Need for pedestrian crossings for Letterkenny highlighted

The need for proper high visible pedestrian crossings in Letterkenny was highlighted at Tuesday's meeting of the Letterkenny-Milford Municipal District.

A motion concerning this was tabled by Cllr Jimmy Kavanagh who asked the Donegal County Council to provide a number of high-visibility pedestrian crossings in the town.

He said while the issue of such a crossing was raised there appeared to be a reluctance on the part of the council. He pointed out that areas like the bottom of De Valera Road, the crossing between Letterkenny University Hospital and the Bernard McGlinchey Town Park, and the crossing to the Tesco supermarket were probably the most dangerous.

He added the town's Main Street also presented problems and visitors did not realise the raised crossings were not pedestrian crossings and were often using them as such. He added he met an elderly woman walking between lines of traffic one day in a bid to get from one side of the road to the other

"It's something we need to address in this town," he said.

His call was seconded by Cllr Gerry McMonagle who said he had been raising his concerns about these crossings for a number of years.

"We need to have formalised pedestrian crossings with the Zebra style markings as opposed to the two white lines which the council seems to be doing in this town. Nobody knows who has the right of way. That's alright if you are a grown-up and you can make these decisions but a child just thinks they can cross when they seem lines"

Both councillors cited Ballybofey and Stranorlar where the council had installed four experimental pedestrian crossings to see if they worked.

"People and motorists could see the crossings but in this town, it seems you can cross where you want," said Cllr McMonagle

He added he also had concerns about the pedestrian crossing at the Aura Leisure Centre and urged the council to follow the example of other councils that used raised ramps as part of their pedestrian crossings.

In response to the motion, the council stated it was in the process of monitoring the operation of the high visibility crossings in pilot schemes in other towns and the results of these schemes would be assessed and used for consideration for the most appropriate locations.

Councillors were also informed that other options being considered included courtesy crossings such as the one construction on the Cathedral one-way system and that various types of crossings would be considered as part of the development of Active Travel schemes in the town