Orbital Route sign disgrace
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When the Department of Transport’s new Orbital Route traffic signage system for Dublin was first introduced in 2003 there was an outcry that the signs caused even more confusion than before. So they were promptly removed, leaving bare poles all over the city while the signs were being redesigned … Sometime later, the new signs were fitted, but the new scheme obviously fell short of the original in numbers of signs because there are loads of bare pole-mounts still standing from the original scheme … 3 years later!! A selection is shown below.
How could such a situation be allowed to prevail? How could ugly galvanised poles be left standing all over the city centre? Is it too much to just remove them? What’s the story? Do we have a city centre or do we have a junk repository? While the Dept. of Transport introduced the scheme, it’s Dublin City Council who manage the streets. Please Council, remove them!! 😡
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Lower Leeson Street . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . St. Stephen’s Green North
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Mercer Street 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Mercer Street 2
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Mercer Street 3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Parnell Street
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Thomas Street . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Bolton Street
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Lower Fitzwilliam Street . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Adelaide Road
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Merrion Square 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Merrion Square 2
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Merrion Square 3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Merrion Square 4
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Merrion Square 5 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Upper Mount Street
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Upper Kevin Street . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Blackhorse Avenue😡 Yeah, I noticed these too. Ridiculous that they slapped a parking sign onto one of them. It looks terrible.
It shows a complete a lack of respect for the city by the council.
A few others I can thing of that piss me off. Wrong bulbs in the O’Connell Bridge lights, the deterioration of the Kiosks on Grattan Bridge, contractors digging up newly tarmaced roads and leaving them in a complete state. The list is endless.
Yeah, that is annoying. I also noticed them too. As for tearing up new roads, you are right about that one.
The Boardwalk is also being let go to rack and ruin. It’s unbelievably dirty and the docking point for the new boat is particularly bad. They’ve dumped a huge concrete block on it presumably because it would sink otherwise. The level of graffiti on the seating beggars belief and the only water the surface wood sees is rain. It makes you look at the tourists sometimes and say what the hell are you doing here – why didn’t you go somewhere nice.
Those road signs on St Stephen’s Green will actually never be used because of the change in traffic flows in the area. It just sums the city up in so many ways.Main road signs are awful in Ireland – How Cork has allowed Dublin CoCo get away with no mention of the real capitol on the Northbound sign at the M50 / Mad Cow has always surprised me! (It says Limerick)
KB2The Orbital Route signage was wholey a DCC project. The DofT just vetoed the first design as they have final say on all roadsigns errected. A note sent to Owen Keegan when the original scheme ran into problems got the response that DCC Traffic would be working with Roads Maintanence to remove all the unnecessary poles. But as we can se that never happened. This is also part of a general problem with poor roadsignage in the city. There is too much of it in my book. Every bus lane requires a plethora of signs to announce it…why not just paint them red! There are signed up for City Centre, M50 and N11 on every route but no logical outline of how to get there. Even this signage system deosnt really help you navigate your way clearly around the city. I bet noone pays any attention to J20 (Blue) or J15 (Purple). Its a pity the CC werent as quick to plant some trees as they are to put up an unused galvinised pole!
@KerryBog2 wrote:
Main road signs are awful in Ireland – How Cork has allowed Dublin CoCo get away with no mention of the real capitol on the Northbound sign at the M50 / Mad Cow has always surprised me! (It says Limerick)
KB2That’s because Limerick is the Main Route I e N7 Cork is on N8 and ends in Portlaois.
Same witth N4 goes to Sligo , Galway ends at Kinnegad.Anyways if they mention Cork they might as well mention N9 Waterford N10 Kinkenny and Tralee N21
And these poles make you depressed to boot – look at the poor lonely thing all on its own, how mean 🙁
😀 Looks like a Monty Python sketch!
Yes these monsters are everywhere – I know the Mercer St ones only too well in particular. Is a replacement scheme intended though that might actually utilise some of them?
This thread reflects all that is MOST important concerning how a Living Modern City operates.
By far the biggest hue and cry over the initial DCC signage was raised by one Mr Seamus (Batty) Brennan,a man of provincial stock,who upon returning to the ould sod after a spell out foreign was hugely put about when his driver got losht on Dorset St.Now the REAL reason of course was yet another tiresome insider power struggle between Mr Owen Keegan,late of this parish,then the holder of the title….”Director” of Traffic and in the other corner,various ladies and gentlemen of the Department for the Environment who must remain anonymous in the interest of State Security.
Owen,it seems had not run his new signage past the conclave in the Dept and so they were havin a hissy fit….BUT..The relevant Minister,Batty Brennan was on his holidays or at least out to lunch and so they had to wait for their sweet revenge.Well,Batty,who had built an entire career on his being seen as a Man of Action,leapt into action and out of the Mercedes to immediately demand their removal.
Being a Minister of an t-Oireachtas gives one a little clout these days and Dublins Traffic tsar,our Transport Supremo and sometimes “Acting” City Manager suddenly found himself with no clothes on….and it was reputed had to cycle around Dublin himself with a vice grips to remove the dreadful “Overinformative” signage.
As is the norm in this odd little entity we describe as a democratic republic,there has been no follow up,no admission of responsibility and most appropriately not a single resignation,dismissal or demotion.
In fact it`s all forgotten about now and nobody except picky oul gits with an interest in Streetscapes or with little else to worry about have any concern over the importance of what occured on Batty`s journey in from Collinstown that day.
It`s how we do things here and any attempt at improving or even suggesting an alternative will be met with extreme predjudice by the establishment.
The Bus Lanes are a case in point as no amount of White Paint makes the slightest difference UNTIL the regulatory signage is in place wit a requirement for two seperate signs firstly advising of the presence of the Bus/Cycle lane with the second and subsequent advising of the hours of operation.
No sign=No bus lane.In spite of what Mr Ahern and others are attempting to do on the Indian subcontinent the reality of modern Ireland is a country which shares a level of administrative impoverishment with the worst that can be found out Madras way whilst not coming within a Water Buffalo`s roar of their best !
It`s the little things that catch them out,the thread that once pulled,strips the emperor naked….
Home Farm Road Drumcondra,recently resurfaced in one of the smoothest and well executed reestablishment jobs in Dublin.
All went well until last week when,better late than never,some contractor or other returned to the fray and dug a trench across the bottom end….after the ritual poking around they performed an ancient druidic ritual (Cant let the Hindu`s have all the fun) and backfulled the trench,topping it off with a few shovels of chippins…Well the “Lads” have gone and the backfilling has followed the laws of Fizzicks and now lies at a level of 25-50mm below the edge of the trench which is felt by each and every Bus Passneger or Motorcyclist as they crash over the thing on the approach to the junction.
When added to the likes of Leeson St,Mount St and a hundred other locations around Dublin it simply demonstrates the total divorce from Professional Civil Engineering or Public Safety standards which is enjoyed by those who lurk deep within Civic Offices….
And while I`m at it and in conclusion Madam Chairman..has anybody in the audience taken note of just how many of our Traffic Sign and Signal mounting poles are knocked over,twisted or otherwise flattened and then left to lie recumbent for ever more…To corroborate merely drive along to YOUR local roundabout or major junction and count……
Meantime Batty has moved to simpler pastimes which merely involve keeping the great unwashed happy by throwing Rose Hip Petal s,Free Bus Passes,GP Visit Cards,Private Rented Accomodation Payments and assorted other bags of crisps to the hoards who rush after the rapidly vanishing Mercedes…..
George Orwell eat ur bleedin heart out !! 😮
poor Seamus….he was a visionary.
Had a DCC-rented crew out opposite our house this weekend to repair a pavement that had been dug up by ESB. Smack bang in the middle of this pavement is one of those ‘never been painted-never will be painted’ lampposts of Dublin leaning at a 45o angle. Any chance of the lads straightening it….just for the hell of it. No way…look quirky left like that I guess. Adds to the charm of the place.
Still could you imagine anyything worse than living in one of those prim and proper sterile cities where
1 roads get resurfaced regularly
2 pavements are kept in good repair and of uniform quality
3 signage is informative, practical and does not dominate the streetscape
4 galvinised steel has never been heard of
5 paint has!
6 some degree of aesthetic is applied to the style and location of ‘street furniture’
7 ‘tree’ is not a dirty word
8 people are trusted to be able to use a pavement without the need for (the ugly) bollards and railings@StephenC wrote:
Still could you imagine anyything worse than living in one of those prim and proper sterile cities where
Yup, go to Holland. In Eindhoven anyway all the roadage and signage looks brand new. I’ve even seen them straightening bent sign posts!
Linky 😉
Beautifully shot.
The archive footage of workmen trying to erect a sign on a post that is two times too big for it is worth its weight in gold.
I know that there are a lot of “Poles” in Ireland but this is ridiculous.
The ammount of unused defunct poles,bollards & signs that are hazards throughout our cities and towns is gettng out of hand especially in Dublin & Cork.
There should be some serious thought put into the positioning and graphics of signage in this country.
Send our councillors off on another junket to France or Germany by car maybe?
Appalling.
@GrahamH wrote:
Beautifully shot.
Certainly is that… Who’s the cool bastard with the wrap-around shades in the clip? Feckin’ bono – he has to get his head in everywhere 😀 … Those yokes cant be dismantled too soon – the entire scheme should be reviewed in terms of impact on heritage areas… SMASH THE H – BARS
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