In his Galway Advertiser article of July 25, John Connolly TD sets out his arguments that the proposed Galway Ring Road is needed to move the traffic out of the city centre, so that public transport solutions can be implemented.
The An Taisce Planning Committee for Galway sees the cause of the traffic congestion in Galway very differently.For a start, only 1 per cent of traffic journeys want to bypass the city. This is Galway, not Athlone or Waterford. That number was published by ARUP, consultants on the ring road project.
The experience worldwide is that only by allocating existing road space into, out of, and around a city, to public transport, can traffic congestion be reduced. Ring roads never have, and never will, create a modal shift from using cars to using public transport to get into and out of a city.
Ring roads encourage urban sprawl, and not much more than that. Merely adding more buses to congested roads will also have little impact unless those buses run on bus lanes. Our calculation is that only eight per cent of bus journeys are currently on bus lanes. It is little wonder then, that private cars dominate the city. Creating new roads only encourages more people to buy cars, leading to even more congestion.
Only when it is more likely that people will get to work, get to town, etc on a bus or by light rail faster (than if they used a car ) will people stop using their cars. With due respect, John Connolly TD is repeating a popular mantra that the proposed Ring Road is an “enabler”. Saying it though does not make it so.
More road space for private cars increases the demand for private cars, leading to more cars trying to get into the city, leading to more traffic congestion, leading to more climate changing emissions. It is what happens the world over, and it will be what happens in Galway City if the ring road is built.
The Dublin Road Bus Connects plan for bus lanes and a cycle path does not need a ring road to be built first. Why it has been in the design phase for seven years, however, is a question that needs answering. Similar bus connects projects on the Tuam Road, on the Headford Road, on the Moycullen Road, and between Galway and Salthill, are needed.
These bus lanes also don’t need a ring road built first. There may also be a need for a new road from the Moycullen Road to Bothar naTreabh, including a new bridge across the River Corrib. Certainly a new access road to Parkmore Business Park is needed to reduce traffic delays there, just not the proposed ring road.
It is very understandable why Galway City Council and Galway Chamber of Commerce would want to see €800million of “Government money” spent in Galway, creating a short-lived mini economic boom. That money would be better spent, however, on public transport solutions, including light rail. That’s how to create a city which is a joy for locals and visitors to move around.
It’s also only how Ireland can reduce emissions in line with binding commitments in the National Climate Action Plan. Those commitments carry serious financial penalties if they are not met; a cost not factored into the ring road. Leaving it to our children to pay back €1billion for the ring road is immoral at best. Surely we can do better?
Making assumptions that every car on the road will be an electric car in a few years is totally unrealistic, yet that argument is often put forward as a last resort claim that the proposed ring road will not increase emissions. In summary, the ring road has no clothes and somebody has to say it. The sooner it is abandoned in favour of investing in public transport, the better it will be for Galwegians.
Peter Butler is Chairperson of An Taisce’s Planning Committee for Galway
