How many lorries to cripple a city?

[alpha-dog]

no, what I meant is there's only 1 motorway from Belfast to the north. yet the shankil was busy, gonna assume hightown/cavehill was mad. gonna assume shore road was mad, gonna assume antrim road was mad. basically all the other roads from Belfast to the north were ****ed.

what I'm saying is, the roads are poorly managed and they're all ****ed as soon as ab accident happens

 

[johnboy888]

if I owned a multistory car park in Belfast city centre. of course I'll be whispering in the ears of the planning permissions people to tell uuj to go **** themselves.

surely if uuj wanted a multi-storey carpark for themselves they could have some sort of pass that only let their staff/students in without affecting the rest of the carparks in belfast

 

[alpha-dog]

surely if uuj wanted a multi-storey carpark for themselves they could have some sort of pass that only let their staff/students in without affecting the rest of the carparks in belfast

and if I was a staff or student that wasn't going to uni, I'd still use the unis multistory car park to go into town and shop.

parking in town is an expensive game, think Victoria square charges £2.50 a hour.

 

[stevieturbo]

Sure why would a university think it needs to have facilities for staff or students to get to the university...it might take intelligence to figure that one out !

Maybe that will be students first research project there ?

 

[alpha-dog]

all joking aside stevieturbo, some times I think they've poorly managed the uni in purpose just so the students can have study projects.

 

[johnboy888]

and if I was a staff or student that wasn't going to uni, I'd still use the unis multistory car park to go into town and shop.

parking in town is an expensive game, think Victoria square charges £2.50 a hour.

suppose you're right
wife thinks vic sq charges more like £3.60 an hr !

 

[MarkM]

parking in town is an expensive game, think Victoria square charges £2.50 a hour.

Think it went up to £3!

 

[ChrisR]

Think it went up to £3!

Correct - Q-Park Victoria Square

 

[Dan]

They were fighting for planning consent for a multi storey across the road from the new Uni when I was on placement with their project team. that was in 2013.

The problem was that there would only be enough spaces for staff. Students aren't being catered for at all.

I'm looking forward to the extra 4000 odd student rooms being constructed. Now that'll be carnage!

 

[azzymo]

Reading this thread makes me think I did the right thing on Friday. After hearing about the accident, and with working in the city centre, I phoned my wife and said that I'd be late home because of it. Dandered into the shops, bought a few bits and bobs then picked up a magazine, bought a coffee and put the feet up. Ended up leaving town about 7:30pm and home in 15 minutes, put the kids into bed and made the 7:55pm Utd v Derby kick off!

Once the nights start getting brighter though, I'll be carrying the bike in the back of the car for such times like Friday.

 

[veron]

I've long been a critic of the Northern Ireland roads system, more so of the people who used to run it many years ago. There was just a lack of forward vision. An attitude of "that'll do rightly for now". I do think in more recent times we have made progress. We have to remember we are a small country with economic restraints, not helped by the fact we are in a post conflict era.

I'm more critical of Translink however. I've never seen a more disjointed poorly run transport company in my life. I'm in the process of writing an article for the Tele about public transport in Belfast and Citybus, Ulsterbus and Translink in general. Some of the things I've managed to research you would not believe. Remember this company is publicly funded! The Belfast to Dublin Enterprise is a joke, the constant delays with the Coleraine to Derry upgrade, the never ending fare rises well above inflation, poor coverage for most rural areas, the fact there's no train line west of the Bann. Of course that last point could be argued as to the reasons why with regards to economic viability at the time of closure. This company is not serving all the people of Northern Ireland. If it was run better, with better services, cheaper fares etc then perhaps more people would be on public transport, out of their cars and the chaos of Friday will be reduced.

At the moment, a lot of money is going into the new rapid transport system. Most Belfast people on here will probably notice the roadworks on Newtownards road, Falls road etc, not to mention what has happened in the city centre over the past 2 years! Wesley Johnston's site has great detail on it. I'm actually quite excited by it. But it will be interesting to see if it will be a success. Judging be Translink and this countries past ventures, I'm not holding much hope!

 

[thomas_lad]

i spent the best part of an hour and a half on the Grovesnor (sp) road,after spening about half an hour on the road with M-Club (Alibi) on it in an attempt to get home over the hightown. Ended up cutting off down the falls and back on to the motorway and eventually got home about 7:30pm after leaving work at 5pm

Complete shambles of a city

 

[Coog]

It's such a shame that all the train lines were canned. 100 years ago we had the perfect set-up and now it's just a complete disaster.

 

[pablo]

100 years ago households didn't have 2 cars each

 

[Boabybooster]

It's such a shame that all the train lines were canned. 100 years ago we had the perfect set-up and now it's just a complete disaster.

An international to Belfast city centre train would be ideal, there is a line up to it and I bet it wouldn't be to hard to extend it a bit to the terminal.

 

[Coog]

100 years ago households didn't have 2 cars each

Not many had 2 cars in the 50's & 60's when the lines were all closed.

An international to Belfast city centre train would be ideal, there is a line up to it and I bet it wouldn't be to hard to extend it a bit to the terminal.

Agree. Sure look at the City Airport rail link. Absolute joke!

 

[Lyons]

Agree. Sure look at the City Airport. Absolute joke!

Agreed.

 

[Boabybooster]

Not many had 2 cars in the 50's & 60's when the lines were all closed.



Agree. Sure look at the City Airport rail link. Absolute joke!

It's like the Ryanair of train stations.

 

[colin84]

The traffic in on the M2 citybound is insane in the morning's. I've been doing that journey for 14 years and the traffic is definitely getting worse. They go to all that trouble of widening the road for increased traffic but leave it with a set of lights at the end!

The standard of driving here is also woeful. In the evenings going up the hill section of the M2 most people seem to think it's ok to just sit in the outside lane at whatever speed they like. I just can't get my head around the fact that these ****ing ass holes think it's ok to hold everyone else up without a care in the world, driving people to undertake or tailgate. The police need to clamp down on them.

 

[WiBa]

It's such a shame that all the train lines were canned. 100 years ago we had the perfect set-up and now it's just a complete disaster.

 

[azzymo]

The traffic in on the M2 citybound is insane in the morning's. I've been doing that journey for 14 years and the traffic is definitely getting worse. They go to all that trouble of widening the road for increased traffic but leave it with a set of lights at the end!

The standard of driving here is also woeful. In the evenings going up the hill section of the M2 most people seem to think it's ok to just sit in the outside lane at whatever speed they like. I just can't get my head around the fact that these ****ing ass holes think it's ok to hold everyone else up without a care in the world, driving people to undertake or tailgate. The police need to clamp down on them.

I don't undertake. I just move to the inside lane after Fortwilliam and on most nights cruise the whole way up about 50 or 60mph while the 'brake, brake, sped up, brake, brake, sped up' crew fight with each other in the outside lane.

The middle lane seemingly is just for older folk and southerners.

 

[colin84]

I don't undertake. I just move to the inside lane after Fortwilliam and on most nights cruise the whole way up about 50 or 60mph while the 'brake, brake, sped up, brake, brake, sped up' crew fight with each other in the outside lane.

The middle lane seemingly is just for older folk and southerners.

I do exactly the same.

 

[davey-dimples]

Blame the troubles.....otherwise the motorway would have been a lot lot different
History - Northern Ireland Motorway Plans - Northern Ireland Roads Site

That was actually quite interesting to read
Wish I had of had it on Friday afternoon lol

There was supposed to be major alterations to Belfast's road network when they discovered a suicide victim on the M2 could shut the place down. (jumped off Fort William roundabout onto a bus in 2007).

Cant believe that was near a decade ago now, my friend and his gf were a few cars back from the bus and ended up parked in the crash barrier in the chaos of everyone swerving

 

[stevieturbo]

The traffic in on the M2 citybound is insane in the morning's. I've been doing that journey for 14 years and the traffic is definitely getting worse. They go to all that trouble of widening the road for increased traffic but leave it with a set of lights at the end!

The standard of driving here is also woeful. In the evenings going up the hill section of the M2 most people seem to think it's ok to just sit in the outside lane at whatever speed they like. I just can't get my head around the fact that these ****ing ass holes think it's ok to hold everyone else up without a care in the world, driving people to undertake or tailgate. The police need to clamp down on them.

It genuinely did get a lot worse with the introduction of the bus lanes. Traffic used to be able to use the City centre roads to move in and around the city when the outer routes were very busy. Now they cant do that or use the outer routes which are far busier now for much longer than they ever were.
And the bus lanes are the main reason for that !

You can't suddenly remove around 50% road capacity for the majority of road users and not expect it to have huge knock on **** ups.

 

[Paul RS]

It's such a shame that all the train lines were canned. 100 years ago we had the perfect set-up and now it's just a complete disaster.

Funny, I've said that as well recently. There were other lines that went from Bangor down the peninsula that aren't shown on that map. I'm not entirely sure where they went, but some parts of them still exist.