Galway Advertiser 1990/1990_03_01/GA_01031990_E1_016.pdf 

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Will aplan for traffic help improve City business ?

BUSINESS

As the development of the Inner City continues at a rapid pace, plans are now being presented to the City Council on traffic flow and pedestrianisation. It is a vital last phase. There is no point in having a City Centre full of shops, restaurants and galleries if traffic and petrol fumes make it dangerous and un friendly. The job of planning an acceptable level of traffic flow while at the same time ensurthat traders got maxi mum exposure to shop pers has been given to Civil Engineer Frank Harewood. He admits it's quite a challenge. The new Eastern approach road which is being developed by both the Corporation and County Council is well underway. Traffic approaching from Limerick or Dublin will easily get to the Clifden or Barna roads without going through the City. The second phase, an Inner Ring Road, with major improvements at Eyre Square. Forster Street, Spanish Arch and Bowling Green, to help keep traffic flowing around the main City Centre is at present before the Council. This includes an ambitious plan of pedestrianisation for much of the main streets. It's the one area which many Councillors fear to thread. Several shopkeepers are fiercely opposed to such a move and claim it will kill off the City.

fl/an. Educational Officer, with the Insurance Institute of Galway (right) pictured presenting Mario Magliocio. Celtic Inter national, with his A.C.C.I. Certificate at the Institute's annual dinner on Friday. Also in the photo: Don Collern of Collern Insurance. Eyre Square. Sean

Pictured attending the Galway Insurance Institute annual dinner were Harry Kenny of Seegwick Dinneen, John McGinley of Norwich Union, President of the Insurance Institute of Galway. and Des McGuire of Egal Star.

FRANK HAREWOOD . . . You can no longer just pull up outside a shop, do your shopping and drive home. Authority and the Shopkeeper's side is not difficult for Frank Harewood. H e is originally a Waterford man and began his career as an official with Wexford Co. Council. He now runs his own consultancy from Abbeygate Street. "Galway is very lucky compared to Waterford", he said. "Both cities are comparable in size. Galway has no fewer than 3 bridges across the river and a new relief bridge. As a result the City has developed pretty evenly on both sides of the river. Waterford has only o n e bridge. And most of its development has been on the West side only. The Kilkenny side is still very small". Harewood's Inner Ring Road intends to keep traffic moving to and fro across the river in a lively way.

Moon's Corner to the end of Quay Street - to be phased in gradually over a period of years - is based on the fact that shoppers and browsers already claim the territory on Saturday a f t e r n o o n s , during festivals and all Chirstmas Week. Pedestrian isation will only make official what people have claimed as a right of way. Pedestrianisation, how ever, will not work at all unless there is adequate car-parking. To make the Harewood plan work he needs 4,000 car spaces in the City Centre. He will just have in excess of that number thanks to Roches Stores and other proposed sites, which should be on stream in two years. "The ideal is that no shopper is further than 5 minutes from their car", says Frank Harewood. "Car parks should be in position in a ring around the City and there will be a constant movement of cars in and out of them. Long term parks will have to be situated a bit further from the City Centre".

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large crowds. Pedestrianised streets will always have access for service or emergency v e h i c l e s . T h e City Centre of Galway is in itself a major Shopping Centre with the added a t t r a c t i o n of s o m e beautiful old buidings and historic atmosphere. If it is not developed for the comfort of shoppers they will simply go off to the Shopping Centres in the suburbs. The time has long gone when you could just pull up outside a shop . . . do your shopping and drive home".

No Traffic Ban
Frank Harewood does not see the need to ban traffic from the City, as other major cities of the world are actively plan ning. "The commercial heart of Galway is small and intimate", he says, "we can tolerate the present level of traffic and control its flow around the pedestrianised areas. We are all pedestrians. And we all want to enjoy the a t m o s p h e r e of shopping in a busy traffic-free area".

Consultation
The final point in Frank Harewood's plan is that every move is only made after consultation and agreement between the Corporation and the t r a d e r s . " T h i s last development may be tried as an experiment sometime next year. It can work very well. But it only works where the streets already attract

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People's Right of Way
He believes that the argument for pedestrian isation has already been won by the people themselves. His plans for closing traffic from

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