GMATS was "paused". Yet ACP evaluated the #N6GCRR as if GMATS was fully formed and would deliver quantifiable benefits.
This is circular logic. The RR was justified by a transport strategy that is not finished. But GMATS was stalled until the RR decision was made.
www.advertiser.ie/galway/artic...
' @irishdocsenv.bsky.social said the timing of the decision “could not be more ironic, amidst a global fossil fuel crisis and a climate emergency”.'
#N6GCRR
'Irish Doctors for Environment consistently opposed the #N6GCRR and argued in favour of investment in public transport including tram, active travel, better rail & improved bus connections.
It said the Ring Road “may be sold as a solution” but “it is not”.'
www.connachttribune.ie/news/an-act-...
No ring road project in the country has led to the outcomes promised by promoters of the #N6GCRR. If such transformative schemes existed, advocates for road expansion would be willing and able to identify them straight away. They can't do so, which is why they stay silent.
bsky.app/profile/cosa...
Galway City Ring Road approved by An Coimisiún Pleanála.
A huge mistake, but not a surprise.
#N6GCRR
www.pleanala.ie/en-ie/case/3...
Let's build a 1970s style urban motorway where there are "no houses".
#N6GCRR
#HowIrelandWorks
bsky.app/profile/cosa...
Seán Canney TD, Junior Minister for Transport, recently claimed that a billion Euro has been "made available" for the #N6GCRR. It would probably cost twice that much, but Canney & Co are happy to spend it on roads, while blaming "objectors" for the extravagant spending.
bsky.app/profile/cosa...
The #N6GCRR proposal is literally a plan to accommodate a growing volume of what is fancifully called "strategic traffic", ie thousands of drivers who can't or won't switch to public transport or active travel.
Political moves are already being made to rezone land on the urban fringe.
You'll have noticed that the NTA is sitting on its hands in relation to the #GalwayTransportStrategy, which they assured us nearly a decade ago was a major, transformative plan with a budget "allocation" of up to "€300 million".
The #N6GCRR is the real objective.
www.advertiser.ie/galway/artic...
If advocates for the #N6GCRR claim that road expansion will reduce overall traffic volume and decrease car dependence, they should have the relevant evidence to hand.
Meanwhile, TII is literally saying that major road expansion projects are NOT delivering the hoped-for congestion-reducing results.
The #N6GCRR plan is a mass delusion.
It's a 1970s-style urban expressway that will simultaneously "free up" greenfield sites for development, make driving easier, boost economic growth, reduce traffic, encourage modal shift, facilitate public transport & promote active travel.
That's the lesson.
The residents of Galway have been strung along for a decade or even longer.
'Support the second ring road and you can have all the public transport & active travel you want' was a core message of #N6GCRR propaganda.
Perhaps the road lobby is now confident that ACP will deliver their pet project?
Official figures in the latest #N6GCRR proposal give the current level of bypass traffic as 1 percent. It used to be 3 percent, but the narrative has now switched from bypassing Galway to catering for growth in "strategic traffic".
There is NO plan to reduce car use.
bsky.app/profile/cono...
The #N6GCRR project promoters, mainly Galway County Council, have been assiduously massaging the figures and sweating the data to produce a report that will look convincing to An Coimisiún Pleanála.
Prediction: ACP will have no qualms about buying the charade.
bsky.app/profile/cosa...
Meanwhile, state agencies such as the two Galway councils, Transport Infrastructure Ireland and Údarás na Gaeltachta have declared, hand on heart, that an urban motorway for the city will promote the Irish language by making it easier to drive to and from Connemara.
#N6GCRR
#N6GCRR = 49% ⬆️ CO2 *
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* Figures presented by Galway County Council at oral hearing in 2018.
The #N6GCRR plan was subject to three judicial reviews, one of which led to planning permission being quashed.
www.rte.ie/news/connach...
The presence of a commuter bus is possible but relatively unlikely in typical peak morning traffic on the N6/M6.
Even though the #N6GCRR promoters now acknowledge that only 1% of traffic bypasses Galway, they still refuse to address all of the key implications.
connachttribune.ie/galway-is-ra...
Summary of FIE's submission: the revised #N6GCRR application lacks key information, fails to properly assess transport alternatives, conflicts with legally binding national and international climate obligations, and fails to address traffic congestion in Galway City over the long term.
The proposed #N6GCRR "makes less than a 1% change to any mode of travel – so we will have just as many cars and just as much traffic".
It's much worse than that. The new road might not change mode percentages, but it would increase overall traffic volume and induce new trips.
Result: MORE traffic.
Galway City Council once tried to claim that the long-sought #N6GCRR was a climate adaptation measure.
Perhaps they'd have better luck reclassifying it as defence investment.
A second ring road would undermine the promotion of public transport and active travel for another generation.
Not putting bike lanes on the #N6GCRR at least has the merit of being honest: the proposed urban expressway is the "only show in town". Everything else is, at best, an afterthought.
New housing development in the Letteragh area, Galway. This formerly quiet suburban street, Bóthar Diarmada, is proposed as a major link to the proposed Galway City Ring Road. According to official projections, if the GCRR was built and Bóthar Diarmada was "upgraded", Average Annual Daily Traffic (AADT) in the general area would increase approximately ten-fold.
We are led to believe by various advocates for the proposed second ring road ( #N6GCRR ) that chronic traffic congestion is paralysing the city in numerous ways. Yet car-dependent development continues to be the norm, and driving is still the preferred mode for a large majority of commuters. 🤔
Letter from the National Transport Authority to An Bord Pleanála, dated 19 December 2018, in which the authority claims that the Galway Transport Strategy has a "statutory basis" and is also a key part of an overall plan which necessarily includes a second ring road for the city.
The NTA, for strategic reasons, promoted the GTS as a standalone project that also happened to be linked to the proposed #N6GCRR, which they actively supported.
Now that the "bypass" project is struggling, the NTA has "paused" the GTS until they see what happens.
The politics of "transport".
New motorways, such as the 1970s-style urban expressway proposed for Galway, are good for the environment, says @micheal-martin.bsky.social, forgetting to mention that the #N6GCRR plan was quashed in 2023 by the High Court due to non-compliance with the legally binding 2021 Climate Action Plan.
A second ring road for the city would make a Light Rail service not just unviable but unaffordable.
Gluas campaigners need to get off the fence and oppose the #N6GCRR plan 100% with no fudging.
This city has to choose. Public transport and active travel are what's required, not road expansion.
New motorways, such as the 1970s-style urban expressway proposed for Galway, are good for the environment, says @micheal-martin.bsky.social, forgetting to mention that the #N6GCRR plan was quashed in 2023 by the High Court due to non-compliance with the legally binding 2021 Climate Action Plan.
There are no concrete plans to ensure that modal shift occurs.
The strategy comprises a concerted effort (TII, NTA and local authorities with a single agenda) to secure the #N6GCRR by making all the right "sustainability" noises, then expect drivers to ignore the shiny new motorway once it's built.
Our government is still not willing to engage fully with modal shift.
Grandiose plans such as the #N6GCRR are designed to give the *appearance* of reducing car use, while doing the opposite.
The new report on the economic cost of traffic congestion is no better.
bsky.app/profile/galw...
Excerpt from the N6 Galway City Ring Road EIAR non-technical summary, dated 2018. In developing the N6 GCRR project, GCC have been cognisant of the need to consider alternatives to the proposed road development. Having established the need for the project, and in consideration in detail of alternatives, the N6 GCRR was developed. The N6 GCRR forms part of, and is identified as a project within, the ‘Galway Transport Strategy’ (GTS). The GTS was prepared by Galway City Council and GCC, in partnership with the National Transport Authority (NTA). The GTS is based on a comprehensive assessment of transport issues facing Galway City and the wider environs and the need to develop a sustainable, integrated transport solution to accommodate existing and future travel demand, thereby facilitating Galway growing “in an integrated, sustainable manner that aligns transport investment with settlement patterns, travel movements and also supports a sustainable use of land” (Galway City Council Development Plan 2017–2023). The GTS is currently being implemented by Galway City Council, both in terms of the policy objectives established and the delivery of transport projects identified within the strategy.
The #N6GCRR promoters explicitly stated that the ring road was just one element of the broader #GalwayTransportStrategy.
Between 2016–2018 or thereabouts, Galway City Council insisted that the GTS was “currently being implemented”, including its policy goals and specific transport projects.
