Galway Bay fm Newsroom – A proposal to introduce car-pooling in the bus lanes at Séamus Quirke Road for a trial period has been shot down by Galway City Council.
The proposal would have allowed cars with three or more adult passengers to use the bus lanes during peak traffic times.
At this week’s sitting of Galway City Council, Councillor Pearce Flannery proposed that the National Transport Authority be asked to examine introducing the car-pooling scheme to the bus lanes at Séamus Quirke Road.
Director of Services Joe O’ Neill was firmly opposed to the idea and warned that it would be an expensive pilot and would mean large numbers of cars in the bus lane.
Councillor Declan O’ Donnell said that if they were serious about solving transport problems, they should be looking for more buses in the lanes and not cars.
There was support for the motion from a number of councillors, with Councillor Peter Keane commenting that unless they dipped their toe on the issue, they’d never know if the proposed pilot would work.
However, Councillor Ollie Crowe wanted to know who would police such a scheme and ensure it was not being abused.
In the end, the matter went to a vote and councillors voted firmly against the proposed car-pooling scheme.