Cities around the world that are reducing car access

magicbastarder

minor caveat - that article is nearly four years old, so talking about it in the present tense may be erroneous.

It would make sense for any major employer to provide some form of PT to get the staff in and out from the workplace, it used to be commonplace for a major factory to have a dedicated bus/tram route for the staff.
It's pointless for hundreds of individuals to drive to the same place when half a dozen buses can simply drive round the local area and pick them up.

Seth Brundle

Thanks MB - hadn't noticed the age of the article

Seth Brundle

I posted a tweet yesterday showing that in Paris when the roads were made safe for cyclists that almost half of people on bikes were women. It also appears that 60% of people are new users.

https://twitter.com/roadcc/status/1357429964057018369

Thelonious Monk

Paris seem to be really making strides when it comes to cycling and getting cars out of the city centre. I have spent a lot of time in France but never been to Paris! Should it ever be possible to travel again I'd love to visit and cycle around. Has anyone used their Dublin bikes? What are they like?

downtheroad

Meanwhile in Ireland we have to put traffic cones on top of double yellow lines to actually enforce parking restrictions.

JohnC.

And I know from experience that doesn't always work either.

Zebra3

Interesting article about what's happening in Sweden.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/feb/08/how-sweden-is-taking-back-parking-spaces-to-improve-urban-living

Thelonious Monk

https://twitter.com/DublinCommuters/status/1360964883295203328

This is ridiculous. Already not enough room for peds on this busy stretch, and they lessen the width by about a third.
Nearly every day there are vans parked up on the footpath, but taking pedestrian space away because of drivers breaking the law is not the right way to be doing things. Put the bollards on the road.

MJohnston

What's most insane is those bollards are inset so far that they actually leave space for a van to park up on part of the curb.

cgcsb

What the actual heck?

specialbyte

The bollards aren't new. They've been there since at least 2009 according to Google Streetview. The city also aren't likely to place them into the granite flag stones. I'm so fed up with bollards all over the city. It's the councils response to the non-existent enforcement from Gardaí.

Really the council need to re-design that whole stretch of road. Reduce it to one lane and add loading bays, wider footpaths, a contra-flow cycle lane and maybe even trees. The current design is a total mess.

Thelonious Monk

Back when the city was open I'd walk that stretch up to 4 times a day and never noticed those bollards. But yes, it could be such a lovely street if they just got the messy traffic out of it or at least reduced it to one lane.
When the farmers blocked off roads around there, it was a peaceful serene place!

donvito99

That stretch is often (or at least, was) so busy with people at lunchtime that pedestrians trying to overtake/cut through groups of other pedestrians would poleaxe themselves on those bollards.

A few sopranos in the making!

Pete_Cavan

The corner of Merrion Row and Ely Place must be the worst place in the city to cross the road, from O'Briens over to Reilly's. Ridiculously narrow path, no more than 1m, big dirty traffic light pole plonked in it forcing people to stand in the road at Ely Place and traffic turning right onto Ely Place often cuts that corner very tight despite the enormous 10m road kerb to kerb for one lane of traffic! There is a big volume of pedestrians heading in all directions there most of the day too. The tactile flags put down there is beyond pathetic, just throw there to tick a box, no consideration for pedestrians using it nevermind anyone with physical/visual impairments.

The crossing area there needs to be extended a couple of metres into the road space on Ely Place creating a peninsula type area for waiting pedestrians so that it lines up with the path on Merrion Street. It would also force traffic turning right onto Ely Place to swing wider and take the turn slower. It would also prevent cars from parking there better than the token gesture double yellow lines. Behind that the parking should be replaced by a good sized loading bay and all deliveries to Merrion Row to park there to stop the whinging when the lanes on Merrion Row get narrowed. Anyone stopping there after should immediately have their vehicle crushed into a box, their box clamped and charged util they remove it.

Sorry for the rant, I used to pass here on a daily basis.

cgcsb

I'd say Merrion Row is the worst street in the city for pedestrians hands down, amazed that nothing has been done post covid considering the car lane is almost the width of two lanes as is. Gotta laugh when you see a van parked half on that tiny footpath, like seriously how much more space will you be wanting.

Peregrine

Here's the corner of Merrion Row and Ely Place. Just terrible. I've had to step out onto the road there far too often at busy periods.

wakka12

That part of Merrion Row always gets my blood pressure up when I arrive at it. Sickening to see pedestrians relegated to measly second class citizen position so blatantly here. Needs change ASAP.

Pete_Cavan

A very interesting and ambitious proposal from an English town which I thought was worth sharing here;

https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2021/feb/11/is-this-the-future-for-britain-stockton-on-tees-park-high-street

“Ever since Woolworths closed in 2008, Stockton Council has been rethinking what the town centre should be,” says Cooke. “The future is not more shops. It’s about leisure, culture, events and recreation, and making it a nice place for people to simply be.

...

As part of a strategy to concentrate the shops in one place, Castlegate’s existing tenants are being offered the option to move into empty units in the nearby Wellington Square shopping centre, which the council also acquired in 2019.

Will be interesting to see if it progresses. Is this the future, consolidating retail into fewer shopping centres and demolishing those no longer viable to create public spaces?

Sam Russell

Pete_Cavan wrote: »

A very interesting and ambitious proposal from an English town which I thought was worth sharing here;

https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2021/feb/11/is-this-the-future-for-britain-stockton-on-tees-park-high-street



Will be interesting to see if it progresses. Is this the future, consolidating retail into fewer shopping centres and demolishing those no longer viable to create public spaces?

How would you see that working in Dublin? We already have Grafton St with lots of high end shops with sky high rents, and Henry St on the North side which is fairly high number of shops - both pedestrianised.

How do you get open spaces for cultural and leisure activities?

Are you talking about areas like Phibsboro or Templogue?

Thelonious Monk

I think I've been posting about Merrion Row for a couple of years on here. I've also contacted DCC, just ignored.
It's just a no brainer and wouldn't cost much, why haven't they done anything about such an obvious disaster? That whole crossroads is just a total mess.

cgcsb

Thelonious Monk wrote: »

I think I've been posting about Merrion Row for a couple of years on here. I've also contacted DCC, just ignored.
It's just a no brainer and wouldn't cost much, why haven't they done anything about such an obvious disaster? That whole crossroads is just a total mess.

They'll just wait until some gets killed by a truck some day and then it'll be a terrible tragedy that nobody seen coming and they'll put bollards up the following week, as per the Seville Place / Sheriff St junction. I've also raised this several times with the council. Ignored on all counts.

Pete_Cavan

Sam Russell wrote: »

How would you see that working in Dublin? We already have Grafton St with lots of high end shops with sky high rents, and Henry St on the North side which is fairly high number of shops - both pedestrianised.

How do you get open spaces for cultural and leisure activities?

Are you talking about areas like Phibsboro or Templogue?

I think you are focusing too much on the specifics of that project, the key thing to take from the article is that which I quoted; “The future is not more shops. It’s about leisure, culture, events and recreation, and making it a nice place for people to simply be". I think that is applicable to every city, town and village.

The retail footprint of all urban areas is almost certain to shrink in the coming years, possibly the same applies to other commercial spaces. We should be now planning for a future where there is less demand for these buildings. That means identifying those buildings which hit the sweet spot between being in poor condition so having no long term future, and being in a location which could provide a public benefit. This need not be on the scale of whole shopping centres, it could be individual buildings or groups of smaller buildings with existing occupiers being accommodated elsewhere - plenty of space available in most towns per Covid, nevermind in another 12 months time!

For example, a river runs through Cavan town but you wouldn't know it as it is mostly lined with crappy old buildings which are either empty or used for something which could go elsewhere, see here. There is plenty of vacant premises around the town, knocking a few buildings and opening up the river as an amenity would be a huge benefit for very little or no downside. All towns are going to have to make themselves attractive places for people to be, not just somewhere you "pop into" when you no choice.

Personally I think we need to move away from commercial rates levied on business operators, which makes it more expensive to run any sort of business from a town centre premises and owners can leave their premises empty at no cost, towards land value tax which incentivises owners to do something with what they own or sell/lease to someone who will.

hans aus dtschl

Pete_Cavan wrote: »

opening up the river as an amenity would be a huge benefit for very little or no downside.

But...the OPW is heavily predisposed towards building high concrete walls around the rivers, so that flooding will be impossible... and that strategy is not compatible with your idea above.

Someone might have to suggest to the OPW that high concrete walls around rivers might not be the best idea at all at all?

MJohnston

Any chance of setting up or using another thread for all this?

Mod: New thread here:

https://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2058161548#

Zebra3

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/nov/20/birdsong-and-community-coming-round-to-low-traffic-neighbourhoods

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/nov/20/so-you-want-to-set-up-a-low-traffic-neighbourhood-heres-where-to-start

Would love to see this kinda thing kick off here!!!

Thelonious Monk

I don't know if there's much of an appetite for such things in Ireland, I'm becoming more and more convinced the vast majority just want to drive everywhere and park everywhere all the time, and are happy to sit in traffic to get places.

Duckjob

Thelonious Monk wrote: »

I don't know if there's much of an appetite for such things in Ireland, I'm becoming more and more convinced the vast majority just want to drive everywhere and park everywhere all the time, and are happy to sit in traffic to get places.

Patience and persistence is the key. Irish peoples minds didn't just turn car-centric overnight, they've been getting gradually wired more and more firmly that way over the past 60-70 yrs. Unlearning patterns of thinking that have been learned and re-enforced for so long doesn't happen so quickly, but it will happen.

donvito99

On the other hand, traffic is probably one of the best friends of public transport and alternative modes such as cycling and walking. It makes journeys by bike and bus relatively quicker and generates enough headlines that politicians can get enough support for the odd scheme here and there that, if successful, will hopefully bring about widespread change.

The number of cyclists on my commute over the years has continued to increase as the tailbacks have become longer and more frequent.