Michael Moynihan: Lack of road markings in Cork is a hazard — and a message that the city doesn’t care
Kudos to the people who got the big pot of paint down from the top shelf in the shed to paint the road markings at the intersection at the Michael Collins Bridge and Penrose Quay, but there are plenty of other places in the city which would do with some attention. File picture: David Creedon / Anzenberger
I see the big pot of paint has been taken out of the shed in City Hall.
My evidence? The intersection at the Michael Collins Bridge and Penrose Quay was recently repainted, bright white lines delineating traffic routes and a sparkling new yellow box laid down to warn drivers.
Yes, the yellow box is blithely disregarded every time I pass it, and the white lines can sometimes appear to be a basis for opening negotiations rather than — you know — directing people where to aim their vehicles, but this is progress.
Until the painting crew got to work, this was one of those parts of the city’s road network where a driver was leaning on past experience to survive. Experience of a summer driving taxis in the Bronx, maybe, or circling the Arc de Triomphe in Paris.
(Others may have their own comparisons, but my awe on first seeing the insanity in the middle of Paris stays with me. A former colleague once brought his family on a driving holiday to France which included taking a wrong turn in the capital and entering the traffic whirling around the monument. He simply stopped until a policeman jumped in and drove them ashore.)
Anyway. If you came across the Michael Collins Bridge before the paint job, you were presented with a choice of keeping left, to continue up the quayside, or drifting right with an eye to slipping off towards Ship Street and heading for east Cork.
Without clearly painted road markings, however, this became a bit of a gamble. Sometimes it was more than a gamble - an outright risk, in fact, if someone changed their mind suddenly, realising that without marked traffic lanes they were going the wrong way.
Kudos, then, to the people who got the big pot of paint down from the top shelf in the shed, but there are plenty of other places in the city which would do with some attention. And the big pot appears to have been restored to its place of rest.
For instance, someone who passes through the intersection mentioned above can double back across the Brian Boru Bridge and head eventually for the South City Link Road.
Readers familiar with the area will know the route, which takes you past the Elysian’s Aldi store on your right as you swing through the traffic lights only to find someone misreading the road entirely, filling your entire windscreen with a vast SUV even as it dawns on them, snug behind the sunglasses, that they are actually in the wrong lane. Sorry. Past trauma reasserting itself there.
As the two lanes swing onto the Link Road, there’s no clear traffic marking on the tarmacadam. Often the driver in the right-hand lane isn’t aware - or chooses not to be aware - that there’s a whole other lane right next to him. The driver in the left-hand lane may suddenly realise they’re heading for the service station and swerve back out...
Yes, a driver should be aware of his or her surroundings at all times, but it would help if the big pot of paint could be deployed here, about 50 metres from City Hall. Go on Google Street View and you can see the problem right in front of you - not so much in black and white as in off-grey tarmac and absolutely no white at all.
For habitual users it’s no joke. For occasional visitors, who may be looking to reach the South Ring Road a mile or so away to head west or east, it’s a potential disaster. The smooth road surface gives no indication of any kind of division, so where do they go?
Journey further with me. Last week, I met up with a pal in (sweet) Blackpool, and when I told him about my notion for next week’s column he practically ran me out of the coffee shop and onto the road for more potential targets.
We strolled along the Brothers Delaney Road, which links the N20, rolling through Blackpool itself like a fleet of panzer tanks (more on hilariously inappropriate road plans for the northside at a later date), and the Red Forge Road.
If you turn left off the latter to enter the Blackpool Shopping Centre, you pass along B. Delaney Road to traffic lights. The filter lane to the left leads into the shopping centre, the remaining lane offers you a turn to the right (into the retail park) and straight ahead for the N20.
Unfortunately, the road markings are so worn away that it’s common enough for someone to drive straight on for the N20 when in the left lane - because there’s no arrow visible on the road to tell them they can’t do so. This has led to some honking and shouting. At least it has for me.
More? Not far away from this scene we find ourselves coming down Dublin Hill and into Blackpool proper. Traffic lights at the grotto at the bottom of the hill should regulate that traffic, but when the road markings are worn away traffic filtering right out the Red Forge Road goes down too far before stopping, the traffic turning back up around the grotto can’t get past, leading to cars backing up on both sides — Anyway, cue shenanigans.
As pointed out here before, maintenance isn’t glamorous. There are no politicians cutting ribbons and there are no photographs in the paper when roads and buildings are being painted, cleaned, and maintained. There are no launches, no speeches. It’s job done and then on to the next job.
We have seen in the last few years in Cork that whether it’s an enormous capital project like the Event Centre or a smaller technical installation like the Robot Trees, there are difficulties. Always. From the costliest Fireman’s Rest in the world to the broken wall at Parliament Bridge — still not repaired, 11 months after it was first damaged — it seems nothing in Cork can be done for a reasonable amount of money and in an acceptable period of time.
The latest? Last Friday, the Marina Promenade was officially opened by the Taoiseach. According to Cork City Council: “ . . the adjacent historic stone walls along the promenade were cleaned and restored, while the formal tree planting was carefully preserved. An array of new vegetation now lines the walkway, with approximately 60,000 bulbs now coming into bloom and 34 newly planted trees.”
This is great news, obviously. Bail ó Dhia ar an obair and all that. But after the grand opening, will it be maintained?
Well, the evidence of your own eyes in Cork every day would make you a little gloomy about the prospects of any public space being maintained. In the example of the roads above we’re literally talking about a lick of paint.
If that were applied with any regularity, it would improve road safety and help traffic specifically, but it would also convey a message to the citizens of Cork which isn’t heard or shown that often.
We care about the city.
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