Castleknock is a Traffic Nightmare

JupiterKid

This afternoon I had a half day in work and after I left work, I went to call in on my Dad who lives in Castleknock. Indeed, I grew up in Castleknock and remember when the Castleknock road had hardly any traffic back in the days of yore.:pac:

How things have changed - for the worse.:( The traffic is almost always backed right up to the Phoenix Park gates every afternoon, not just rush hour but from lunchtime onwards. It is a disaster and a disgrace. It seems like all the explosive growth in Carpenterstown and Clonsilla in recent years has put an intolerable burden of the road network in and around Castleknock and it simply cannot cope. Today, I was 45 minutes getting from the Phoenix park gates up to Laurel Lodge. Grrrrr!!:mad:

Castleknock must now be one of the worst traffic blackspots in Dublin.

What can be done? Well, it seems to me that most of the traffic funneling into Castleknock from the city direction turns left at Myos pub to travel onwards to Carpenterstown past Castleknock College. What would obviously relieve congestion in Castleknock would be to reopen Whites Gate and allow Carpenterstown-bound traffic to bypass Castleknock village to the south. It was an incredibly stupid and short sighted decision to close Whites Gate in the first place IMO.:( Also, a better bus service might also help.

What do others think?

bluecell99

I agree about the Whites Gate situation.There is no doubt that it contributed to the problem.

Whats to be done?To be honest the 37 bus route is as good as it gets.What do they do?Pour more and more buses onto this route??It still would not solve it.People will not leave their cars voulntarily.Fact.Unless there is an element of compulsion people wont act.They respond well enough (albeit after some grumbling) but when its made a fait accompli they accept it.Remember the plastic bag levy,the smoking ban and the removal of dirty coal from suppliers?All done and dusted.

I can never see the Park situation improving as the current emphasis is to make it inconvenient for cars in there with one way systems,no parking zones etc.stopping short of an outright ban.

Its a bit like the smoking thing.They pump millions into health campaigns trying to get people to stop it yet they will not ban it -which surely is the obvious thing to do if its so dangerous - and rake int the millions in VAT and excise duty.Jesus wept.