[Article] Parking restrictions considered for Croke Park

Victor

http://www.rte.ie/news/2008/0417/parking.html

Parking restrictions considered for Croke Park
Thursday, 17 April 2008 20:20

Dublin City Council's Strategic Policy Committee on Traffic has agreed to begin public consultation on draft by-laws for the introduction of 'resident only parking' around Croke Park.

This decision follows years of gridlock on streets around Croke Park.

'Resident only parking' will restrict people attending Croke Park from parking in the immediate vicinity of the stadium and end the situation where residents are trapped in their homes.

AdvertisementLocal Fianna Fáil Councillor Mary Fitzpatrick welcomed the development. She has worked with the GAA and the residents to obtain this solution.

'Resident only parking will make a huge difference for people living in the area. It will restore their quality of life and remove concerns caused by the increased number of events and flood lit events.' she said.

It was not possible to introduce this measure when it was first proposed in 2002 as the required legislation did not exist.

The new by-laws will take advantage of road traffic legislation recently introduced.

'If 'resident only parking' is to be successful it must be done in conjunction with park and ride facilities so that both residents and fans benefit from the development.' Ms Fitzpatrick said.

'The fact that this solution has the backing of both the residents and Croke Park underlines the strength of the solution.' she added.

L1011

There was residents parking permits on Fitzroy Avenue when my family lived there in the mid 1980s - has this been removed since?

ardmacha

They need some park and ride schemes. The likes of DCU has considerable parking which probably isn't used fully utilised at weekends, especially in the summer. Bus shuttles could be run to such facilities.

mikemac

MYOB wrote: »

There was residents parking permits on Fitzroy Avenue when my family lived there in the mid 1980s - has this been removed since?

Nope, I'm on Clonliffe Rd and parking is never an issue on match days ever.

There are checkpoints around the stadium from 9am on most matchdays and you need a resident pass to get in. I suppose some other form of proof could suffice but I'm happy to use my pass. Passes are free from Fitzgibbon St garda station once you show with two forms of proof.

It's true that "residents are trapped in their homes" immediately before and after the game. It is impossible to drive in the area but you can plan around this.

Big thumbs up to the gardai manning the cordons. Always courteous and often humorous too!

Having said all this if you are immediately outside the cordon you are fcuked! Living on the North Circular Road must be hell for the residents

spurious

Why is it that soccer and rugby fans attending matches in Croke Park and concert-goers attending concerts there can all manage to use the public transport options, but GAA fans seem to have to drive practically onto the pitch?

Victor

Because the Dubs don't do very well in GAAAAAA? :pac:

mikemac

spurious wrote: »

Why is it that soccer and rugby fans attending matches in Croke Park and concert-goers attending concerts there can all manage to use the public transport options, but GAA fans seem to have to drive practically onto the pitch?

Huh?
I only time I've ever heard of a match delayed was the Dubs in 2006. In fact it happend twice and they blamed public transport! :eek:
Matches had to be delayed due to the crush outside the stadium.

But strangly the fans from Mayo who were in Croke Park that year always made it on time.

Always the way I suppose, the same way that people who have massive commutes to work are always on time and people who live 10 minutes away are constantly late. I'm sure you know people like this.

To address your post, the P&R at the Red Cow is a good facility to many fans in the south and west and is often used

Carawaystick

spurious wrote: »

Why is it that soccer and rugby fans attending matches in Croke Park and concert-goers attending concerts there can all manage to use the public transport options, but GAA fans seem to have to drive practically onto the pitch?

public transport options from Armagh, Tyrone, Kilkenny, West Cork, Kerry etc to D3 are that little bit worse than from D4.
there's one train an hour from Cork city to Dublin - say a thousand per train which is optimistic and <200 per plane, say there's 10 flights, thats about 10,000. or about half of the number of Cork people attending. if they play Kerry the rail capacity has to be shared... hard to get 83000 into the available pubic transport.

L1011

Is that some coded attempt to imply that everyone attending a football or rugby match, or indeed concert, in Croke Park is a southsider?

I'd suggest that mass quantities of the tickets issued through clubs for IRFU games go to the Ulster and Munster councils - and most would stay there. I know personally of coach loads that come from Donegal for all football games - be they Lansdowne or now Croke Park. Of course theres a fair amount from Dublin/Leinster but its not the entirity - or anywhere close.

Remember also how many exiles from other counties live in Dublin too! I was able to take public transport to the NFL final last year no bother, despite being Donegal, because I don't live there....

KC61

Increasing numbers of travelling supporters are now using the Suburban Rail from Maynooth to Drumcondra on match days, with extra trains usually provided, and indeed interestingly some supporters of the Western counties of Ulster travelling to the likes of Longford, Edgeworthstown and Mullingar and then using the train.

L1011

KC61 wrote: »

Increasing numbers of travelling supporters are now using the Suburban Rail from Maynooth to Drumcondra on match days, with extra trains usually provided, and indeed interestingly some supporters of the Western counties of Ulster travelling to the likes of Longford, Edgeworthstown and Mullingar and then using the train.

Theres people parking in residential estates and shopping centres in Maynooth on big match days now (theres one huge one medium and one small shopping centre each about 400 metres from the station in various directions) as the station car park only holds about 100 cars.

ardmacha

In fact one of the notable things about Ireland is that it is easier to get a ticket for the big games than to get a ticket for the train going to them! There is a demand for special trains etc which is not being met. Even within Dublin I've gone to the All Ireland on the bus, when there were large crowds of people waiting at the bus stops on the famed Stillorgan bus corridor, but there were not enough Sunday buses to cater for demand without people having to wait for quite a while, yet when you passed Donnybrook garage it was full of unused buses.

AlekSmart

How the GAA recieved planning permission for the Croke Park refit without addressing the problem of accessibility is beyond me.....(well it`s not really,but this is a family forum).

Although I do admit that the new Croke Park is a fine stadium and fully deserves to be utilized to its maximum it also deserves a fully functioning Public Transport operation to service it.

Currently every big event there will usually result in a meltdown of Bus Based public transport over a wide area stretching far beyond the limits of Croker and its afficionados.

Bus Routes such as the 3,11,13,16,33,40,41,746 and various Bus Eireann routes all suffer from the fall out associated with that short stretch of Dorset St/Drumcondra Rd which becomes Croke Park Central at event times.

The Garda presence whilst numerically strong rarely appears to have any co-ordinated function other than to physically prevent individuals walking out in front of Buses and Trucks attempting to thread through what appears at times to be an Indian Bazzar.

The Traffic Signals at the Clonliffe Rd/Drumcondra Rd junction are ALWAYS left on and several Gardai then stand out and issue conflicting instructions to both drivers and pedestrians.

Indeed I have witnessed Garda Traffic Corps members giving a right bollicking to other members for the mess they were making of it.

There is also now a serious question concerning the operation of Drumcondra Railway Station and the Bus Stop directly outside the ONLY door operational in the Station.
For example if a Match Special disgorges it`s passengers they immediately head for that ONLY door where they are met with a solid mass of humanity being disgorged directly outside the SAME door by the Bus services......what`s this a recipe for.....? Disaster perhaps :mad:

Instead of ensuring that Buses have sufficient dedicated space to safely disgorge their passengers we see the Gardai being used to facilitate the PRIVATE Car Park which operates on the College Lands with it`s single entry out onto Drumcondra Road causing mayhem....

I reckon we need a Consultants Report on this...and fast !!

getsun

Are these parking restrictions in place now?

Victor

getsun wrote: »

Are these parking restrictions in place now?

I don't think so. However, I think there were previous bye-laws. Best to park well away from the stadium and walk or use public transport. http://boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055985490