News
Shortage of parking is just not good enough
T
THE tourist season is in full swing and so the parking crisis rears its head in Killarney yet again. No matter what time of day, or what day of the week, locals and visitors are faced with a lack of spaces.
So what ends up happening? Motorists are driving around in circles, increasingly desperate, and all the while adding to the congestion of the town. It seems at times as if areas like the Muckross Road, Lewis Road and Mission Road are car parks in themselves, so immobile is the backed-up traffic, particularly on Fridays and throughout the weekend.
Photographer Eamonn Keogh visited some of our town’s main car parks over the past week. St Mary’s Cathedral car park was full to capacity on a Tuesday evening when he called, as was The Glebe car park with the latter also already almost full by 9.30am on the Wednesday. The New Street car park is often a no-go area, so packed is it at any time of the day or evening at this time of year.
And what do we all say? It’s the summer season, so what can we expect? That’s just not good enough. Killarney has been a tourism hotspot for generations and other countries seem to manage vast amounts of traffic so why can’t we? We know there will be an influx of cars every summer so why is there no forward thinking?
Like the beleaguered cars, coaches and trucks, the quest for a solution seems to go round and round in circles as the years pass.
Many visitors now go online to plan and book their trip and such booking facilities can filter search options according to feedback. There is therefore an added danger that Killarney could lose potential revenue in the future if negative feedback has an impact and the town’s placing plummets in search lists as a result of the inconvenient parking situation.
Above: A packed Glebe car park on Tuesday evening last week; you can see how some drivers have resorted to parking their cars illegally.
PICTURE: EAMONN KEOGH