Bypass route options: what our readers think

Blue route preferred by 4 out of 10 respondents

The Blue and Green routes proposed by the National Roads Authority are the preferred options of 38% the 1,000 people who voted in the Tribune’s online poll.

But almost 200 of those who voted say that the city does not need a bypass or they would prefer the yet-to-be-revealed public transport option.

The question asked was which of the Galway City Bypass routes do you prefer?

1,042 people responded with 38% preferring the Blue route which crosses the Corrib just south of Menlo Castle.

The Green route, which crosses the river further north at Menlo Cemetery, is preferred by 30% of those who responded.

The Red route which is essentially a major upgrade of the existing route through the city attracted just 5% of the votes while the proposed Orange route, including its 3km tunnel under the river attracted least support.

As ever, with online polls, there were a lot of comments on the proposals with some extracts reproduced below.

Pink red and orange using existing roads are ridiculous. This is where the problem is. Only solution is new roads away from the city hence bypassing the city. Using other routes will only add bottlenecks and waste of public money.
– Niamh Griffin

There are better options than destroying people’s homes and lives just to save a 10 minute commute in the morning. And it is only when school is on or during the races that this is an issue. Maybe we need school buses – it would be cheaper.
– Chris Greaney

Taking people’s homes and livelihood and ripping through the city and hinterlands – it’s actually barbaric. People have been devastated by these shocking options.
– Peggy McConnell

Galway traffic is a mess!! A relief road/bypass is essential if Galway is to develop. Possibly tunnel some of the bypass.
– James Myler

Galway needs more public transportation and less cars. Invest this money in school buses, more buses per hour and more routes to the great employment centres, build a light rail system. More roads will mean more cars and an increase in the parking nightmare in the city. Also, all of these plans include evicting people from their homes, and with the housing problem already so serious and with prices rising with no apparent reason, why would we do that?
– Carla Fernandes

Is the NRA still using the urban planning manuals from the 1950s?
– Seán Leonard

It would be crazy to not use the green or the blue route or we will be going back again in 20 years to put another outer road. But … neither of these routes will be built as there is no money.
– Jonathan Corbett

Thinking ahead in terms of growing city – the Green route meets our needs now and for the future. It leaves lots of expansion for our city suburbs. Thinking of short term solutions (the other options) is what got us in this mess in the first place.
– Fergal Hynes

To those who voted green and perhaps were looking to the future, I would argue that the blue/pink routes cater for access from north of these routes also and therefore for future expansion of the city.
– John O’Meara

Anyone who says that we can forget about cars and not do a bypass lives in Cloud Cuckoo Land. It is standard practice that a bypass is the first of a number of elements to improving transport – that IMO is the mature attitude. Of course, simply building more and more roads to solve a city’s traffic problem is no solution, but to belligerently build no roads is no solution either. What’s needed is integrated transport thinking and the Galway City Transport Project is going that direction.
– C Howlett

The traffic in the west-side of the city is never that busy it seems to move quite good when it is busy. One hour in the morning for schools and one hour in the evening traffic.
– Paschal Conneely

I would beg of you as Galwegians do not rush into this , the bypass is not a good solution it is there to serve the few not the many, Ask ourselves what is causing the congestion ? I dare to say commuting singular car traffic. The solution may lie in offering a different mode of commuter transport i.e. a light rail system.
– Joe Kelly (SUIG Light Rail)

A few suggestions….how about retrofitting the existing Quincentenary Bridge similar to the Wolfe Tone Bridge? …..it staggering that there is little or no connection to the major industrial estates on the east of the city to meaningful public transport. How about staggering working hours in the major industrial employers?
– John Quirke

Here we go again, the alternative solutions brigade with suggestions that we change working hours, and build a light rail and what not. Try to avoid building a bypass by somehow rolling out loads of changes to numerous stakeholders and assuming that resources will be found to pay for it all! Build the bypass and give so many of us a little part of our lives back every day.
– M Walsh

It takes me 2.5 hours to get from Cork to Galway and on my last visit to my friend in October 2014 it took me 2 hours from Renmore to Cappagh Road – I probably would have walked there quicker! I discourage all my Cork friends and family to go to Galway because of the traffic. PLEASE SORT IT OUT.
– Val Byrne, Cobh