‘Last chance’ for controversial Athlone traffic lights

Councillors in Athlone have vowed that will insist on switching off the controversial new traffic lights at the Mardyke Street junction unless there is a marked improvement in traffic flows in the town over the next three weeks.

Monday's meeting of the Athlone Moate Municipal District was told that a new "reconfiguration" of the traffic light timings at the junction came into effect on Saturday last, in an effort to ease the traffic problems which escalated in the town this year.

The meeting was told that the new timing of the traffic light phases at Mardyke Street appeared to be having a positive effect, but council management acknowledged it was too early to draw firm conclusions.

However, Cllr Aengus O'Rourke said that the reconfiguration of the lights was "a last throw of the dice" and vowed that, if it didn't work, the members would be insisting at their next monthly meeting in November that the traffic lights would have to be turned off on a trial basis.

"We could spend our lives tweaking the lights," said Cllr O'Rourke.

"We agreed back in July that we would give everyone until the end of the summer to come up with a solution before the kids went back to school. There was nothing really achieved in that time.

"I think, as members, we're showing great forbearance to continually allow tweaks to happen."

He said his preference was to "turn the lights off, put a yellow box in, and put the pedestrian crossing up near Athlone Crystal (shop) as a trial," and that he would be pushing for this to be implemented next month unless the situation improved.

The new phasing of the traffic lights at the junction came into effect at 12 o'clock on Saturday last, according to District Manager Willie Ryan.

"A contractor observed the lights until approximately 4 o'clock on Saturday, and he saw an instant positive response," said Mr Ryan.

"I went out myself for a look today (Monday) at lunchtime and some of the things I hoped to see I have seen," he added.

"For example, the new re-phasing of the lights means that the likelihood of cars getting trapped between the lights, at Pump Lane, has been reduced almost completely.

"It remains to be seen whether this is a negligible improvement, an incremental improvement or a significant improvement. It may well be a significant improvement, but I think we need to look at it, day to day, over a couple of weeks."

Cllr O'Rourke agreed at Monday's meeting that "traffic is moving very well today" but he noted that the lights at the Crescent junction were not working and that this was a factor.

"If you want an example of how well the traffic moves when the lights are off, go down to the Crescent. If we had the same pleasure and joy at Mardyke Street I think we'd be very happy going into the Christmas season," he said.

Cllr Kevin 'Boxer' Moran said that he too wanted to see the traffic lights being turned off at Mardyke Street, but he would give council management until next month to "see what happens" with the new sequencing.

"I'm frustrated because I'm getting it in the neck (regarding traffic) every day of the week," he said.

"I got three very angry texts from shops at the shopping centre in Golden Island, and from Dunnes, all giving out hell about the traffic on Saturday. My own (taxi) staff are going home, and they're not going home because they're losing money, it's because they're frustrated."

Cllr Paul Hogan said that there were three weeks until the next monthly meeting of the Athlone Moate Municipal District and asked for the Mardyke Street traffic lights to be an item on the agenda at that meeting.