Frustration’s building for motorists on Fountain Street in Ferrybank.
Traffic lights appear to be curtailing the flow to accommodate those who might use Abbey Road, despite that stretch being temporarily closed for seven weeks to all bar those seeking local access.
Some driving the route have begun to ignore the red light, others who wait until it changes in turn sees tailbacks stretching to Rice Bridge and almost as far at the opposite end.
Chair of Ferrybank Community Development Residents’ Group John Hayes says “It’s very frustrating at the moment when the lights operate normally they’re not too bad but we’ve had a lot of instances of the lights getting stuck on red, now this is the turn off from the Briar Rose on the main road to New Ross, you can imagine the amount of traffic on that both coming from New Ross for the city and also leaving the city heading back”.
He adds; “It’s just going to lead to problems you know but people are getting naturally frustrated so it’s an easy fix, the problem we have is that when it happens, particularly out of hours, it’s even worse because you’re waiting for a crew to come along to fix the light and there’s a huge tailback then”.
And Mr Hayes notes; “We get a huge tailback, a report goes in, then they have to take their time to come out, there’s complete chaos in the meanwhile, people are getting really frustrated, when the lights are normal there’s a fix that I think should happen; when you come to the lights they’re on green, then they change to red, there’s a long, long time duration giving access from the Abbey Road which there’s no traffic, there aren’t any cars coming across – surely a sensor could be placed there so that when a car approaches the lights then it kicks in and the red light comes on to allow them to get access to wherever they’re going”.
