Barrow Street chaos

dfdublin

Anyone else notice the chaos on Barrow Street due to the lack of traffic and parking enforcement?

• Taxis camp-out in their cars taking up spaces outside EuroSpar without having to pay for parking.
• More taxis arrive and just stop outside other cars and put on their hazzard-lights as if it makes them invisible and immune from all rules of the road.
• Delivery trucks then also have to double-park.
• Workers on the new Google building double-park all day right up to outside of the Dart Station restricting traffic to a single lane at times.
• Clampers arrive, ignore all the taxis and double-parking outside the Dart station, and target cars who are legally parked except for being outside their time limit!

It is a complete joke. Aside from the chaos and frustration, there is going to be a serious accident - particularly with the crowds regularly exiting the Dart station.

I think the street urgently needs proper road markings and most importantly enforcement.

Anyone else experience this and any ideas on how to get all of the relevant authorities to work together on it?

Thanks

Hermy

Someone should complain!

Grevesey

Hi - I have complained. First to the taxi regulator who fed me a long tale of woe about how they only have 9 enforcement officers across the whole of ireland and that i should talk to the Guards! I then complained yesterday to the local Labour TD, Kevin Humphries who responded immediately (well done Mr H!!) and said he has had a number of complaints about Barrow St and that he will contact me by phone in the next two days to discuss. I agree it is chaos - unofficial taxi rank that takes away parking for customers or the various businesses down there, a road surface and road width that is no longer fit for purpose, litter that is an embarrasement to the city in a touristy area and a clamping regime that at best is extortion and at worse, is abusive........so I am on it!! I am a resident of nearby Charlotte Quay so have watched the street evolve over the last 10 years from an insignificant side street to effectively the Google campus!!! We will see what Mr Humphreys can do and if he is good to his word...bad urban planning in my opinion....how can you add almost 4,500 employees, 3 major office buildings and several new retail outlets and NOT think about upgrading the road - eejits at Dublin Corpo...

delta_bravo

This is not what your TD is for.

Would you not get in touch with the council and your councillors?

Grevesey

Sorry - used wrong terminology - think he is actually a local councillor - but even if he was a TD, that is EXACTLY what TDs are for - to represent and stick up for their constituent's voice and issues........we vote them in to represent us at government level, be that local or central....

CottonMouth

+1 on complaining

I cycle down every morning and I see more incidents there each day than I do on the rest of my 10km trip every month. Taxis at law firms are the worst culprits, delivery vans at Spar too.

Googlers cross roads like lemmings do cliffs, :eek:

Some helpful suggestions

Grevesey

Ha - thanks Cottonmouth:D - will gather together this thread and show to Kevin Humphreys so if anyone else wants to add their dissent, the more the better!

Kevin called me today as promised but we missed each other - we are due to speak again on Monday - will keep you posted.

A lollipop lady may indeed solve the Darwin Award contestents at Google and help them with basic road-crossing skills alright! Heaven knows somebody would be grateful for the employment!!

2qk4u

If you went to Barrow st and needed a Taxi and there were none there and you had to wait I suppose you would complain about that too ?
Where do you expect the Taxis and truck and vans ect to stop ? Its a busy street and all the road markings in the world wont make a difference.

Grevesey

I am campaigning for a recognised, and limited taxi rank there - Dublin is not short of taxis and if you stand still for 10 seconds in this town, one will stop.....I agree we do need some taxis there....but it needs to be controlled...

gurramok

2qk4u wrote: »

If you went to Barrow st and needed a Taxi and there were none there and you had to wait I suppose you would complain about that too ?
Where do you expect the Taxis and truck and vans ect to stop ? Its a busy street and all the road markings in the world wont make a difference.

Where did you spring this gem from? Before Google arrived, Barrow st always had taxis passing down the street, you'd be waiting only a few short minutes before a taxi arrived.

There is not an official tax rank on that street so taxis have no right to be there waiting for a fare all day.

If you were stuck for a taxi(rarely happens on that street pre-Google and post-Google), stroll onto Grand Canal st or Ringsend Rd, no shortage at all. And you can use public transport as well, DART on the street and buses on the above named streets.

Stationary taxis are the problem, they are hindering deliveries for trucks and vans.

Jay D

That would do my head in too. I know the road well and yeah I've seen it grow, from Esat-BT etc and on... Everyone seems to be taking the absolute piss but what's the answer there other than enforced clamping and the like? No room for improvements now.

Twenty10

Imagine how it is for the people who live in the houses at the end. They must be driven mad by it. Also a creche has just opened on the road so no doubt that'll add to the traffic chaos.

Grevesey

Indeed - the new creche also means that we all should be watching out for kids running about, potentially into the road from behind parked cars etc - it is indeed a serious accident waiting to happen. The more support we get for some serious review of Barrow St the better. Something can be done, it just takes will and some creative thinking. You are right that this should have been thought about years ago but there is always a solution for these things, it's just a question of thinking big!!

neris

Twenty10 wrote: »

Imagine how it is for the people who live in the houses at the end. They must be driven mad by it. Also a creche has just opened on the road so no doubt that'll add to the traffic chaos.

Barrow Street is the bizzarest street in the city. The taxis are usually waiting for Google staff and usually see staff coming and going with suit cases. Was there last Friday night about 1130pm and the que of taxis looked was that Carlsberg ad a few years back. The Euro spar is a disaster with the loading bay out side it and the entrance to the Google carpark plus a disabled space being constantly used by vans and people running into the shop. Ive attached pics of some of the dire parking that goes on down there i especially love the one from last sunday of the car in the disabled space without a blue badge and the the clamper truck aprked on front of it. The creche wont add to the chaos as most children are walked to it and at the most can only hold 50 children and the vast majority of the children are under 4 and cant just run out of the building alone.

Grevesey

Thanks for those photos Neris. I have also pics of taxis waiting int he laoding bay and the long line of Taxis bulding up. The evidence gathering continues!:)

neris

Grevesey wrote: »

Thanks for those photos Neris. I have also pics of taxis waiting int he laoding bay and the long line of Taxis bulding up. The evidence gathering continues!:)

i think i have more on another pc but im sure i,ll have pleanty more over the next while. Theres a thread in motors for obnoxious parking and barrow street is a goldmine for those kinda pix. I think it was also suggested to city council about a barrier on the kerb outside the creche.

Grevesey

Great news Neris. A fellow crusader!

gurramok

At the top end of Barrow st just before Bolands Mills, there was(not sure if its still on) Irish dancing classes for kids on a Sunday. A nightmare with mothers in their 4x4's waiting for their darlings to emerge from class.

Also some of those taxi's hang around near the Pembroke Sq apts waiting for clubbers from the Gasworks pub, sort of acts like an overflow taxi rank when parking outside the pub is full, only saw that once though.

Just to add, South Lotts Road is like Barrow st with taxis on Wednesday and Friday nights due to Shelbourne Park.

Grevesey

Gurramok - yes there is now a full blown kids theatre/dance school there on Saturdays so there is alot of pickng up/dropping off of future X-Factor contestents....another reason to add to the long list of reasons why the street needs some review. There are taxis everywhere around here - they do stop on Sth Lotts Rd too, mainly to use that Spar and coffee shop I think. It is ridiculous - deregulation gone bonkers in the taxi industry. In many ways, there is an argument to not need a taxi rank in Barrow St at all given the plethora of availability around and about but in order to appease everyone, I am guessing it will be an inevitability.....but controlled and limited. There might also be an argument to say that if Google want a taxi rank for their staff, then they should contribute to the costs of either setting that up or policing it and the rest of the road - they are not short of a bob or two and we all know they are here for multi-million $$ savings in Corporation Tax so their corporate responisbility should extend to the surrounding environment and impact on local residents where they choose to set up camp....this will be something I will float with Mr Humphreys.

neris

And wait for the future when Bolands is developed, gona be great craic altogether. I see that over the other side of the canal on the street that goes under the train bridge (dont know its name) theyve blocked it off so 2 cul de sacs now. Might be worth a look at with the bridge on barrow street becuase the narrowness of that is one of the major problems with ppl exiting the station.

gurramok

I'd agree there should be a taxi rank there outside Google(perhaps paid by G themselves) going up to just before the Eurospar but until that is established the council should enforce the rules as its infringing on local residents who find it quite difficult to find parking at times.
If a rank was there, at least taxi's queuing outside that rank can be penalised.

And yeh, there are a few pubs at that Sth Lotts junction with Grand Canal st near the Spar, like a paradise for taxi's to pick up fares

Grevesey

We can only be thankful that the chances of Bolands Mill being developed is about as far away as the chances of me being made Pope by Christmas! I have lived here for 15 years and the Bolands Mill building has been in planning dispute for all that time. It is a protected building because of it's connection with the Irish Rebellion but it has been mired in planning disputes for decades. Fortunately this should mean we don't have further constuction worries in the area for a while!

Grevesey

P.s Neris I fear the idea of a permanent barrier under the bridge like the parallel street is unlikely - Barrow St in fairness is an important rat-run through to Shelbourne Rd so would be difficult to justify.

neris

Maybe off topic a bit but am I the only one who gets a bad smell around the bolands site at times and also near the mason hayes offices?

Grevesey

Haven't noticed myself but sometimes when the wind and weather is conspiring, the stink from the mudflats on Sandymount Strand can sit over Ringsend when the pall is not blown off by winds.....more often in the summer, less so in the winter. Could that be it?

easygoing39

1.the public wanted more taxis,there are now more taxis and yet people complain??
2.why should google pay for a rank on barrow st,its the corpo's responability to provide ranks?
3.There are 15,000 taxis in dublin,more than in new york city,why are you trying to stop taxi drivers from looking for fares on barrow st,theyre only trying to provide for their familys?
4.do you want to go back to 2005,when you had to stand at a rank for 10 minutes to get a taxi,now we have the pick of taxis on every rank that is always full in this city??

Grevesey

Easygoing : If you read the thread you will see that I am not proposing banning taxis from Barrow Street - I am looking for a taxi rank which limits and controls the taxi build up on Barrow St so that it leaves parking and a decent run through the street without the blight of double parked cabs, cabs in delivery bays (meaning delivery vans double park as a necessity), cabs taking up customer parking for the Eurospar, cabs doing U-turns in the street as well as improving the road and the preventing the traffic chaos that is up there at peak times. I have nothing against taxis - I use them almost every day.....but the fact that the deregulation of taxis has resulted in too many cabs in Dublin all fighting for the same business id evidently not being addressed by either the Regulator (who seems to be an impotent and toothless dog) or the Dublin Corpo (I have witnessed physical and verbal fights in the middle of the road btw competing cabs for my business - very intimidating for a lone female passenger and frankly, ridiculous). This is about safety and keeping an important thoroughfare clear for traffic. I am not on a vendetta against all taxis in Dublin. So I think you might be in the minority here!

neris

If they put in a rank it wouldnt stop Taxis still que close by and wait to be called onto the rank. Look at the Oconnell st rank where they que around the middle of the street or theres a rank up at Nortshide sc and when its full the taxis wait across the street and wait for their mates to call em when spaces come free. A rank would probably cause more trouble between drivers then anything. Fights over customers, full time drivers only, no blacks etc. Its not up to Google to provide a rank if the taxi drivers think theres business on the street its up to the council

monument

Grevesey wrote: »

P.s Neris I fear the idea of a permanent barrier under the bridge like the parallel street is unlikely - Barrow St in fairness is an important rat-run through to Shelbourne Rd so would be difficult to justify.

Err... What? How can there be an "important rat-run"? A rat run by it's nature is a unattractive thing.

A bit more traffic calming and traffic reduction sounds exactly what is need on the street.

Grevesey

Neris - you might be right here - will discuss once I (finally) connect with Kevin Humphreys. We seem to be missing each other at the mo.

Raytown Rocks

The place is a nightmare, plain and simple.
Taxis all over the road, double parked, they trying u-turns when the get a fare. Its shamblollic to say the least.