Traffic gridlock in Cork damaging economy and turning people off public transport, council told

Earlier this week, a study by sat-nav company TomTom found Cork was more congested than London, Toronto or Rome. Picture: Larry Cummins

Repeated gridlock in Cork City is damaging its economy and turning a generation off public transport.

The warnings come after another night of citywide gridlock sparked by a raft of separate but simultaneous road traffic incidents on key roads.

“This gridlock because of one of two road traffic accidents in one area is becoming an almost daily occurrence now,” chair of Cork City Council’s transport committee and Labour councillor Peter Horgan, said.

Ireland South MEP Cynthia Ní Mhurchú, a member of the European Parliament’s transport committee, has written to the council’s chief executive Valerie O’Sullivan to express her concerns at the congestion and its impact on the city's economy.

During rush hour on Wednesday evening, motorists were caught again in monster tailbacks.

Gardaí dealt with two crashes on the N40 South Ring Road — one westbound and one eastbound — between 5pm and 6pm.

Westbound traffic was backed up from the Jack Lynch tunnel to the Kinsale Road roundabout.

Traffic lights at the Kinsale Road roundabout were also out of action, leading to long tailbacks on the South City Link Road outbound.

It had a massive knock-on effect on traffic around the city, which in turn delayed dozens of bus services.

Last Saturday, a vehicle fire near the N40 Douglas village exit led to massive tailbacks on the South Ring Road.

Mr Horgan said: “This kind of congestion and bus delays has become an almost daily occurrence.

It’s a vicious circle. People can’t rely on buses because of congestion so they take the car, which causes the congestion that’s delaying the buses. It's turning the generation of people we want to use the bus off using the bus.

A key issue is driver responsibility, he said, with speeding, lane jumping, and angry driving a factor in some of the crashes.

The local authority could work with gardaí to ensure minor crashes are cleared quickly, and lanes reopened as fast as possible, he said.

But he said government has a responsibility too for the big issues that could ease the problem, including delivering a north ring road, introducing automatic traffic enforcement cameras, and providing more gardaí, which could be deployed to roads policing.

Ms Ní Mhurchú said many businesses and constituents have been in touch with her office to complain about daily gridlock in Cork.

“One constituent said it recently took 90 minutes to get from Glanmire to Bishopstown and 105 minutes to go from Glanmire to CUH Wilton — outside of peak times. You would be quicker walking,” she said.

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She said she supported the introduction of high-tech traffic cameras that can manage traffic flows and catch motorists blocking yellow boxes and illegally use bus lanes.

Earlier this week, a study by sat-nav company TomTom found Cork was more congested than London, Toronto or Rome.