Third river crossing in Waterford city ‘needs to be delivered’ amid traffic problems
Director of Services Gabriel Hynes made the comments at the May plenary meeting of Waterford City and County Council
A third river crossing in Waterford city “needs to be delivered” in the long-term, a council meeting has heard.
The issue of traffic in the city was raised by Social Democrats councillor Mary Roche at the May plenary meeting of Waterford City and County Council.
Cllr Roche said: “The truth is that within one hour of this very office here there are 600,000 people but they literally can’t get to the city because once they get to any of the entrances we are choked up.
“So I think we need to actually take steps, along with the sustainable bridge, on what we can do ourselves. We tend to go to central Government with a begging bowl.
“We come away 99 times out of 100 empty handed so I think we need to actually look at what we can control ourselves.”
In response, Director of Services Gabriel Hynes said that the problem is being caused by an increasing number of cars on the road.
Mr Hynes said: “Just in relation to traffic and traffic management and traffic delays, I suppose particularly in the city, we are having increasing demand, increasing number of cars and an increasing population.
“We can’t continuously meet the needs of additional cars. As part of our climate change strategy, we need to provide alternatives.”
He noted the Bus Connects programme coming on stream, as well as a number of Active Travel projects.
Mr Hynes went on to highlight the need for a third river crossing in future. However, he insisted that sustainable transport is the solution to the traffic problems in the city.
“In relation to Waterford city, the third river crossing is something long-term that needs to be delivered as well.
“The solution to all of this is sustainable transport. It’s shifting away from dependency on the car to either walking or cycling on Active Travel projects or public transport.
“We as an executive and you as members need to make sure we provide alternatives for this shift and then I think that is the solution to the issue of parking and the issue of traffic.”
He concluded by saying that the council also needs “buy in” from the public in delivering the shift away from car dependency.