Dublin 9th most congested city of 200

Muahahaha

Was just on RTE 6.1 news now that in an EU country report Ireland got censured for our low capital spend on infrastructure. EU average is 3% of GDP (which the EU calls inadequate) and Ireland spends just 2% of GDP on capital projects. The EU says such a low spend is impeding our economic growth.

As part of the report they analysed Dublins traffic using data from GPS company Tom Tom. According to them Dublin is the 9th most congested city at peak times of the 200 worldwide cities that were surveyed. It said that Dublin has a worse traffic problem than the hugely congested LA, Beijing and Rio.

Its shocking stuff, especially more so with the recent failure to invest in MN and Dart Underground. Do we have to be labelled the most congested city in the world before our politicians will act? Is that what it will take? They seem to be able to hold off money for their auction politics for the elections but don't seem to mind if hundreds of thousands are sitting in traffic jams every day and suffering a time poor quality of life as a result. Not to mention the extra costs on transport and logistics companies, someone has to pay for all those delays and at the end of the day its going to be the customer at the till.

thomasj

http://www.rte.ie/news/business/2016/0301/771785-european-commission-report/

Pete_Cavan

But how many of those hundreds of thousands sitting in traffic jams every day and suffering a poor quality of life as a result want MN and/or DU built? My experience is that they would prefer to see more investment in roads (M50 outer bypass, M50 Easter bypass, etc.), blissfully unaware that that will only lead to more traffic and more congestion over the long term.

thomasj

Pete_Cavan wrote:

But how many of those hundreds of thousands sitting in traffic jams every day and suffering a poor quality of life as a result want MN and/or DU built? My experience is that they would prefer to see more investment in roads (M50 outer bypass, M50 Easter bypass, etc.), blissfully unaware that that will only lead to more traffic and more congestion over the long term.

I think while some of those people need their cars for business purposes etc I'd day alot consider that there isn't a viable alternative to driving to work .

n97 mini

I think Irish people would prefer low taxation so that they could sit in traffic in a nice BMW than pay significantly more tax and not require a car at all.

Grandeeod

n97 mini wrote: »

I think Irish people would prefer low taxation so that they could sit in traffic in a nice BMW than pay significantly more tax and not require a car at all.

I agree, but hate the fact that I have to agree. If you know what I mean.

Charles Babbage

The focus here should be on the 3%, half as much again as 2%. This would allow the DART underground and some road improvements both, as appropriate.

Idbatterim

But how many of those hundreds of thousands sitting in traffic jams every day and suffering a poor quality of life as a result want MN and/or DU built? My experience is that they would prefer to see more investment in roads (M50 outer bypass, M50 Easter bypass, etc.), blissfully unaware that that will only lead to more traffic and more congestion over the long term.

building more roads is a waste of time, it doesnt matter if your average motorists thinks it isnt, our rail infrastructure is appalling. These idiots in government, have just sent MN and DU back years, to save a pittance in the scheme of things. Oh the "original MN and Du schemes were based on different growth figures" ha the m50 is already busier than the boom over a year ago, dublin airport numbers exploding, car sales exploding. Their blatant barefaced lieing really infuriates me...

Cookie_Monster

9th in Europe when all city sizes are selected

18th in the world
https://www.tomtom.com/en_nz/trafficindex/#/list

cgcsb

Idbatterim wrote: »

building more roads is a waste of time, it doesnt matter if your average motorists thinks it isnt, our rail infrastructure is appalling. These idiots in government, have just sent MN and DU back years, to save a pittance in the scheme of things. Oh the "original MN and Du schemes were based on different growth figures" ha the m50 is already busier than the boom over a year ago, dublin airport numbers exploding, car sales exploding. Their blatant barefaced lieing really infuriates me...

The 'different growth figures' are nonsense. We've already surpassed the CSO prediction for 2016 despite the downturn so why lower the spec of transport projects?

Idbatterim

The 'different growth figures' are nonsense. We've already surpassed the CSO prediction for 2016 despite the downturn so why lower the spec of transport projects?

you are preaching to the converted, I emailed the Minister for transport and also another FG north dublin td about it, around the time a decision was due to be made on both projects, I let them have it and sent several emails back and forth to them...

cgcsb

The solution is to unseat paschal for this failure at the next election, due in a few months no doubt.

hmmm

cgcsb wrote: »

The solution is to unseat paschal for this failure at the next election, due in a few months no doubt.

And get what - you think a government relying on the Healy Raes is going to spend money on those "smart alecs" up in Dublin?

I think we need some sort of national infrastructure quango - like the Ministry of National Development in Singapore which looks after Infrastructure planning. Try and take as many decisions out of the hands of politicians as possible.

Idbatterim

Paschal comes across as very weak and ineffective to me. But I really wonder with projects of that value, who is really calling the shots? Civil servants, Kenny etc...

cgcsb

hmmm wrote: »

And get what - you think a government relying on the Healy Raes is going to spend money on those "smart alecs" up in Dublin?

I think we need some sort of national infrastructure quango - like the Ministry of National Development in Singapore which looks after Infrastructure planning. Try and take as many decisions out of the hands of politicians as possible.

We should have a pro Dublin party or a Dublin Regional Authority with an elected mayor that can keep it's own lpt revenue instead of redistributing it to the regions.

Carawaystick

Has anyone a link to the methodology used by Tom Tom?

How does it capture congestion by cyclists, train/tram/bus users who won't have a satellite navigation device to be sampled?

12Phase

One the one hand the EU will censure us for not spending enough and on the other hand they basically took a knife to our capital expenditure plans too.

All the NDP spending came to a screeching halt during the troika years. It's going to take a while for that to remotely pick up again.

Can't have it both ways !

You also absolutely need to encourage development in Cork, Galway, Limerick and Waterford as Dublin cannot cope as it is.

Having several cities competing will actually help all of them, not hinder Dublin and it is good for the overall Irish economy.

Balanced regional development does not mean trying to make Google locate a facility in the Aran Islands, it's about building at least 3 or 4 decent cities where people can actually manage to get to and from places without snarling to a halt and afford a house to live in and that have all the necessary facilities and a pool of people to work in the jobs that are being created, because they're attractive places to live.

Growing Dublin faster than its infrastructure and housing stock can cope is a recipe for disaster, both socially (homelessness, poverty, hospitals over crowded etc) and also economically as it will make the city seem far less attractive to invest in if it's just a carpark all the time with bad public transport.

ClovenHoof

They had to try and buy some vote in Kerry...

thomasj

This doesn't really help our cause? I'm baffled!

http://ec.europa.eu/ireland/press_office/news_of_the_day/life-satisfaction-second-highest-in-dublin-eurobarometer_en.htm

hmmm

12Phase wrote: »

One the one hand the EU will censure us for not spending enough and on the other hand they basically took a knife to our capital expenditure plans too.

All the NDP spending came to a screeching halt during the troika years. It's going to take a while for that to remotely pick up again.

The troika looked for a cut in spending, they left it up to us to decide where the cuts were made - stop blaming the EU for the decisions of our own government.

strandroad

thomasj wrote: »

This doesn't really help our cause? I'm baffled!

http://ec.europa.eu/ireland/press_office/news_of_the_day/life-satisfaction-second-highest-in-dublin-eurobarometer_en.htm

They probably counted "ah sure it's grand" as praise?

AngryLips

Carawaystick wrote: »

Has anyone a link to the methodology used by Tom Tom?

How does it capture congestion by cyclists, train/tram/bus users who won't have a satellite navigation device to be sampled?

It doesn't. This is why this report is rubbish because it is an issue that affects a fraction of road users and not all.

Muahahaha

AngryLips wrote: »

It doesn't. This is why this report is rubbish because it is an issue that affects a fraction of road users and not all.

It may not cover raiil but it is still a comparative study of road congestion in 200 cities, of which Dublin performs pretty poorly.

cgcsb

AngryLips wrote: »

It doesn't. This is why this report is rubbish because it is an issue that affects a fraction of road users and not all.

road congestion in cities is generally a function of poor provision of public transport

Carawaystick

Muahahaha wrote: »

It may not cover raiil but it is still a comparative study of road congestion in 200 cities, of which Dublin performs pretty poorly.

How does it measure bus, bike or taxi congestion?

Because any "survey" which is hiding it's methodology is just clickbait

Idbatterim

The troika looked for a cut in spending, they left it up to us to decide where the cuts were made - stop blaming the EU for the decisions of our own government.

yeah and what a surprise for our gombeens, the capital budget wasn't even "low hanging fruit", it was on the ground...

12Phase

hmmm wrote: »

The troika looked for a cut in spending, they left it up to us to decide where the cuts were made - stop blaming the EU for the decisions of our own government.

Sure they did!
That would be why the details our our budget ended up in the German Parliament before the Oireachtas and why they were going over minutia with a fine tooth comb in an office in Dublin oncer every so often while we were still on the naughty step.

monument

12Phase wrote: »

Sure they did!
That would be why the details our our budget ended up in the German Parliament before the Oireachtas and why they were going over minutia with a fine tooth comb in an office in Dublin oncer every so often while we were still on the naughty step.

You know there were motorway projects started in the last few years?

Sam Russell

monument wrote: »

You know there were motorway projects started in the last few years?

Yes from Gort to Tuam and Arklow on south towards Eniscorthy and onto Oilgate and then to New Ross. Each of these is a huge metropolis that requires rapid high volume access for freight as well as commuters. The N17 and N18 are built to connect with that other busy motorway, the N6, from Athlone to Oranmore.

They are starting the Adare bypass as well.

Have I missed any? Oh, yes, they are talking about possibly widening the M7 Naas bypass as far as the M9.

Chris_5339762

Apart from Luas Cross City (which was cheap) and the PPPs for New Ross, Enniscorthy and N7/Newlands (which didn't cost anything and were in the pipeline years ago), the outgoing FG/Lab government have not started any transport projects, haven't funded any, haven't proceeded any major ones to planning. I don't know why they bothered with a minister for transport at all.

LXFlyer

Chris_5339762 wrote: »

Apart from Luas Cross City (which was cheap) and the PPPs for New Ross, Enniscorthy and N7/Newlands (which didn't cost anything and were in the pipeline years ago), the outgoing FG/Lab government have not started any transport projects, haven't funded any, haven't proceeded any major ones to planning. I don't know why they bothered with a minister for transport at all.

Also the Irish Rail city centre re-signalling project and the re-introduction to passenger service of the Phoenix Park tunnel (both due to start this year), and the expansion of the Dublin Bus and Bus Eireann PSO fleets.