Dublin buses causing traffic jams on the quays!

philcsl · 04-10-2007 2:03pm #1

I drop my gf into work in the IFSC a few mornings each week and every morning there are long delays on the North Quays. It is all caused by Dublin Busses crossing two lanes of traffic from the bus stops on Ormond Quay to cross the O'Connell bridge.

There are three lanes (all one way). The left lane is the bus lane and also to turn left down O'Connell St, the middle lane is to continue on the quays to the IFSC and the right lane is to turn right onto O'Connell Bridge.

There are always a queue of busses in the bus lane trying to cross to the right hand lane to get onto the bridge, most busses will just pull out across the middle lane to wait for an opening in the right hand lane but this causes them to block the other two lanes - there is a knock on effect right along the quays because of this.

I reckon the bus stops should either be removed or filter lights for busses put in place to give them priority at the traffic lights to get them out of the way!!

Are there any other area where public transport causes big traffic delays or indeed areas where cars should be not allowed to make public transport run more efficently??

Nevyn · 04-10-2007 2:23pm

The same thing happens further back along the quays as buses have to cross from the bus lane on the left to the turning lane on the right to get across the Capel street bridge.

paulm17781 · 04-10-2007 2:25pm

Bus priority lights would sort all of this out so easily. DCC should cop on to that in about 43 years. :mad:

bigi · 04-10-2007 2:35pm

on a related note, the south quays are a nightmare in the evening.
Basically this bus lane is more like a bus 'car park'. buses just stop there for god knows how long. hence the moving buses have to use the ordinary lanes like the rest of us. i think if you compare the two...north quays in the morning versus south quays in the evening....i reckon that latter is substantially worse.

Traffic · 04-10-2007 2:52pm

Maybe if people driving in their private cars were more courteous to the public transport vehicles and let them out there would be less of a problem

furtzy · 04-10-2007 3:06pm

Traffic wrote:

Maybe if people driving in their private cars were more courteous to the public transport vehicles and let them out there would be less of a problem

Agreed. But has anyone else noticed a sharp decline in the standard of driving from Dublin bus. They used to be top notch but in the last few years the standards have slipped. Red light jumping and blocking yellow box junctions is getting very common....pity.

daymobrew · 04-10-2007 3:08pm

Traffic wrote:

Maybe if people driving in their private cars were more courteous to the public transport vehicles and let them out there would be less of a problem

IIRC in San Jose California, a law was brought in where private vehicles HAD to let buses move out.

paulm17781 · 04-10-2007 4:42pm

daymobrew wrote:

IIRC in San Jose California, a law was brought in where private vehicles HAD to let buses move out.

In Ireland there is a law which says you can not stop your car on a yellow box. I'm yet to see this enforced.

Laws are meaningless if they aren't enforced. If the Gardai actually enforced road laws people would drive better. Red lights barely mean anything here.

Sadly I can't see car drivers being more courteous any time soon. I think this is another one for DCC / Guards to sort out.

a_ominous · 04-10-2007 5:10pm

I was thinking about this recently: the numbers of actual buses that criss-cross a very small part fo the city centre: O'Connell St., Bachelor's Walk, Eden Quay, Burgh Quay, Aston Qauy, D'Olier St, Westmoreland St, College Green. Very few bus routes avoid these areas and given the scheduled frequency, it is no wonder you have 3 or 4 of the same bus arriving at a stop at one time.

I've sat on a bus trying to get from Bachelor's Walk to Kildare St. and it has taken 5-10 minutes to cross O'Connell Bridge! Now I know I can walk the journey, I did this for my own info. Not everyone will want to walk (rain, slow ped lights, yada yada). Dublin Bus do need to look at their routes. They probably can't solve the problem on their own and might need traffic directions changed, but they do need to analyse the frequency of buses in this small area and the number of routes that overlap. More flexible ticketing might help them to consider the duplication on routes in the city centre.

markpb · 04-10-2007 5:30pm

paulm17781 wrote:

Bus priority lights would sort all of this out so easily. DCC should cop on to that in about 43 years. :mad:

There are plenty of locations around Dublin where bus priority lights would make a huge difference to buses but DCC are pretty retarded when it comes to bus priority.

For example, the end of the N1 inbound at Collins avenue looks like it was designed straight out of the TfL bus priority scheme handbook but yet the buses are forced to shuffle along in a totally-ignored bus lane, jump lanes in one of those keep clear boxes (what are yellow boxes for again?) and then sit behind cars who have to jump lanes to avoid the start of the bus lane. It can take up to 30 minutes to travel 500m on a bad morning but could be down to 5 minutes if a set of bus priority lights were installed.

philcsl · 04-10-2007 5:34pm

daymobrew wrote:

IIRC in San Jose California, a law was brought in where private vehicles HAD to let buses move out.

This would work if it was properly enforced but there would still be drivers who will not pay any heed and it would be the same as it is now.

If the bus lanes were given a filter light at the junctions to cross these bridges it would only mean a delay of 30 seconds or so for cars at each cycle of the lights but it would make a huge difference to the current congestion.

The other problem which makes this worse is taxi drivers cutting in and out of the bus lanes even when they have no passenger in the car which they are not allowed to do but again there is never any enforcement of this.

furtzy · 05-10-2007 8:10am

philcsl wrote:

The other problem which makes this worse is taxi drivers cutting in and out of the bus lanes even when they have no passenger in the car which they are not allowed to do but again there is never any enforcement of this.

Pearse street is the worst for this. Actually this bus lane only causes more gridlock as every bus and taxi try to filter back into traffic to go down Tara street causing huge tailbacks every day

KC61 · 05-10-2007 9:29am

There is a very good reason for all these problems on the quays.

Think back a little bit. Virtually all of the routes that you mention having to make a right turn off the quays didn’t have to before. Why?

The terminus was in Middle Abbey Street for the 25/A, 26, 37, 38/A/B/C, 39/A/B, 66/A/B, 67/A, 70 for many years but they then had to move out due to LUAS.

They had to go somewhere, and Hawkins Street/Pearse Street were the options that Dublin Bus took.

Meanwhile, Dublin City Council have in recent years removed bus termini on College Street and Burgh Quay, and have expressed a desire for buses not to be terminating on the riverside of Eden Quay and Parnell Square. What are Dublin Bus to do?

They have moved routes 50, 56A, 77/A to terminate at Ringsend Depot, and routes 74/A to Macken Street, but there are limited options available!

The buses have to go somewhere and unfortunately people want to go to the city centre.

Hence you have the situation that the College Street/D’Olier Street/Westmoreland Street triangle is now jammed with far more routes than it ever had before.

There are plans for a bus interchange for all the routes listed above in the old Dublin Bus parking area between Strand Street and Middle Abbey Street, but this is some years away yet.

KC61 · 05-10-2007 9:30am

furtzy wrote:

Pearse street is the worst for this. Actually this bus lane only causes more gridlock as every bus and taxi try to filter back into traffic to go down Tara street causing huge tailbacks every day

The only buses that route via Tara Street are the 7, 8, 45, 84. All the rest continue straight onto Pearse Street.

BendiBus · 05-10-2007 11:26am

Could the buses coming in along the Quays continue along Eden, Custom House & even North Wall Quays, thus avoiding the right turns, the already overcrowded central terminii and serving the growing eastern end of the city? Something like the 151 & 90s already do.

When the new Macken St bridge opens this might be even more feasible?

KC61 · 05-10-2007 2:30pm

BendiBus wrote:

Could the buses coming in along the Quays continue along Eden, Custom House & even North Wall Quays, thus avoiding the right turns, the already overcrowded central terminii and serving the growing eastern end of the city? Something like the 151 & 90s already do.

When the new Macken St bridge opens this might be even more feasible?

Absolutely!

seamus · 05-10-2007 2:40pm

I wouldn't say that this is something which specifically contributes to congestion on the quays, but it's something which needs to be examined. I've always made a point of getting off the bus at Bachelors walk, because the length of time it takes to get onto and across O'Connell Bridge, can completely negate the benefit of taking the bus in the first place.

A much more efficient method would see them go straight across onto Eden quay, down a dedicated bus lane on the RHS of the road, and across onto George's Quay via a dedicated contra-flow lane.
Then they could continue their journeys down the quays and onto D'Olier St.

Victor · 05-10-2007 6:28pm

BendiBus wrote:

When the new Macken St bridge opens this might be even more feasible?

The bridge will have limited traffic movements on the southside.

John R · 05-10-2007 6:52pm

furtzy wrote:

Pearse street is the worst for this. Actually this bus lane only causes more gridlock as every bus and taxi try to filter back into traffic to go down Tara street causing huge tailbacks every day

That is complete rubbish, the gridlock there is caused by all of the southside car traffic trying to cross the liffey at one point.

Nearly all the bus routes run through Pearse St with the exception of the 45 and 84 which terminate on Eden Quay. In fact there are far more private cars illegally continuing straight on at that junction than there are buses turning into Tara St.

John R · 05-10-2007 6:58pm

BendiBus wrote:

Could the buses coming in along the Quays continue along Eden, Custom House & even North Wall Quays, thus avoiding the right turns, the already overcrowded central terminii and serving the growing eastern end of the city? Something like the 151 & 90s already do.

When the new Macken St bridge opens this might be even more feasible?

I agree 100%. The 25/26/66/67 routes should have been routed Eden Quay-Custom House-Talbot Br to terminate on Moss St and Shaw St where they often lay up now anyway.

Dublin buses causing traffic jams on the quays!

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