6 motorway east of the city, to past Barna, though not everyone has been convinced by the plans.
Just this week it was announced that the High Court had officially quashed the plans for the ring road. Despite the decision Galway County Council, Galway City Council and Transport Infrastructure Ireland released a joint statement saying that they plan to resubmit the application to An Bord Pleanala again, this time ensuring that it aligns with the Climate Action Plan 2023 (CAP 2023 ), saying that they remain committed to the N6 Galway City Ring Road and the vital part it is set to play in the GTS (Galway Transport Strategy ).
Officially approved by An Bord Pleanala (ABP ) in 2021, the N6 Ring Road ran into difficulty this year when the planning authority later admitted that it had not taken the State’s Climate Action Plan into consideration before approving the plans and would not oppose a judicial review into the case by environmental groups following the admission. Following this, Friends of the Irish Environment, a group focused on the climate, successfully challenged the plans in late 2022.
The current discussion regarding the N6 Ring Road is a contentious one, with supporters of the plans saying that the ring road is a vital portion of future plans to help alleviate the city’s traffic, with opposition saying that the climate aspect of the road coupled with a small gain in public transport means that attention and funds will be diverted towards other potential options to help reduce congestion and car usage.
Green councillor, Niall Murphy says that the Council’s plan to resubmit application to ABP is ignoring the ever present question about climate.
“It is all very well for proponents of the ring road to say that the road will open up the city for active and public transport, but they are contradicting the County Councils own figures in the Ring Road Design Document that say that public transport use will go from 3.9% to 5% by 2039 if we build the road. 1.1% of an increase is nothing. The ring road will force us into gridlock for decades.”
“Those who claim that ABP will be able to revisit and reapprove the road are basically saying that they do not care how much climate damage the ring road causes, and they do not want to know. They want to ignore that issue and proceed anyway - no matter what.
If An Bord Planála had ignored fire regulations on a block of apartments, it would be considered outrageous. We have to give the same priority to climate regulations.”
In this week’s Prime Time episode, the CEO of Galway Chamber of Commerce, Kenny Deery, said that the ring road was a “key piece of infrastructure.”
“We have huge ambitions and plans for the city. This is a key to unlocking those. Large corporates, when they’re looking at investing across the globe, know that every city, no matter where it is, has infrastructure that will be delivered.”
“This is a setback without a doubt. It’s causing further frustrations within the business community and within the wider community.”
Senators Pauline O’Reilly and Seán Kyne have been on opposite sides of the discussion, with Senator O’Reilly saying on Prime Time, that the ring road will add to congestion and add to car dependency.
“There is no road built anywhere around the world of this kind of scale that doesn’t create more traffic, and what we shouldn’t see in Galway is more communities built up around a road and then become more car dependent. That’s what this road would have meant.
It was never going to solve the congestion and public transport and things like cycling and walking were all but abandoned a decade ago for Galway, that’s the problem in Galway. That’s the thing that needs to be solved and I am relieved that An Bord Pleanála admitted that it didn’t take into consideration climate action.”
However, Senator Kyne said that the current daily gridlock has become a quality-of-life issue for commuters one which can be improved with the ring road.
“This is a quality-of-life issue for commuters in Galway. Parents going to collect children from creche and being late for work or for university. It’s a quality of life issue that needs to be fixed and the solution is the Galway Transport Strategy which includes the ring road, but also includes a myriad of other issues, some of them have been enacted, for example the upgrading of this junction (Bóthar Na dTreabh/Headford Road junction ) to make it more pedestrian and cyclist safe.
“The roundabout at the Galway clinic has been changed, there’s cycle paths added in Doughiska, the new bridge at the Salmon Weir which will be opened this year, these are all initiatives that are part of the Galway Transport Strategy, but the ring road is a pivotal part within the city to get the cars out of Galway city.
“To free up the space within the city, to get the cars out of Galway city that don’t want to be there and that have to presently go through the city, and frees up the space.”
