Villagers cause traffic chaos in Ratoath

meath | environment | news report

Saturday September 25, 2004 01:23

by Moonwolf

Residents of Ratoath Co.Meath took to the roads yesterday (Friday) to protest at Meath County Councils failure to implement traffic calming measures in the village.

The village was the scene of traffic chaos from 5.30p.m as an estimated 500 residents staged a walk through the village as a sizeable Garda presence looked on. The village which lies on a link road between the N3 and N2 was the scene of tailbacks reaching up to two miles long and causing delays of up to 30 minutes.

Residents claim that drivers are using the small rural roads in the village to avoid going through Dunshaughlin, which is a bottle neck. They claim some drivers are reaching dangerous speeds of up to 120 miles per hour at peak rush hour endangering the lives of the villagers, especially young children.

According to one local resident the protests will continue until "effective traffic calming measures are put in place to protect us"

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Comments (15 of 15)

Real cause

by anti-rabies

Sat Sep 25, 2004 16:09

Your title is wrong. It is not the villagers who "caused" the traffic chaos, it was the county council by their failure to deal with the problem. The villagers were only trying to defend their community.

community defence

by village people

Sat Sep 25, 2004 16:12

they should count themselves lucky that they dont live in Fallujah

The problem is the locals

by Sean

Sun Sep 26, 2004 22:26

I would suggest that the main problem in Ratoath with traffic is that of locals speeding. When the people of Ratoath start to obey the speed limit , particularly on the Fairyhouse Road, then I'll take thei concerns more seriously.

Hypocrisy is rife in Ratoath, the real problem is the local people speeding, on roads , in housing estates, etc.

how

by paulc

Sun Sep 26, 2004 23:39

how do you know they are locals?

I know, because I look

Sun Sep 26, 2004 23:52

I happen to live in Ratoath.

In my estate, I regularly have to avoid being knocked down by SUV, drivers (often with kids in the car) doing about 30-50mph while i'm playing football in the estate

Speeding Locals

by Oisin

Mon Sep 27, 2004 12:24

Sean is right, most of the locals speed around the roads at all times of the day. They just don't like to see people do it who arn't from the village. So as soon as they start doing it themselves i have not sympathy for them. And how do i know this i also live in Ratoath.

Corporate-style headline?

by Marcus

Mon Sep 27, 2004 17:52

The headline sounds exactly like something you'd read in the Irish Independent. The focus is on the traffic chaos caused by those pesky people looking for their rights again, rather than why they were protesting. Why not something like 'Rathoath villagers call for traffic calming measures'.

Because..

by moonwolf

Mon Sep 27, 2004 18:50

..they didn't "call" for traffic control measures, they staged a walk through the roads of the village that caused traffic chaos. Their intention was to cause traffic chaos, they succeeded in doing exactly that. The report makes it abundantly clear what the "cause" was -inaction by the county council to the residents previous "call" for traffic calming measures.

Since I was at the scene, I simply reported what I saw, and what I witnessed was traffic chaos being successfully caused by a well planned street demonstration.

National exposure. Good to see................

Mon Oct 04, 2004 12:20

that michael clifford of the Sunday Tribune done a piece on this yesterday(Oct3rd).

Keep reading Indymedia Michael!!!!!!

local traffic problem

by reflective tosser

Mon Oct 04, 2004 13:12

Reading the other contributions I was wondering what actually defines a local? Someone who has lived all their life in rathoath or someone who lives there?

I would argue that the problem of traffic and speeding in Rathoath is 1 - Meath CoCouncil decided to allow planning permission for too many homes in a village without considering the infrastructure required to cope with the new housing estates 2 the lack of any significant Garda presence in the area and finally 3 the 'windey' road to Rathoath, like most other country roads, has a 60 K speed 'limit' that is way to fast.

Ratoath

by Walter de Lacy

Mon Oct 04, 2004 17:09

Ratoath is spelt RATOATH, not RATHOATH. People who don't even go to effort of learning the correct way to spell the village's name, should not comment on it

commenting

by TK

Mon Oct 04, 2004 17:14

Anyone, whether they can spell it or not, has the right to comment on it, and neither you nor anyone else has the right to stop them.

Comment

Mon Oct 04, 2004 19:02

I said should not comment. I did not call for censorship of anthing like that, just suggested that those sort of people should not comment, which is entirely a voluntary action.

People who do not read other people's comments, should not comment on those comments.

professor

by higs

Thu Aug 18, 2005 17:37

I protest that Dunshaughlin is not a 'bottle neck', clearly there is no resemblence and the metaphorical comparison is unclear and so the term 'bottle neck' appears as slanderous. I would hope that it is removed from this persuasive arguement

Ratoath Roads

by gtasa

Fri Jan 06, 2006 19:13

can anyone tell me how long is it before another person is injured or hurt in ratoath i have seen many car crashes in ratoath over the passed few years.

what is meath co.co doing with the roads in ratoath
it is a joke like the new round about on the way out of ratoath towards dunshaughlin besides brownstown estate the have narrowed the road by adding a new footpath and entrance way for a new estate .

Don't get me wrong I think there should be footpaths around ratoath and better street lighting but do they have to make the road smaller it's not fun when you meet an artic comming towards you and they are flying.

Also the new footpaths should be a little lower for one thing and how about putting a better lighting system in the village allowing better flow of traffic.

Also how about a better public transport service in the village and local area.

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Villagers cause traffic chaos in Ratoath

Comments (15 of 15)