When a ramp is not a ramp in a Laois village

LAOIS County Council is to install traffic calming measures outside Mayo National School in Crettyard following a request by cllr Ben Brennan.

The council’s senior executive engineer Philip McVeigh told the councillor at the Graiguecullen/Portarlington Municipal District meeting that arrangements would be made for “special traffic calming road markings” to be placed along the stretch of roadway outside the school.

Giving a guarded welcome to the commitment cllr Brennan asked: “Are they the new modernised road markings that confuse you and think that you’re on a ramp? I just wonder will people wake up to it and stay going, when they know it’s not a ramp? That can happen. I see the benefit of it, but people will wake up to it after a while. They’ll brake and slow down for a while until they realise it’s only a mark on the road.” 

He then asked Mr McVeigh: “It won’t really slow down the traffic, will it?” 

“They are effective,” replied the council’s engineer.

“Effective for the few first week,” said cllr Brennan, “until they realise what it is and then they’ll stay going. We’ll try it first and if that doesn’t work, we’ll put a ramp where you’re going to put the red markings.” 

Cllr Pádraig Fleming said that he too was wondering how effective the road markings would be?