How can BusConnect's route O work effectively?

monument

How can BusConnect's route O, the inner orbital route, work effectively?

The network routing plan is for delivery before major bus priority work, so, how can route O work effectively when it's on sections of roads which often turn into car parks?



I'm not saying for sure that it can't work but it seems like it will suffer more than radial routes from congestion. According to this, the frequency is due to be every 8mins for the bulk of weekdays, every 10mins for most of Saturday and every 15mins for all of Sunday.

Are they planning to speed up some infrastructure by removing car parking and cycle lanes before the main BusConnects infrastructure plan?

ED E

That uni or bidirectional?

IE 222

You'd be surprised how much of that route already has bus lanes although many will be rendered useless due to the nature of the route. There is a serious amount of bottlenecks and pinch points along the route with buses travelling in either direction suffering in both am and pm peak.

Considering the amount of priority given to bus routes at busy junctions currently I'd imagine similar priority will be given to bus connects routes also which will see most routes heading directly towards the city meaning orbital routes, especially the O, will suffer drastically.

Is it planned to use Sean Hueston bridge and Steevens Lane as well? I can't see that going to smoothly either.

magicbastarder

ED E wrote: »

That uni or bidirectional?

seems to be bidirectional - looking at the section at harcourt and just to the east of that too.

ED E

Going west on SCR is gonna be a total farce and nothing can fix that bar a car ban which would never fly. Backlog from Leonard's cnr to Richmond Street.

IE 222

Why are they sending it over Samual Beckett bridge onto North Quays to then cross over Talbot bridge onto City Quay to cross over again on Butt Bridge towards Amines street. Surely routing down Pearse street is far more beneficial or leave it as an orbital and route along Seville Place.

monument

IE 222 wrote: »

You'd be surprised how much of that route already has bus lanes although many will be rendered useless due to the nature of the route. There is a serious amount of bottlenecks and pinch points along the route with buses travelling in either direction suffering in both am and pm peak.

Yes, the bus lanes on the south side and in small bits of the route along the quays etc are unlikely to make up for the lack of bus lanes along a huge chunk of the rest of the route, including nearly none of the northside beside the quays.

cgcsb

I wrote a submission to this affect to the NTA. I expect that just about every route will be running sub-optimally from 2019 to a least 2021 when infrastructure catches up. An even more substantial question is, even after that, how exactly to you provide bus lanes along the north circular with it's historic trees.

AlekSmart

cgcsb wrote: »

I wrote a submission to this affect to the NTA. I expect that just about every route will be running sub-optimally from 2019 to a least 2021 when infrastructure catches up. An even more substantial question is, even after that, how exactly to you provide bus lanes along the north circular with it's historic trees.

Is it ALL of the trees on the NCR which are historic,or are there specific ones which have the status ?
I recall the same reasoning being brought forward when the original O Connell St paving project was mooted,but it wwas sidelined by the offer to plant replacement (non-historic) trees,which has worked out reasonably well IMO ?

https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/council-wrong-to-fell-all-trees-on-oconnell-st-26245004.html

https://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=69945


Woodsman...spare that Tree ?

cgcsb

Well in my opinion those trees need to go anyway because their roots have made the footpath and side of the road unusable and they've caused sever damage to the Victorian garden walls in the area. So I'll certainly be on for some road widening. I think that's years away though and there's be many planning issues.

In the mean time Bus Connects is going to depend on traffic restrictions, rather than infrastructure to work. For example:

College Green Plaza
Car bans on the Quays, George's st, Old Cabra Road and Prussia Street
One way systems in Stoneybatter and Terenure etc.

These measures will mean less car traffic in general coming into the City which may have enough of a traffic calming affect to make the O route workable.

They are big IFS though and I think really some of the widened roads should be in place before the switch to make it work, and of course people have to like it.

magicbastarder

the junction at peter's church on the NCR (eastbound) is probably the worst part of it from my experience, and that's nothing to do with trees.

cgcsb

St Peter's is the worst. The solution may be to divert cars either via Carleville Road to Cabra Road or via Avondale Road and Monck Place. so the NCR between Avondale Road and St Peter's will be bus only. This can be done without widening any roads.

Victor

Ban car parking on those roads. There are individual bends on SCR that could do with early remedial work.

Even with single decker buses, this is going to be a problem: https://www.google.ie/maps/@53.341084,-6.2414737,3a,90y,1.15h,105.92t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sGkeofAjyw-8uO0U27NJdYw!2e0!6s%2F%2Fgeo1.ggpht.com%2Fcbk%3Fpanoid%3DGkeofAjyw-8uO0U27NJdYw%26output%3Dthumbnail%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26thumb%3D2%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D173.22215%26pitch%3D0%26thumbfov%3D100!7i13312!8i6656 Tidal traffic lights might be an option.

IE 222 wrote: »

Why are they sending it over Samual Beckett bridge onto North Quays to then cross over Talbot bridge onto City Quay to cross over again on Butt Bridge towards Amines street. Surely routing down Pearse street is far more beneficial or leave it as an orbital and route along Seville Place.

It could go along Custom House Quay and turn right onto Beresford Place.

cgcsb wrote: »

St Peter's is the worst. The solution may be to divert cars either via Carleville Road to Cabra Road or via Avondale Road and Monck Place. so the NCR between Avondale Road and St Peter's will be car only.

Bus only?

IE 222

Victor wrote: »

Ban car parking on those roads. There are individual bends on SCR that could do with early remedial work.

Even with single decker buses, this is going to be a problem: https://www.google.ie/maps/@53.341084,-6.2414737,3a,90y,1.15h,105.92t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sGkeofAjyw-8uO0U27NJdYw!2e0!6s%2F%2Fgeo1.ggpht.com%2Fcbk%3Fpanoid%3DGkeofAjyw-8uO0U27NJdYw%26output%3Dthumbnail%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26thumb%3D2%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D173.22215%26pitch%3D0%26thumbfov%3D100!7i13312!8i6656 Tidal traffic lights might be an option.

It could go along Custom House Quay and turn right onto Beresford Place.

Bus only?

That junction doesn't allow for buses turning right. It would require a whole new sequence in the traffic lights and will hold up buses behind it wanting to turn right.

cgcsb

Also I'd predict another problem:

Buses in the south west of the city will continue to be very slow before the road widening projects are done.

However the new orbital routes will make residents of the south west a very handy change to the Green and red luas lines. Result: thousands more people attracted to the overcrowded luas system by orbital services. Those trams need to be lengthened asap