Traffic problems choking Galway growth – Chamber
The economic wellbeing of Galway is being constrained by the city’s chronic traffic problems, according to Galway Chamber.
In a submission on the Department of Transport’s ‘Draft Strategic Framework for Investment in Land Transport’, the Chamber warned that traffic is having a negative impact on job creation, trade and tourism.
“The Chamber and other have highlighted for many years that the economic wellbeing of the city is being adversely impacted by the traffic difficulties.
“This includes the attractiveness of the city as a place to live and work and the consequent impact on the ability to attract indigenous and multi-national companies.
“A significant proportion of these companies are located on the eastern side of the city – resulting in unhelpful traffic congestion in these areas. Allied to this is the difficulty in accessing the city centre region and the resulting impacts on trade and tourism,” the submission reads.
It adds that with an improvement in the economy, there is likely to be an increase in car numbers on the roads here before the Outer Bypass is built in 2020.
The submission calls for an investment in the short-term in an effort to reduce dependence on car by introducing sustainable transport initiatives. These include the likes of free morning parking in the city centre; Park & Ride from the airport; Park & Stride for schools and bicycle parks at businesses.
The document also stresses the importance of the new public bike scheme; the new greenway cycle lanes; public transport and ‘intelligent’ transport information – such as the existing ‘real-time’ bus timetables and developing smartphone apps.
While welcoming the framework objective of decongesting the cities the Galway Chamber submission was critical about suggestions in the document that funding for transport infrastructure may not be restored to levels that are consistent with international spending norms.