Are traffic lights a hindrance?

Traffic flow through Bailieborough was called into question by a local councillor at a recent Ballyjamesduff Municipal District meeting.

Cllr Shane P. O’Reilly (Ind) asserted that when traffic lights were out of order in the town, the traffic flowed through it a lot more freely. He asked would it be better to leave the traffic lights off full time and only turn them on at school times to help ease traffic congestion.

Cllr TP O’Reilly interjected that this would only work for an hour or two and would lead to a pile-up.

John McGahern, senior exeutive with Cavan County Council for Ballyjamesduff MD, suggested that with the volume of traffic in the town, it could become a problem.

He explained that the traffic lights were not on a fixed sequence but were set up to react to traffic flow, and if traffic was heavier flowing into the town, then it would get more green time.

Mr McGahern informed the meeting, held in Virginia Rugby Club, that while it may seem logical to favour one side of traffic flow into the town, a significant number of vehicles entered Bailieborough from each direction daily.

He said 1200 vehicles headed towards Dublin daily, but 400-600 vehicles passed through the town in the opposite direction.

Cllr TP O’Reilly added that it was impossible to factor in events like funerals.