Against the by pass - Galway Independent

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Against the by pass

Wednesday, 10 September 2008

Dear Editor,
As someone who spoke at the An Bord Pleanála hearing earlier this year, I would like to respond to your editorial and the letter from Alan Nixon on the Galway City Outer Bypass. While I respect both views, I’d like the opportunity to provide a different viewpoint.

Firstly, because no exit is proposed for the Tuam Road, we can expect big tailbacks getting on and off at the exits. At the hearing, I gave the example of Knocknacarra traffic to Ballybrit and Mervue. The distances are 20.5 to 22.5km if using Garraun exit, and 15.5-17.5 km if using Balindooley exit. Both exits are well away from the final destinations and the Headford Road(already severely congested) will get worse. People could use the Garraun exit beyond Briarhill instead, but this junction would be used by almost all road commuters arriving from the North, East and South.

The traffic modelling also made a mistake when determining the average commuter speed by taking no account of the time it takes getting on and off the road.

The M50 in Dublin is a similar example. No traffic analysis was performed as to traffic flows if existing junctions were re-engineered, such as overpasses and underpasses. One consultant admitted a significant flaw by presenting 18 per cent as the transport CO2 contribution and that it was more likely in the ranges used by SEI, EPA and EUROSTAT of 26 to 33 per cent.

As well as local environmental concerns like the haven of Menlo Lake, the globally big picture of peak oil and climate change are grave concerns which many commuters are not fully aware. According to ASPO, the world’s foremost independent experts on peak oil and gas, light sweet crude production peaked in late 2005 as they had predicted, and we are now into the heavier, dirtier and more expensive liquids.

In this context the current high prices make sense. If we manage to extract most of the remaining oil and gas, we have the problem that using up even a modest proportion would probably drive us to runaway climate chaos. This is the opinion of the IPCC, a large body of UN backed scientists. Man made climate change is now fairly well accepted, even if the dots aren’t fully joined.

I accept that not everyone has the choice of routes and modes of transport and that some road based solutions are needed. However, with the current downturn, traffic is starting to reduce in Galway, and that gives opportunity. We can address many people’s needs using a combination of high quality measures, including park and ride, integrated ticketing combining regional trains, circular and radial route buses (each replaces about ¼ mile of traffic) or LUAS, smaller shuttle feeder buses and various school transport initiatives that address parent’s concerns.

The abandonment of rail freight could be reversed. The cost of many of these initiatives is small and conversely funding may not be available for the road. We will soon be hit with large Kyoto fines and there’s a scramble on to find initiatives (not all popular) for avoiding this.

I disagree with energy efficient cars being the way forward. The reason is when considering the life cycle analysis, many tens of thousands of miles of oil energy equivalent goes into the manufacture of each car and a waste mountain is generated at the end of the life and from manufacturing, little of which is recycled or reused. Like oil and gas, raw materials are running out.

I dispute that none of the candidates at last year's general election that opposed the outer by pass got elected, as, unless something changed, Michael D Higgins and Labour has been historically opposed.

Politicians and policy makers who saw road based solutions as the way forward, I believe, will be doing all in their power to drive people off roads in a few short years. My hope is that people’s minds change too before it’s too late.

Yours sincerely,
Kieran Cunnane,
Renmore

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