Councillors see red over pedestrian crossing

The zebra crossing at Hennelly’s Corner and Georges Street in the town was put in more than a week ago at a cost of €55,000.

But councillors united to condemn the location of the crossing and call for traffic lights to be installed instead.

Councillor Gerry Finnerty (FF) said he goes through the junction many times day and night and there was now a long tailback caused by the removal of the left turning lane coming into town.

He stated that, if the Council wanted to remove the left turning lane, they should have moved the pedestrian crossing much further out the Loughrea road and it would not have interfered with the traffic flow on the inside lane.

Cllr Finnerty claimed that cars were at risk of being rear-ended because they did not have enough time to see people crossing and those with mobility issues faced being knocked over by motorists who had little time to react.

He highlighted the fact that 850 students attended the nearby Gort Community School. “We can’t take what we’ve got,” he fumed.

“I’m totally uncomfortable with it. It hasn’t done one thing to address safety issues. I’m not a big fan of traffic lights, they’re delayful (sic) and tedious when there’s no traffic…this is a typical project of misplaced, misspent money.

“People have had to leave earlier. Kids are not allowed to access classes because they were late going in. If it’s going to go on another week, we are prepared to take action by the end of the week.”

He said the Council must reinstate the left-hand turning lane fully and to do that they would have to redesign the crossing or move it further out the Loughrea Road. The second option would be to install fully automated traffic lights at the junction and then the current pedestrian crossing could remain.

Cllr Shane Curley (FF) said he was driving from Limerick recently and nearly hit someone on the junction.

“It’s very dangerous,” he stressed.

Cllr Geraldine Donohue said the filter lane that had now been removed was very useful for traffic not going straight. She also recalled that councillor’s notice of motion money had been allocated towards a signalised junction at this location.

Executive engineer Damien Mitchell said changes to road design always caused “consternation” while the public adjust.

Crossings had to be 5m from a junction, not further away, and the road had to narrowed for a pedestrian crossing to allow for wider footpaths on either side. The “pseudo left turn”, which had been used for quite some time, could not be facilitated with a narrower road.

“The reality is it won’t be used if it’s too far from the junction. A signalised junction would delay traffic further and would cause a build-up. I’d like to see the public getting used to it. The fundamental issue is safety of children crossing the road,” he retorted.

He said a local area engineer observed traffic at the location last Thursday morning for 45 minutes. Maximum queue time just before 9am was three minutes.

After 9am the queue time was less than a minute, with a maximum of six vehicles queuing at any one time.

He stressed that the design followed all current guidelines. The Council was willing to carry out a road safety audit but it “is only going to tell us what we know”.

“It’s too soon to take this out. You highlighted a safety issues. That’s why we put it in. Now you’re saying there is no issue…the removal of a zebra crossing after one week of operation is premature.

“That’s all I’m asking for is to monitor it for a few weeks.”

He was urged to monitor it closely over the next week and come back to councillors on any observations.