Plan to make Dublin city centre car free

Run_to_da_hills · 05-05-2008 3:10pm #1

Reading that a plan is being proposed to close off much of Dublin city centre to public traffic permanently and only allowing taxis and busses access. Will this work? How will couriers and those delivering supplies during the day? residents in the city center that need to move about will suffer. They also plan to introduce another 350 extra buses belching out diesel fumes every ten minutes. The plan could be on the cards by April next year. :eek:
http://www.rte.ie/news/2008/0505/dublin.html

kaizersoze1980 · 05-05-2008 3:13pm

Run_to_da_hills wrote: »

Reading that a plan is being proposed to close off much of Dublin city centre to public traffic permanently and only allowing taxis and busses access. Will this work? How will couriers and those delivering supplies during the day? residents in the city center that need to move about will suffer. They also plan to introduce another 350 extra buses belching out diesel fumes every ten minutes. The plan could be on the cards by April next year. :eek:
http://www.rte.ie/news/2008/0505/dublin.html

about time. ban all cars from the city centre,

Predhead · 05-05-2008 3:15pm

Run_to_da_hills wrote: »

Reading that a plan is being proposed to close off much of Dublin city centre to public traffic permanently and only allowing taxis and busses access. Will this work? How will couriers and those delivering supplies during the day? residents in the city center that need to move about will suffer. They also plan to introduce another 350 extra buses belching out diesel fumes every ten minutes. The plan could be on the cards by April next year. :eek:
http://www.rte.ie/news/2008/0505/dublin.html

Typical Ireland, just ban everyone. Forget about implementing any sort of plan at all. Although having said that, not sure what exactly could be done. Suppose it's a 'green' measure as well.

Run_to_da_hills · 05-05-2008 3:51pm

Predhead wrote: »

Typical Ireland, just ban everyone. Forget about implementing any sort of plan at all. Although having said that, not sure what exactly could be done. Suppose it's a 'green' measure as well.

I cannot understand why they call removing cars from the city a "green issue" particularly if they are going to replace them with filthy diesel fuming busses. There is only one way to run a green city effectively and that is to cut down on the number of diesel busses and have trams and metros run on energy from nuclear / hydro/ wind power stations.

invincibleirish · 05-05-2008 3:53pm

Got to make big decisions some time, sadly the past few years have shown a distinct lack of foresight, a Car Ban or an imminent threat of it will make National & Local government and CIE think long and hard about what they need to do. It has to happen some day folks!

invincibleirish · 05-05-2008 3:55pm

Run_to_da_hills wrote: »

I cannot understand why they call removing cars from the city a "green issue" particularly if they are going to replace them with filthy diesel fuming busses. There is only one way to run a green city effectively and that is to cut down on the number of diesel busses and have trams and metros run on energy from nuclear / hydro/ wind power stations.

What and ignore cars? its all the cars in cities that cause congestion, public transport in anyform has to take priority.

Run_to_da_hills · 05-05-2008 4:06pm

invincibleirish wrote: »

What and ignore cars? its all the cars in cities that cause congestion, public transport in anyform has to take priority.

Yea but busses are not exactly the most enviornmentally friendly form of transport, ever pass collage green during the day and get the fumes from all the busses ticking over.

spurious · 05-05-2008 4:11pm

It's not about banning cars or removing them from the city, it's about re-routing them through the city centre on more than one route instead of sending them all down Westmoreland Street/O'Connell Street as it is at the moment.
Makes sense to me.

We are long overdue legislation to make deliveries happen early in the morning, like they do in more forward-thinking cities.

invincibleirish · 05-05-2008 4:19pm

Run_to_da_hills wrote: »

Yea but busses are not exactly the most enviornmentally friendly form of transport, ever pass collage green during the day and get the fumes from all the busses ticking over.

Very true but whilst waiting for LUAS, Metro & DART upgrades to come on stream putting more buses into a city whilst banning cars from it is more Green no?

Boardsbud · 05-05-2008 4:22pm

Why are such nonsense announcements made on Morning Ireland on a Bank Holiday morning ? Slip it in under the radar with no debate (or significant audience) of any kind. It'll disappear into thin air shortly again though so no need to worry.

astrofool · 05-05-2008 4:24pm

Only if people use the buses, unfortunately, no business in the world would put any reliance on what Dublin bus is able to deliver.

Once the metro and luas have been built AND buses have been changed over to a gps tracked system with smart cards, and zones, this might be kind of feasible, and even then, via a congestion charge rather than outright banning.

MadsL · 05-05-2008 4:31pm

Dare we mention integrated ticketing...??

/gets me coat

AlekSmart · 05-05-2008 4:46pm

As if by magic a voice from above responds to Astrofool :

Dublin: init wins first contract in Ireland

Karlsruhe, May 5, 2008. init innovation in traffic systems AG scored in yet another key strategic move in European business: Dublin Bus, one of the largest Irish transportation providers, has now opted for the introduction of a telematics system from init. Under the recently signed contract, init will provide Dublin Bus with an intermodal transport control system (ITCS) for its bus network and equip around 1200 busses with COPILOTpc on-board computers, WLANrouters and the operating unit PRESSit.

Also part of the contract is a multi operator real time passenger information system including around 1000 PIDstation passenger information displays. The contract, as the first for init in Ireland, also includes the integrated statistical analysis software MOBILEstatistics, the reporting software MOBILEreports and an intranet solution which allows roadside inspectors to display real-time data on portable units. This contract with Dublin Bus is another large-scale project for an European capital.

The project starts at first with a specification phase. Then Dublin Bus will approve the further roll-out of the complete bus fleet. Dublin Bus intends to use the init solution to optimize its operations, improve the efficiency of vehicle management, and reduce its operational costs. With the passenger information system the citizens and visitors of Dublin shall be served with reliable real-time information at the bus stops. Services of Dublin Bus are used by around 146 million passengers each year.

For further information contact:

Alexandra Weiß
init innovation intraffic systems AG
Kaeppelestraße 4-6
76131 Karlsruhe
Tel.: 0721/6100-102
Fax: 0721/6100-399
ir@initag.de

So for those who still persist with the notion of "fumes from buses ticking-over on College St" which WAS a problem in the 1980`s and early 90`s,here is some concrete evidence of progress.......even if "Integrated Ticketing" will take a bit longer and not be REALLY integrated at all .......No Germans involved here Y`see...

Also note well the wording here: " Also part of the contract is a MULTI OPERATOR real time passenger information system"

Remember too that these innovations are coming from Dublin Bus itself and have had to suffer endless delays due to Departmental chin-stroking and worrying about appearing to favour the travelling public above the poor motorist.....!

dubhthach · 05-05-2008 6:23pm

Option 1 for the Luas Line to Lucan (Line F) involves running the tramline down Dame Street. Only way that could be implemented would be to reduce amount of traffic on the street. Likewise BX will run up through College Green and onto O'Connell Street.

Nice pdf of proposed routes (including metro):
http://www.rpa.ie/upload/documents/Luas%20Line%20F%20Route%20Options%20Detailed%20Drawing.pdf

Carawaystick · 05-05-2008 11:06pm

So when cars are banned from Dublin city, everyone who want's to go somewhere else at 23:31 can get NO transport into the city.... cos god forbid anyone would be traveling that late. or anyone would want to get into Dublin before nine on a Sunday or public holiday. and obviously the corpo will close their car park first to show they mean business.

And it's not like there are't gaps in pubic transport in the city centre as it is.
take O'Connell st, Abbey st, Church st, Constitution hill, Western Way, granby row, Parnell square. No public transport serves inside this area, leaving a 1km by 0.9km area in the city centre completely unserved by public transport.

invincibleirish · 05-05-2008 11:13pm

Carawaystick wrote: »

So when cars are banned from Dublin city, everyone who want's to go somewhere else at 23:31 can get NO transport into the city.... cos god forbid anyone would be traveling that late. or anyone would want to get into Dublin before nine on a Sunday or public holiday. and obviously the corpo will close their car park first to show they mean business.

Introduce 24 hour public transport

Run_to_da_hills · 06-05-2008 12:33am

invincibleirish wrote: »

Introduce 24 hour public transport

That's what taxis are for.

L1011 · 06-05-2008 12:36am

Run_to_da_hills wrote: »

That's what taxis are for.

Not everyone can afford taxis; and they don't take social welfare passes either.

We must have one of the earliest closing public transport networks in Europe...

invincibleirish · 06-05-2008 12:54am

Run_to_da_hills wrote: »

That's what taxis are for.

Oh right, guess Berlin has the wrong idea then.

Run_to_da_hills · 06-05-2008 3:28am

MYOB wrote: »

Not everyone can afford taxis; and they don't take social welfare passes either.

We must have one of the earliest closing public transport networks in Europe...

Try getting from South Dublin or any suburb into the City Ctr after midnight and the nightlink is as useless as giving a fish a bicycle. Dublin Bus must realise that people do live in the city Ctr and do work or travel from suberbs at night.

L1011 · 06-05-2008 9:58am

You can get back in from Maynooth.... on the return Bus Eireann Nightrider services. Thats about it...

Tails142 · 06-05-2008 10:13am

Lads calm down, they're only talking about closing down Dame Street through to Westmoreland Street and up to O'Connell Street.

You'll still be able to go up and down the quay, and round by Christchurch, Dorset street etc, etc.

I would guess that 75-80% of the traffic on those three streets are buses and taxis anyway due to turn restrictions and such so its really a storm in a tea cup.

paulm17781 · 06-05-2008 10:47am

Tails142 wrote: »

so its really a storm in a tea cup.

Of course it is. That's what this country does "Something is changing rabble rabble rabble." Next the NIMBYs will be out to say how the road is a part of our heritage and should be driven on more.

Run_to_da_hills · 06-05-2008 11:41am

MYOB wrote: »

You can get back in from Maynooth.... on the return Bus Eireann Nightrider services. Thats about it...

Thats fine if you are living in Maynooth but try getting on this thing If you are waiting at a bus stop in Lucan.

penexpers · 06-05-2008 12:20pm

MYOB wrote: »

Not everyone can afford taxis; and they don't take social welfare passes either.

We must have one of the earliest closing public transport networks in Europe...

Actually, in alot of places on the continent, public transport starts winding down around 8pm.

shltter · 06-05-2008 1:25pm

Carawaystick wrote: »

So when cars are banned from Dublin city, everyone who want's to go somewhere else at 23:31 can get NO transport into the city.... cos god forbid anyone would be traveling that late. or anyone would want to get into Dublin before nine on a Sunday or public holiday. and obviously the corpo will close their car park first to show they mean business.

And it's not like there are't gaps in pubic transport in the city centre as it is.
take O'Connell st, Abbey st, Church st, Constitution hill, Western Way, granby row, Parnell square. No public transport serves inside this area, leaving a 1km by 0.9km area in the city centre completely unserved by public transport.

Absolute nonsense they are not banning cars from the city they have a plan which may or may not ever happen to close a couple of streets and open a couple of alternative routes.

And as for the the last part that is even worse what particular streets with this area would you like buses or trams on. Buses and trams traverse this whole area you could never be more than 500 metres from public transport. If your argument is that Dublin Bus or the LUAS does not go up and down every narrow one way cul de sac in the city as an excuse for not making improvements in public transport you are really scraping the bottom of the barrel.

Lastly like or lump it people in large enough numbers to make it economically viable do not want to travel into the city after 11:30 if they did you would have seen a plethora of private operators rushing in to fill the need. They haven't because the demand is not there. Even in a city like London which has ten times the population of this city the night buses run largely empty and cost the TFL a huge money to keep running.

Since the deregulation of the taxi industry even the current limited Nitelink service has gradually been reduced as the demand is not there.

paulm17781 · 06-05-2008 1:33pm

Who (that dislikes this plan) remember when traffic ran up Grafton st.? Do you also propose un-pedestrianizing that too?

Please people change happens in cities, nearly always for the public good. Stop whining at every little change before you even know any details on it.

trellheim · 06-05-2008 3:53pm

we've known for a while this needs to happen; this was published a couple of months ago in a transport committee meeting

BX and F both need this if they are going overground in the centre

Next step = charging past the canals

Colm R · 06-05-2008 4:04pm

To be honest, I would be in favour of closing the streets to private cars. Westmoreland St. is a bus hub now largely by accident. It now needs to become more organised and a whole lot safer.

Also a pedestrian friendly spine from the top of O'Connell Street to St. Stephens Green will do so much for Dublin.

As for travesing Dublin, there are other ways. The new Macken Street bridge will be one of these, which will give access to the North Circular Road from the South East.

Also, this proposal is one of the simple measures which has to be implemented. Other cheap simple measures need to be done too like P&R, wider bus lanes, reorganising some routes

de breeze · 06-05-2008 8:28pm

Curious this was floated by one F Fahey who is not even a Minister, just a committee chair. The 'plan' is linked to DTO without any mention of DTA which now has a board and a Chair - Tom Mulcahy.

Why not forget all this until DTA is fully operational AND we have an elected mayor who's accountable. Ken and Boris, love them or hate them at least Londoners had a choice.

Quiz: Name Dublin's current mayor...says it all really

L1011 · 06-05-2008 11:08pm

de breeze wrote: »

Quiz: Name Dublin's current mayor...says it all really

Paddy Burke, but only know this as I had to look it up a few days ago when someone else asked and I thought it was still Catherine Byrne...

Plan to make Dublin city centre car free

Comments