NTA to the rescue! -- "Bus will be workhorse as NTA chief tackles congestion"

monument

bk wrote: »

The NTA/DCC priorities are number one, walking + cycling, number 2 public transport.

Not really, most the the city centre transport study plan / thing is bus focused and their transport predictions are very bus focused. There's elements of pro-cycling and pro-bus and pro-pedestrian etc in both organisations but

The NTA are funding a lot of cycling projects but some of these overlap with their strange idea about BRT and conventional buses having to be pushed into lay-by stops for the BRT buses to get higher priority. Lots of cycling projects have bus elements.

Very strangely the NTA pushed the Merrion Gates and wider project as mainly a cycling one when the details show it's mainly about getting bicycles out of the way of buses -- the Merrion Road plans for cycling are really sub-standard... it's the old get bicycles out of the way of buses matra from the QBC office which I think mostly got transferred to the NTA.

As Bambi says they are overly happy to conflate walking and cycling by having shared paths, shared junctions, shared spaces at bus stops etc.

strandroad

bk wrote: »

There is more then enough pedestrian space on O'Connell Street now. The issue now is the bottleneck that forms on O'Connell Bridge and down Westmorland Street, etc.

But fortunately the NTA plan when they complete the Luas works is to significantly widen the footpath on O'Connell Bridge and down Westmorland Street to a new plaza on College Green.

...
As you see, lots of massively widened footpaths.

I can't wait for it to happen. I don't usually appreciate people making "third world" comparisons, but I struggle to find a better one to describe the patchy puckered tarmac nightmare it all currently is. It's shockingly bad...

ED E

bk wrote: »

Are they sending cyclists up onto the path in that layby there or is that a bus stop?

monument

ED E wrote: »

Are they sending cyclists up onto the path in that layby there or is that a bus stop?

It's a turning pocket, although how it works is a mystery. My guess it was places and moved to make way for something else or the layout of the street was change or it was just improperly placed at the wrong side of the crossing.

EDIT: It might actually be a ramp up to the crossing with walking and cycling mixed on the crossing... if, so, it's designed by someone with no clue of how busy the footpath here is.

thebsharp

It's most likely the nta requiring their design manual to be implemented to the letter of the law without common sense or a thought to how it's meant to work being applied.

Looks like a right turn pocket, before the stop line for the lights as it's potentially push button activated. Right turn only for buses so will need to be. Terrible design. The angle it's making cyclists turn right at over tram tracks is particularly bad. Not sure what's meant to happen if there's more than one cyclist.

Dyr

I'm sorry, but while they have reduced the median, they have massively increased the footpath width on both sides.

Median was a pedestrian area, as requested.

Why are you using the present tense when referring to something that has not happened yet?

Seems a bit like this:
"We have no metro"
"Yes we do..here's an artist impression of it!!"

Examples were asked for, examples were given. If you want to talk about what will be in place a year or so from hence we can reconvene and see what's actually happened as opposed to what was planned

MGWR

StreetLight wrote: »

In the current context of industrial relations at Bus Éireann, it's interesting to see how the powers that be will have to rely so much on bus drivers to help sort out public commuting woes.

From the Irish Independent:
"Bus will be workhorse as NTA chief tackles congestion conundrum"

http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/bus-will-be-workhorse-as-nta-chief-tackles-congestion-conundrum-35407631.html

Network De-Wrecked, or Re-Wrecked? Hard to rebuild trust among the now-driving public after certain fiascoes.

Not to mention that bus lanes are still quite often the cause of congestion, along with reversing some of the street widening; at least the article actually discusses widening.

The unions seem to want to obscure the origin of the jobs of their membership, which is the private sector.

bk

Bambi wrote: »

Examples were asked for, examples were given.

I'm sorry Bambi, but the example you gave of O'Connell St is a terrible one and actually disproves your original point!

You might have been technically correct, that they have reduced the median on O'Connell St, but it is a pretty terrible example of the point you are trying to make giving the reality of the rest of the street.

Adjusting the street space, to reduce the median that no one actually walks on or uses anyway, to make more space for trams, buses and bikes, all the while they have already massively increased the footpath space at the sides of the street where people do actually walk is pretty much a shining example of what we want to see the NTA/DCC do across the rest of the city where possible.

I honestly have no idea how you could use O'Connell Street as an example to criticise the NTA/DCC not being focused on improving pedestrian infrastructure. It pretty much boggles my mind!

bk

MGWR wrote: »

Not to mention that bus lanes are still quite often the cause of congestion

Bus lanes cause congestion! :rolleyes:

Go ahead, remove all bus lanes and buses and put all those bus users in cars and wait and see what the congestion looks like then!!!!