Ongoing parking and traffic issues in Waterford city
Waterford city’s streets and carparks cannot meet the needs of increasing car numbers, a Council Executive has said.
Waterford city’s streets and carparks cannot meet the needs of increasing car numbers, a Council Executive has said.
Responding to concerns raised by councillors regarding traffic and parking issues in the city during last week's Plenary Council meeting, Waterford City and County Council Director of Services Gabriel Hynes said the solution is to shift away from using cars entirely.
Speaking on the matter, Cllr Mary Roche said: “The truth is that within one hour of here there are 600,000 people, but they literally can’t get into the city.
“We need to take steps. We tend to go to central government with a begging bowl and we come away 99 times out of 100 empty handed, so we need to look at what we can do ourselves.”
Mr Hynes said in response: “In relation to traffic delays, particularly in the city, we have increasing demand. We have an increasing number of cars, an increasing population and we can’t continuously meet the needs.
“We need to provide alternatives in Waterford city, whether it be public transport, whether it be rail, Bus Connects or active travel projects.
“In general, parking demands are becoming more and more significant and the solution to all of this is sustainable transport and shifting away from a dependency on the car to walking, cycling, active travel projects or public transport.
“We as an executive must ensure we provide those alternatives, because that is the solution in relation to parking and traffic.”
