Cars to be banned from key Dublin City Centre streets; priority to walking, buses etc

foggy_lad

cgcsb wrote: »

Buses have been diverted and bus gate is now extended to 12 hours. What else would you do?

Make the bus-gate 24/7 and set up automatic penalty points cameras to catch offenders like they have done for the Luas and then the most important thing to do is BAN all taxis from the bus-gate. They are causing most of the disruption slamming on outside trinity and pulling across two lanes blocking traffic to pick up or drop off passengers!

Bits_n_Bobs

foggy_lad wrote: »

Make the bus-gate 24/7 and set up automatic penalty points cameras to catch offenders like they have done for the Luas and then the most important thing to do is BAN all taxis from the bus-gate. They are causing most of the disruption slamming on outside trinity and pulling across two lanes blocking traffic to pick up or drop off passengers!

Have to agree - taxi's should be banned while the road works are on-going.

MJohnston

foggy_lad wrote: »

Make the bus-gate 24/7 and set up automatic penalty points cameras to catch offenders like they have done for the Luas and then the most important thing to do is BAN all taxis from the bus-gate. They are causing most of the disruption slamming on outside trinity and pulling across two lanes blocking traffic to pick up or drop off passengers!

Saw a taxi get stopped from entering College Green by a traffic guard last week, because he'd come around from Pearse Street in the Westmoreland Street lane and then tried to cut in in front of everybody else, blocking three lanes of traffic. Wanted to high five the guard for that.

cdebru

MJohnston wrote: »

Saw a taxi get stopped from entering College Green by a traffic guard last week, because he'd come around from Pearse Street in the Westmoreland Street lane and then tried to cut in in front of everybody else, blocking three lanes of traffic. Wanted to high five the guard for that.

Unfortunately it is one of the major problems with Dublin city traffic an over supply of taxis, driving aimlessly around the city, there is far too many taxis in the city which make public transport initiatives like bus gates far less effective because their are simply too many taxis, put the appalling standard of driving ability of the majority of them into the mix and they successfully manage to block the college green area on a regular basis even with a bus gate.

foggy_lad

cdebru wrote: »

Unfortunately it is one of the major problems with Dublin city traffic an over supply of taxis, driving aimlessly around the city, there is far too many taxis in the city which make public transport initiatives like bus gates far less effective because their are simply too many taxis, put the appalling standard of driving ability of the majority of them into the mix and they successfully manage to block the college green area on a regular basis even with a bus gate.

The issue is not oversupply, the issue is that these taxis are a law unto themselves when it comes to the rules of the road and picking up fares! they should have a separate points system where they can lose their licence for a year after a third offence within any rolling 12 month period, and any serious criminal conviction should prohibit a person from ever driving a taxi and also remove any ability they have to make a claim against the state for loss of potential earnings etc.

Taxis are the reason for most of the disruption to traffic flow in the City and especially along the Quays.

cdebru

foggy_lad wrote: »

The issue is not oversupply, the issue is that these taxis are a law unto themselves when it comes to the rules of the road and picking up fares! they should have a separate points system where they can lose their licence for a year after a third offence within any rolling 12 month period, and any serious criminal conviction should prohibit a person from ever driving a taxi and also remove any ability they have to make a claim against the state for loss of potential earnings etc.

Taxis are the reason for most of the disruption to traffic flow in the City and especially along the Quays.

The issue is completely born of oversupply, it leads to insufficient rank space, illegal parking, desperation for work that basically blinkers out any other road user so they only see a potential fare, the aimless drivi g around empty clogging up streets, the pop up ranks, etc

It is not the only problem but the majority of problems are derived from over supply, a sharp increase in taxi standards both vehicle and driver are urgently needed to drive down numbers and improve services, first move should be to require all taxis to be wheelchair accessible.

Carawaystick

cdebru wrote: »

It is not the only problem but the majority of problems are derived from over supply, a sharp increase in taxi standards both vehicle and driver are urgently needed to drive down numbers and improve services, first move should be to require all taxis to be wheelchair accessible.

Its not as bad as the previous problem of undersupply though. The hours waiting in the rain to get home...

cgcsb

Carawaystick wrote: »

Its not as bad as the previous problem of undersupply though. The hours waiting in the rain to get home...

10 to 20 24 hour bus routes would put the taxis to bed I'd say.

cdebru

Carawaystick wrote: »

Its not as bad as the previous problem of undersupply though. The hours waiting in the rain to get home...

While I wouldn't suggest we go back to 2200 taxis, now is imo worse as it affects more people over much greater lenght of time.

Spanish Eyes

thomasj wrote: »

http://www.dublinbus.ie/en/News-Centre/General-News/Change-of-Bus-Stop-on-Routes-25-25a-and-25b-/

so looking like 25/A/B will use Tara Street and Burgh Quay from the 1st September. Theres no other reason for them getting clogged up on westmoreland street when they dont need to be there.

Doesn't say that those routes will go down Tara Street though.

Hopefully they will.

Anyway, all buses that currently take Westmoreland Street from Pearse Street should be going down Tara Street. Bus lane on Tara Street plus stops. Then left to the Quays and out. No brainer really.

I'm sure that will happen very soon :rolleyes:

Forward planning my foot.

monument

cdebru wrote: »

While I wouldn't suggest we go back to 2200 taxis, now is imo worse as it affects more people over much greater lenght of time.

Don't worry, we'll be back in 2200 in just 185 years... No DeLorean required.... They might have Dart Underground built by then... I stress might...

Thinkingaboutit

There would need to be a massive upgrade of public transport, as what is there is well below par. Also, for disabled people or older people with poor mobility, an adapted car is far better than buses now where mothers with prams trump people with actual disabilities at times - anyhow there tends to be only one chair/pram space.

thomasj

Spanish Eyes wrote: »

Doesn't say that those routes will go down Tara Street though.

Hopefully they will.

In fairness, it doesn't need to. Presuming the call on college street/tara street will be left to the inspector and/or driver.

I presume the moving of the bus stop down to where the 39s are is to give the drivers the freedom to take the tara street route should they feel that would make the trip quicker, no stops lost.

I agree with you though , tara street should be made the official route.

cdebru

Thinkingaboutit wrote: »

There would need to be a massive upgrade of public transport, as what is there is well below par. Also, for disabled people or older people with poor mobility, an adapted car is far better than buses now where mothers with prams trump people with actual disabilities at times - anyhow there tends to be only one chair/pram space.

You can't have an upgrade of public transport without proper public transport priority, similar to what the Luas has, the Luas has a regular journey time because it doesn't have cars, trucks, vans, taxis etc blocking its way.

This excuse is rolled out every time any kind of improvement in bus priority is suggested and then it just gets comprised down to not actually working properly,


If public transport was working properly we wouldn't need to take cars out college green, and it can't work properly while the roads are clogged with cars.

Mr.Frame

cdebru wrote: »

The issue is completely born of oversupply, it leads to insufficient rank space, illegal parking, desperation for work that basically blinkers out any other road user so they only see a potential fare, the aimless drivi g around empty clogging up streets, the pop up ranks, etc

It is not the only problem but the majority of problems are derived from over supply, a sharp increase in taxi standards both vehicle and driver are urgently needed to drive down numbers and improve services, first move should be to require all taxis to be wheelchair accessible.

Interesting that those shouting about the "oversupply" of taxis were the same ones calling for deregulation of the taxi business many moons ago.
When all else fails, blame the taxi drivers.

markpb

Mr.Frame wrote: »

Interesting that those shouting about the "oversupply" of taxis were the same ones calling for deregulation of the taxi business many moons ago.
When all else fails, blame the taxi drivers.

Are they?

In any case, there's a middle point between no relation (which we have now) and over-regulation (which we had before). It's hardly a criticism of taxi drivers.

cdebru

Mr.Frame wrote: »

Interesting that those shouting about the "oversupply" of taxis were the same ones calling for deregulation of the taxi business many moons ago.
When all else fails, blame the taxi drivers.

Really ? Can you link to where I called for deregulation ?

I don't blame taxi drivers for over supply, it wasnt taxi drivers that deregulated the market or failed to regulate it since,

Cookie_Monster

Thinkingaboutit wrote: »

There would need to be a massive upgrade of public transport, as what is there is well below par. Also, for disabled people or older people with poor mobility, an adapted car is far better than buses now where mothers with prams trump people with actual disabilities at times - anyhow there tends to be only one chair/pram space.

But removing the majority of traffic from city centre roads would be a major upgrade to PT. Removing the main reason buses are so slow from the city centre would have a large impact on speeds and reliability which in turn would have knock on effects further out on the core traffic routes as car traffic is reduced there as well.

BoatMad

markpb wrote: »

Are they?

In any case, there's a middle point between no relation (which we have now) and over-regulation (which we had before). It's hardly a criticism of taxi drivers.

tax deregulation was inevitable, the state cannot seek to deny people access to " professions " based purely on numbers. The same thing happened to pharmacists

The taxi numbers are self regulating as the market demands rise and fall, it peaked at nearly 50,000 taxis and now is down to around 30,000, partially as a result of the banning of cosies.

ezra_pound

BoatMad wrote: »

tax deregulation was inevitable, the state cannot seek to deny people access to " professions " based purely on numbers. The same thing happened to pharmacists

The taxi numbers are self regulating as the market demands rise and fall, it peaked at nearly 50,000 taxis and now is down to around 30,000, partially as a result of the banning of cosies.

What's a cosy?

Mr.Frame

BoatMad wrote: »

tax deregulation was inevitable, the state cannot seek to deny people access to " professions " based purely on numbers. The same thing happened to pharmacists

The taxi numbers are self regulating as the market demands rise and fall, it peaked at nearly 50,000 taxis and now is down to around 30,000, partially as a result of the banning of cosies.

The taxi numbers are self regulating", really?? What was the exact number , you quoted 50,000 can you give a link to that ?
Also,what do you mean it was due to "banning of cosies"? Since when were cosies banned and under what law exactly ?

cdebru

BoatMad wrote: »

tax deregulation was inevitable, the state cannot seek to deny people access to " professions " based purely on numbers. The same thing happened to pharmacists

The taxi numbers are self regulating as the market demands rise and fall, it peaked at nearly 50,000 taxis and now is down to around 30,000, partially as a result of the banning of cosies.

The problem is the barriers to entry in the case of taxi drivers are extremely low, say even compared to a pharmacy, there are limited number of college places, those applying need to have very good leaving cert results, then there would be high commercial barriers to entry in terms of actually opening a pharmacy, staffing it, stocking it, fitting it out, rents, rates.

The deregulation in pharmacy doesn't mean I can start using my front room to start filling prescriptions with little or no qualification, but I can fairly easily turn the family car into a taxi.

JuliusCaesar

ezra_pound wrote: »

What's a cosy?

Yes, what on earth is a 'cosy'?

rp

JuliusCaesar wrote: »

Yes, what on earth is a 'cosy'?

‘Cosying’ – a practice whereby a vehicle licence holder rents, or allows or employs a second driver to operate their vehicle when they themselves were not operating it.
This practice resulted in intensive use of licensed SPSVs prior to liberalisation. (from here)

thomasj

for the second friday (not in a row) we've had a breakdown (this time taxi) in the most critical area, that brings the college green/dame street area southbound to its knees.

something needs to be looked at contingency wise, because drivers and inspectors out there hadnt a clue where to divert to.

Spanish Eyes

thomasj wrote: »

for the second friday (not in a row) we've had a breakdown (this time taxi) in the most critical area, that brings the college green/dame street area southbound to its knees.

something needs to be looked at contingency wise, because drivers and inspectors out there hadnt a clue where to divert to.

It was unbelievable. A taxi broke down and the whole city was at a standstill North to South. I was caught up in it. TBH it was eerie walking up Nassau Street - no traffic, it was so calm.

And THIS SCENE BELOW makes me so mad too. Are they also banned from Busgate like ordinary mortals I wonder? The amount of road space taken up on a critical street is nothing short of ahem... criminal!

https://www.google.ie/maps/@53.3454669,-6.2559377,3a,75y,281.84h,95.25t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1syrpgXiFB4-Q1wNmQDD-WPw!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

Icepick

12 reasons critics are wrong on Dublin’s traffic plan

There’s planned restrictions on some very core streets — access can still be maintained around those and to most or all car parks. It’s true to say that there are plans for car bans on some streets, but the idea of a car ban across the city centre is pure fantasy created to fight against the changes.

Separately, the spin doctors are pushing the idea of a need for improved public transport first. They do this while objecting to the exact measures which will allow for bus and tram priority, extra services and improvements in services.

Icepick

Not gonna shop in Arnotts with a clown in charge is what I take from this.

beauf

Icepick wrote: »

Not gonna shop in Arnotts with a clown in charge is what I take from this.

Do you think the clothes are funny or something.

beauf

Spanish Eyes wrote: »

It was unbelievable. A taxi broke down and the whole city was at a standstill North to South. I was caught up in it. TBH it was eerie walking up Nassau Street - no traffic, it was so calm.

And THIS SCENE BELOW makes me so mad too. Are they also banned from Busgate like ordinary mortals I wonder? The amount of road space taken up on a critical street is nothing short of ahem... criminal!

https://www.google.ie/maps/@53.3454669,-6.2559377,3a,75y,281.84h,95.25t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1syrpgXiFB4-Q1wNmQDD-WPw!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

There's loads of empty land not 20 mins walk towards the docks. Why they can't use that instead of parking on a major traffic artery I have no idea.