NEED TO RE-EXAMINE POLICY ON RAMPS
25th May 1999
The Corporation's policy on erecting ramps on roads needs to be re-examined, said Green Party candidate for Crumlin-Kimmage, John Goodwillie. "The ramps which have been erected on Keeper Road, for example, are useless: even buses don't have to slow down to get over them.
"There is always a problem where it is proposed to erect ramps on a bus-route, since it could be dangerous to passengers for a bus to hit a ramp even after the bus had slowed down. But the answer is not to install a ramp which has such a gentle gradient that it is of no effect.
"Alternative methods of slowing traffic will have to be found. If ordinary ramps cannot be used because of bus traffic, then other methods such as mini-roundabouts and chicanes (staggered building out of the footpaths) should be tried.
"It is difficult to understand how the road engineers could have imagined that gentle ramps would have had any effect, and this policy must be changed before any more money is spent on it," John Goodwillie concluded.