More than 450,000 car journeys into Galway City each week

The number of cars coming into Galway on the Dublin motorway has doubled in four years, participants at a workshop about Park and Ride facilities were told this week.

In 2013, 90,546 cars were recorded at the Galway end of the M6 every week. Recent traffic counts have found there were 183,000 vehicles every seven days, according to Galway City Council senior engineer in the city’s Transportation Unit, Uinsinn Finn.

Further figures reveal that more than another 150,000 vehicles travel to the city on the three next busiest routes every week. When all routes are counted, it is believed the overall weekly figure for car journeys into the city is well in excess of 450,000.

The numbers reveal exactly why city traffic grinds to a standstill so often – there are more cars than the road space available to them. It has led to Galway earning an unenviable reputation nationally for traffic chaos.

The figures show an “overwhelming and immediate” need for a Park and Ride site somewhere off the Coolagh Roundabout, former Mayor of Galway Niall Ó Brolcháin told the Galway City Tribune.

Now working as a researcher with Centre for Data Analytics at NUIG, he organised the workshop in City Hall as part of European project to use publicly available data to inform public policy.
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