Lights go out; traffic flows

Opinion – Mullingar town centre could work as a shared space

Traffic congestion in the centre of Mullingar has been making headlines for several years now, and the focus of discontent is largely the junction of Castle Street, Pearse Street and Austin Friar Street, better known as the McDonald’s junction.

Last week, as most of those who have reason to pass through that junction must have noticed, the traffic lights were not working there – and the traffic flowed smoothly.

Drivers slowed as they approached the lights, pedestrians paid attention when they wanted to cross the roads, people watched what other people were doing, and everything worked well.

It happened by accident rather than by design, but there is an approach that advocates traffic and street planning along those lines. It’s called shared space, and those who use the greenways through and near Mullingar will be used to the idea.

The greenways are shared spaces; cyclists and walkers use them, children and joggers use them; and on some stretches, further out from the town, vehicles use them for access to homes and farms.

And everyone gets on; people pay attention to what others are doing, they make way, they cooperate. They have to, because there are no signs or direction arrows instructing people to do this or that, turn left, or right, or stop or go...

The notion of shared space in town centres has gained traction with local authorities in the UK, The Netherlands and Germany. The idea is that because there isn’t a green light allowing drivers to proceed, they have to slow down to see what’s happening and they proceed with caution.

Shared spaces are being implemented, on a small scale, and monitored to see if they achieve their aims of improved road safety and better traffic flow.

This paragraph is from a report on CNN: ‘The town of Drachten in the Netherlands was one of the first to experiment the concept in 2002 by removing nearly all traffic signals with the aim of reducing accidents and improving both the town’s quality and popularity. Despite increases in traffic volumes, accident numbers fell from 8.3 per year between 1994 and 2002 to an average of just one per year in 2005.’

That suggests the idea has potential, and it could work well in a small town centre like that of Mullingar.

Part of the concept is a different road surface, so that drivers know that as they cross to that surface, something is different; they won’t see signs or traffic lights; they’ll see pedestrians and cyclists, young and old, and they will slow down and give them space.

If you read the Westmeath Examiner, you will know that councillors have been banging the drum of traffic congestion for years now. They maintain that town centre trade is down because people are not driving in to do business (we haven’t seen figures to back that up; modern life and online shopping might also be a factor), and they insist that removing the traffic lights at the McDonald’s junction and putting back the roundabout that had been removed during the town enhancement scheme would help matters.

Traffic is clearly a concern for the citizens of the town and elsewhere in north Westmeath; there is evidence in the hundreds of comments on reports on the Westmeath Examiner’s social media pages, and going by the number of times it’s mentioned by candidates in the forthcoming local elections (see pages 16-24).

But, instead of putting a roundabout in, the council should give serious consideration to making the centre of Mullingar a shared space. It would mean vehicles would not be banned or discouraged; people could drive in if they want to and if they need to (elderly and those with restricted mobility). They could go to the town centre shops and park near them. Pedestrians could cross at any point and not have to walk to a designated place and wait long minutes for traffic lights to change to green for them. Cyclist could pass along the streets safely (and responsibly) without fear of being squeezed or hit by a car, van or lorry.

It could work; the traffic lights that were broken for several days last week prove it could, and that people can be trusted to do the right thing on the roads.

- Brian O'Loughlin, editor, Westmeath Examiner