One of those what I'd do with transport if I was the king rants

monument

strassenwo!f wrote: »

Monument...is your keyboard on the blink again, or is there really a problem with the behaviour of the denizens of Shockley?

Typing fast on a phone while walking I'm guessing was the problem.

strassenwo!f

Sure, but as we realise that you are not going to be crowned King any time soon, good and all as that idea might be, there should really be no need to get too hurried.

nebel_vier

I was in Amsterdam for a week last summer.

Noticed a lot of cycling traffic, heavy tram traffic and busy metro traffic.

Did come to the conclusion that as a grouping the cyclists were more likely to kill me. It was easier to cross a street than a footpath with its combined cycle lane.

Then again it's easy to be cyclist friendly in a flat country that also fetishises prudence.

The street in which my hotel was located was within walking distance of the centre but there were more cars around than bikes...

SeanW

monument wrote: »

How is one deterred from their weekly shopping? Do they go hungry and use newspapers for bog roll? Or do they avoid parking charges by walking to the corner shop but end up spending way more on products?

In any case: Retailer group RGDATA and others argue the case for paid parking at out-of-town centres...

http://www.rgdata.ie/assets/files/2013%20Files/CarParkingReport.pdf

http://www.antaisce.org/Press/AnTaisceRelatedNewsReleases/tabid/1024/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/257/Car-Parking-and-Town-Centre-degradation.aspx

Wow, a vested interest (RGDATA) and environmental-leftists (An Taisce). That's a really well balanced selection of sources there :rolleyes:

At the moment I live outside of my nearest town and when I must use paid parking, I ration my time and spending in the town very carefully. Using "out of town" supermarkets is the only time I have any peace. It also keeps my car out of the town centre at peak times which can only be good for everyone.

Here's my "if I were king" list, assuming I had some funds to work with.

Public Transport:

1. Dart Underground to be Priority 1. Metro North to be 2nd.
2. Following the completion of DU, bring some Intercity trains from Heuston to Connolly. Cork via the Phoinex Park Tunnel, Galway and Mayo via a reopened Athlone Mullingar line.
3. Continue expanding the Luas in Dublin. Consider building Luii in Cork and Galway.
4. Commission a Transport Police force to patrol trams, trains and tracksides that are the subject of "Anti social behaviour" (i.e. low-level terrorism) and hope the corresponding 'king' of the Dept of Justice builds enough jails and passes laws such that vermin vandalising stations and throwing rocks at trains can be locked away for the good of society.

Roads, Parking and Cycling:

1. Town centre parking to be made less stressful by cutting the fine for having an expired/non-displayed ticket to a fraction of its current cost. €20 max for an hour so of unpaid parking, more if for a long time. Clamping to be abolished for all but the most egregious violations of parking law - e.g. parking for more than 24 hours with no payment or explanation. Tow away penalties for any dangerously irresponsible parking, e.g. parking on a zebra crossing, on a yellow box, too close to a junction or illegal parking on a narrow street likely to impede lawful traffic.
2. Cyclists and potential cyclists to be asked what roads they would like better facilities on. A prioritised list of works to be drawn up to include adding cycle lanes to urban streets and hard shoulders retrofitted onto regional roads, with the view to increasing the use of such by existing and new cyclists.
3. Cycle and motorcycle parking to be added at convenient urban locations.
4. Genuine Dutch style roundabouts retrofitted to accomodate both motorists and cyclists. Dangerous & irresponsible rubbish like the Killiney Towers Roundabout to be removed and retrofitted to be Dutch style.
5. A special fund by the DOT for bypasses, this fund to be used for towns along roads never likely to be realigned, e.g. National Secondary roards. Towns on this list would include Mountmellick, Co. Laois. Slane would be on this list too as the N2 around it is not intended to be realigned.
6. Recognise that mainly poor people drive cars older than 10 years so abolish the annual NCT and introduce a 10% discount for older cars on Motor Tax.
7. No further increases in pre-08 tax bands.

LXFlyer

Irish Steve wrote: »

The first 41 is 0708 at lower Abbey St, so that's 7 minutes to get to the next bus. Our 103 was 15 late the other morning, so do I want to take that risk?

The 33 might work, but if DB can run from Balbriggan at 0450, there's clearly a demand, and we were far from being the only passengers on the 0615 from Kilmoon Cross last week,

I thought this thread was about what I'd do with transport if I was king, not about justifying all the usual bean counter negatives that are being put about.

A LONG time ago, across the water, there was a famous report by a Dr Beeching, and the implementation of his report decimated the British Rail network, and its taken close on 50 years to realise that some of the things he decided were uneconomic were not uneconomic in terms of their overall use, and benefit to the overall network, and they are now having to rebuild and restore a good few of his cuts.

The same could be said here, there are a number of rail routes that have been rebuilt or are being planned to be rebuilt, because the need IS there.

Public service is about transporting the public, and some of the routes and services are providing a service that enables people to get to places or facilities that otherwise would be difficult to get to.

I note nothing was said about the absence of a public transport service to Drogheda, which is a preferred hospital for the Ashbourne AREA, which has a population of in excess of 12000 people.

You want to get to Swords? Only if you go via the airport, or Finglas.

If the public transport services to Blanchardstown Hospital were better, perhaps they might not be struggling for parking space. I was over in the UK a few weeks ago, and regularly visiting a hospital of similar size to Blanchardstown, which has about the same number of beds. There are dedicated park and ride buses serving a car park some miles from the hospital, because on site parking is at a premium. There are also buses on a regular basis to a number of different areas of the city, and they are busy, because hospitals are busy places. Some of the buses are smaller than the standard DB buses, so cost less to buy, and less to operate, and they can run with more frequency. That may be another factor that has to be considered in the long term

There are 2 services to Blanchardstown hospital, and they are in some respects covering similar areas. There's nothing from places as close as Clonee, or Hollystown, or Phibsboro, or Castleknock, or Liffey Valley, and from plenty of other places that people who get ill will be taken from.

No, there may not be 20 people an hour going to Blanchardstown Hospital from Ashbourne, but I would suggest that facilitating visiting is something that a civilised society should be doing.

Apologies - I wasn't trying to be totally dismissive - just pointing out that it IS actually possible to make connect with the ferry bus from Ashbourne.

I'm not sure how you figure out that the 0600 41 will not arrive until 0708. If you are using the guide times at the bottom then I'd have to say that is not realistic. They are very generalised estimates. In reality that 41 will be in the city for 0645-0655 (Airport for 0620), while the 33 (which is primarily a staff bus to get drivers into the depots that operates in public service) will arrive into the city for 0610 and passed the airport (on the Swords road) around 0545.

I'd totally agree with providing a service to Drogheda Hospital, but again it wouldn't be a particularly high frequency.

As for Blanch, we'll have to agree to differ on the frequency. It's a limited market and I think that a service every 2 hours is still about right.

P_1

Totally Dublin centric and dependent on us being rich again...

Rail: 4 lines coming into the city center from the north, 4 from the south and 2 from the west plus a new circle line in the center

Bus: All routes orbital to connect with proposed rail lines

Luas: Entirely focussed in city center

Pete_Cavan

Trying to be realistic with regard to finances and the timeframe in which money will be available (even if me being crowned king of Ireland is extremely realistic):

Short term (1 - 2 years);

1. Leap rolled out nationally
2. Review NRA Design Manual for Roads and Bridges and update to incorporate best practice international designs to accommodate cyclists. Ongoing upgrade of cycle facilities and infrastructure
3. Reroute Luas BXD via Pearse Street Station and use only Malborough Street (instead of both it and O'Connell Street). Build the damn thing (I know it can take time to obtain an adjustment to the RO but should be good to go by the time enabling works are finished)
4. KRP Phase 2 as a precursor to DU
5. Expand Dublin Bikes within Dublin and also role out the concept in other cities
6. Do whatever it takes to get rid of all the feckin Dublin Buses seemingly abandoned in certain areas of the city
7. Remove reference to the year purchased from car registration plates
8. Instruct all councils to introduce a system where those who have paid for parking in a town can be refunded by local businesses upon spending €5 (having paid to park for 1 hour) or €10 (having paid for 2 hours)
9. Examine ways to bring together state controlled telecoms infrastructure (ducting along motorways and railways, existing and possible mast sites, etc.) with a view to maximising revenue

Medium term (3 - 10 years);

1. Dart Underground to be built as planned with plans to be prepared for extending south
2. County councils are replaced by regional authorities, County Dublin being on of eight in the country. Dublin Regional Authority to be given control of DB, Luas and Metro and powers to plan network expansion in conjunction with the rest of the city. RPA and NRA to be merged and retained to provide specialist engineering and procurement assistance to DRA, amoung other things. CIE to be shaken up but still retain control of DART, Intercity services, Bus Eireann, etc. NTA to regulate all
3. Electrify Maynooth line
4. More passing loops on the intercity network, additional platforms where necessary and over-haul of signalling to allow fastest possible journey times (including some express services if possible)
5. Look at new funding mechanisms to redevelop stations which have potential to produce additional revenues, this may involve partnering with private companies (ie. team up with a multi-national requiring office space in central Dublin as part of Tara Street Station redevelopment)
6. Pilot BRT on one route and then role out on other routes, not just in Dublin, taking account of lessons learned
7. Plan Luas style systems for Cork, Limerick and Galway
8. New, merged, NRA & RPA to be charged with developing a proper national network of greenways using abandoned rail lines (including WRC north of Galway) and canal tow paths in conjuction with the relevant Regional Authorities
9. New road construction to be limited to necessary bypasses (Slane (as S2), Adare, etc.), safety upgrades and minor realignments to continue
10. Build more official MSAs but plan them at suitable existing junctions to minimise costs

Long term (beyond 10 years) ;

1. Metro North
2. Extend DU south
3. Extend KRP to Portarlington
4. Construct Navan railway from Pace
5. Build all or some of Cork/Limerick/Galway Luas (which ever have favourable CBA), these to be controlled by relevant Regional Authority
6. Build M20 after which the motorway network is complete, all other roads to be max 2+2 (assuming M11 & NCX and M17/18 PPPs are startng this year anyway)

ALL HAIL KING PETE OF CAVAN

monument

Pete_Cavan wrote: »

[*]Review NRA Design Manual for Roads and Bridges and update to incorporate best practice international designs to accommodate cyclists. [/LIST]

The Design Manual for Urban Roads and Streets is taking over from the NRA's manual on urban roads.

See thread here: http://touch.boards.ie/thread/2056914997/

Markcheese

Ok it ain't going to be popular,, but as king (backed up by loyal military might )
I'm chucking Irish rail to the wolves,(sell it,privatise it,give it away) the bits that survive will be the bits that do mass transit ,
Going to split up bus eireann ,a lot of it to go bust... Bus/coach stations in decent areas to be given/sold to local authorities to run as bus and coach stations for all comers.... Possibly city bus services to be given to local authorities too ...(depends who comes up with a good offer)
Coach services left go private, all of them .... A lot of rural services will need subsidising, but still reckon a local on a mini-bus could probably do better on a lot of routes than an empty 50seater....
And now for the good bit ...
This would cost a bit .... New transport stations, or transport hubs, for a city like cork it'd be based around park and ride/coach/local bus stations where major routes merge for eg dunkettle where road to city /Dublin/Waterford/ringroad and the midleton cobh trainline (if it survives) as well as being close to Glanmire for cyclist pedestrians ....
For somewhere like cashel, it'd be the nearest motorway exit to the town probably motorwayservice center/coach park and ride /taxi rank,
For Dublin it'd be multi-storey carpark and ride local bus staions where a major route crosses the m.50 .... And there'd be an m50 orbital route as well (hard shoulder running) with a stop at most flyover crossing points on the m50...
The transport hubs may even be self financing
Now make it so.... And to hell with the consequences