Laytown School
I guess everyone in the area has been following the Laytown School story. There was an extensive piece in yesterdays Irish Times and even today the "This Week" program had an extensive piece (
listen) .
I had to admire the articulate way the parents interviewed expressed themselves and what they said not only goes for Laytown but also for Julianstown with terrible traffic, no new infrastructure or amenities, and nobody seemingly able or willing to do anything about it.
I also got the
Draft Planning Strategy for the Greater Drogheda Area which is supposed to be the blueprint for the area for the next 20 years or so. It pointed out that there enough zoned land in the region to to treble the size of Drogheda and double the population of the East Meath area, bringing the area population to over 130,000 people.
There is nothing in this plan to accommodate traffic heading south, most of which travels through Julianstown. While the plan envisages an "M1/N1" connector road along the route of the existing Beamore Road, it is doubtful that it would be the route of choice for traffic heading to Dublin since it is 60% longer in distane and is tolled. Even worse the route will not be finished for another 10 years, by which time there will be another 50% more people living in the area and no doubt driving through Julianstown everyday.
What's worse there is a proposal to build an eastern route around Drogheda over a new bridge, amking it much easier for traffic from Dorgheda's North side to avoid tolls and drive through Julianstown.
I would urge readers to look at the plan and make a submission.
Julianstown
Went for a walk in Julianstown tonight and here's what I noticed.
- Trucks tailgating cars
- Trucks and cars speeding
- Litter
- When you walk throuh Ballygarth Manor many of the houses lights come on automatically
Julianstown traffic continues to rise
The NRA recently yet again
reported record traffic volumes in Julianstown. The traffic volumes for April through June were recently published showing that on average 21000 vehicles per day are using Julianstown. Yet again these are record numbers since the M1 opened. In reality the traffic volume in Julianstown has dropped very little since the motor way opened.
This quoted volumes are only an average and on weekdays the numbers are exceeding 22000. Added to this is the fact that there are plans in preparation for thousands of houses in the South Drogheda and Laytown areas and outlook is bleak
This data is released in the week that Mullingar got a
new bypass to cater for less than 5000 vehicles to much media fanfare and ministerial cutting of tape.
German Solution to Irish Problem
Just back from hols in Germany. Now there is a civilised country. Things that stood out. Lots of playgrounds/parks....everywhere. Most things about half the cost of Ireland. People do drive at 120mph on motorways but obey speed limits on minor roads, and especially in residential areas.
And oh yes, roads go past villages and not through them. Even when a road does enter a village they all have a little chicane which slows traffic down, it's very simple and effective, not like to "gateways" we have in our towns including Julianstown, which can be taken at speed. Trucks can take, them....but slowly.
Here's a photo.
The funny thing is we are a richer country than Germany, so we should be able to do this, right?
