[Press Release: April 22nd, 2003]

NEW TRAFFIC PLAN SPELLS DISASTER FOR BRAY CLAIM GREENS

The Green Party has claimed that the revised Draft Traffic Management Plan for Bray spells disaster for the smooth flow of traffic in the town. Green Party councillor, Deirdre de Burca has been very critical of Bray Town Council in failing to provide residents with a map illustrating the proposed changes, as was done with the first draft plan last year. "This new plan has significant changes which are difficult to interpret from a written text only" says de Burca.

Councillor de Burca points out that a total of ten traffic signalised junctions will be in place under the proposed scheme- six of these in main Street alone. She claims that the close spacing of these, in particular the Novara Avenue, St Cronan's and Town Hall sets will make any significant traffic throughput impossible.

"Im sure people in the town will remember when St Peter's road was signalised some years ago" she says. "It was a disaster and the signals had to be hurriedly removed as gridlock set in. The proposed system of closely spaced signalised junctions proposed in the Draft Traffic Management Plan will result in chaos far worse than that caused by St Peter's Road".

Councillor de Burca also points out that she has learned that no computer simulation has been carried out on the proposed network of signalised junctions - ten in all. She claims that this is normally a fundamental step to determining if a system will work, and insists that this is particularly important in Bray as the junctions at Eglinton Rd introduce a two-dimensional network rather than a linear system along Main Street alone. "Computer studies for this plan only extended to the OSCADY system which models each junction in isolation without reference to the interaction of all 10 junctions" she says.

The Greens are concerned that as with the previous plan, the residents of roads such as Herbert Road, Church Road, Adelaide Road and Seapoint Road will experience increased and intolerable levels of traffic. She points out that under the Plan all traffic accessing the Holy Redeemer Church or the proposed Multi-Storey Car Park on Herbert Road will have to use this road, leading to hugely increased flows on this residential road. She also argues that dispersal of traffic after mass will be problematic due to the lack of access southward onto Main Street.

According to councillor de Burca the Green Party has made a submission to Bray Town Council on the Draft Traffic Management Plan and has suggested a number of alternative solutions to the council in relation to improving traffic flows in the town.

For further information please contact Deirdre de Burca on 086 8061450 or email deburca@wicklowgreens.org.