Plan for cars ban on Eglinton Street
Galway City Council is examining a plan to ban cars from Eglinton Street and Williamsgate Street – the biggest change to city centre traffic flow since pedestrianisation was introduced nearly two decades ago.
The plan would see a ‘shared surface’ on both streets, which would only be open to pedestrians, cyclists and buses.
A senior engineer with Galway City Council has confirmed that the logistics of the plan are being looked at.
The plan was raised this week during a discussion on the ‘Integrated Transport Management Programme’ for Galway City.
The matter was raised by Councillor Michael Crowe, who said that investment in that part of the city centre is badly needed.
He said the street should be pedestrianised (permitting buses) to allow it be rejuvenated as it has “been neglected over the past decade or more”.
Cllr Crowe also asked for a timeline in relation to transport initiatives for the city as a whole.
“Is there a timeline? I don’t sense that there’s any great urgency with regard to the city. We need to develop and upgrade the city. It just doesn’t look good; there has to be an urgency about it,” he said.
Sharon Connolly, Senior Engineer with the City Council, said there is no timeline as the new transport plan is being drafted.
She said the Eglinton Street plan is being looked at.
“Eglinton Street is one of the corridors with streets we would take cars out of, but we also need to look at how we would get those cars into carparks etc,” she said.
For more on this story, see this week’s Galway City Tribune