Galway's Roundabouts

On multilane
roundabouts of the design favoured by Galway corporation cyclists
have an injury accident rate that is 14-16 times that of motorists. Motorcycle/Scooter
users are only marginally better off at 10-13 times the injury rate. They
are also a nightmare for pedestrians. Many of them were built at a time
when over 39% of permanent private households in the City didn't have
a car. While for short urban journeys within the city, foot and cycle
use outweighed motorcar milage by a factor of almost two.
[1]

Ballybrit

A view of a "pedestrian crossing"
on a roundabout showing the nature, position, and type, of signage used
by Galway Corporation at some such locations. The implications for pedestrian
safety should require no further explanation. A Foras Forbartha report
from 1987 specifically concluded that "signs should not be sighted where
they might reduce drivers vision". (R.286 1987).[2]

Headford
Road Roundabout

This shows children crossing the road with
bicycles at an unprotected crossing on the Headford road roundabout in
Galway city. Points to note are the lanes of entering vehicles in the
background and the car accelerating off the roundabout into the exit which
these children are in the process of crossing. Also of note is the position
and height of the signs on the deflection island, these obscure pedestrians
crossing in the other direction from the view of the exiting motorists.
This "crossing" is on the main route between a large area of
residential housing and the city's main cinema, largest toyshop, largest
computer store. two large electronic outlets and the nearest McDonalds
outlet. In 1997 and 1998 Ireland had the highest child
pedestrian death rate in Europe.

Ballybrit.

Parents with baby buggies running from behind
obscuring signage to cross a roundabout exit as quickly as possible. The
need to be able to break into a run at such locations is a function of
the high-speed geometry of the roundabout. A routine failure to indicate
by circulating motorists puts pedestrians in the position of having to
guess when to cross.

Detail
of the above picture

Headford
Road

This picture is another view of the above
crossing, the path in the background leads to a large area of residential
housing and this path is the main pedestrian route between these houses
and the local industrial estate.

Terryland Roundabout

Mother with children at an unprotected "crossing"
on the Tirellan (Terryland) roundabout.  Again this roundabout is
adjacent to a large area of residential housing estates and is the main
route between these and both the nearest shopping centre and the city
proper.  In the second picture we see that the woman with the buggy
can't even use the dropped area of the kerb to get up onto the path (it's
blocked by the truck).

We have heard several independent reports
from this area of elderly pedestrians simply standing in tears at the
side of the road crying with fear and frustration at their inability to
get across.

Safely across (this time).

On the recently constructed Western Distributor
Rd. Galway corporation has chosen to make roundabouts of a similar design
the only means of access to urban housing estates.

Tuam
Road

Pedestrians at a "crossing" on the
Tuam road.  If you can't run you might be in for a long wait.

This picture also show one of the large "ghost
islands" that have been marked adjacent to the deflection islands. As
originally intended in the UK these were smaller and supposed to push
circulating cyclists/motorcyclists out into a more prominent position
so as to reduce the risk of collision.[3] (At roundabouts 50% of car/cycle collisions involve entering
motorists crashing into circulating cyclists, who have right of way.)
[4] As used in Galway they merely provide a third lane which motorists
use to overtake circulating cyclists on the left. These nearside overtaking
manoeuvres are frequently carried out at speed while the cyclist is in
the process of turning left off the roundabout. This is a refinement,
which is believed to be peculiar to Irish roundabouts, and which gives
good reason to believe that Irish roundabouts are both substantially more
dangerous and more intimidating than their UK equivalents.

The Officially Available Guidance on Roundabouts

A Foras Forbartha study on cycling in Galway
in 1979 specifically raised the issue of the safety of cyclists and the
roundabouts that were then being proposed for the city. At that time,
in afternoon traffic in Galway, there was 19km travelled by bicycle for
every 100km by car. [5] The national
design manual RT 181 Intersections at Grade itself queries the
suitablity of using roundabouts at locations where there might be cyclists
turning right. [6] (It doesn't specify
whether a University town with 12,000 third level students might fit this
description.)

A study on roundabouts in Swords in county
Dublin in 1987 (R.286) found that two-wheeler casualties were five times
higher than expected.  "The high incidence of two wheeler
accidents on the Swords bypass allied with similar findings in the major
accident study carried out by the TRRL on roundabouts shows that roundabouts
on high speed roads do not provide a safe environment for two wheelers
and consequently give serious reservation as to their use where high numbers
of this road user class is expected".
[2] In terms of pedestrians R.286 states that for the Swords by pass
"The low level of pedestrians involved in personal injury accidents
on the by-pass primarily relates to the provision of overbridges and signalised
control facilities away from the roundabout and should not be taken as
indicative of pedestrian safety at roundabouts in general". 
There are no overbridges in Galway and only one signalised crossing, the
situation for pedestrians on Galway's roundabouts is best demonstrated
by examining the attached photographs.   It is arguable that using
any high capacity roundabouts in a town like Galway shows at best incompetence
and at worst a considered contempt for the most vulnerable residents. 
  It is clear that there are serious questions to be asked regarding
how it is that any roundabouts were ever constructed either in, or near,
Galway city.

If you have other photographs showing typical
road design practices used in Galway. Pass them on and we'll include them
in the site.

Galway Cycling Campaign July
2001