Parking and traffic in Phoenix Park

VonLuck

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118672288#Comment_118672288

More parking breeds more cars. If you constantly address the apparent demand then you'll have a park covered in tarmac. Just need to make the alternative options more attractive than driving. The people who really need to drive will still drive whilst those who wanted to drive because there was always free spaces won't when it's more restricted.

Flinty997

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118672386#Comment_118672386

Fair enough.

But I think there is some middle ground. You could have better parking at the fringes but automatic (and online) control of the volume.

Instead we have things like the Conyngham Gate which is abymal for cyclists.

Larbre34

There is enough parking, if it is sensibly managed and if new or infrequent visitors to the Park are properly informed about it.

I don't think we're likely to see the volumes of visitors we saw in the deepest lockdown periods again. Yes there are occasionally larger events that increase demand, but Bloom has its own temporary parking on the Ashtown Castle site and you could never park for night time concerts before anyway.

For Darkness into Light, for instance they open the huge car park at Farmleigh and lay on shuttle buses to the marshaling area.

For the Zoo, the additional parking created by the new one-way on North Road should take up any slack.

There are thing I agree and things I disagree with about the mobility pilot in the Park, but a lack of parking really isn't one of them. It's more than adequate with a little bit of personal planning and the correct information being available.

Flinty997

Again the premise is that it never gets busy enough except on extraordinary events, that you can't get parking. That's not been my experience, and on pretty dreary sort of days.

Former Former Former

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118674530#Comment_118674530

Yep, I've arrived to Ashtown Castle with a car load of kids at 10am on a winter's Sunday and found the car park full. The fact that there might be spaces in Farmleigh or at the Pope's Cross is absolutely no use in this scenario.

VonLuck

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118679016#Comment_118679016

Would that not mean that next time you'll reconsider whether you need to drive and can drive to the park? I think it's a good thing to be honest. You'd hopefully end up with a situation where the only people that drive to the park are doing it out of necessity.

daymobrew

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118679267#Comment_118679267

I don't think it's unreasonable to expect that a space be available at 10am on a cold Sunday morning (if it was last weekend then the weather was quite nasty). The "car load of kids" makes it a little complicated to cycle or walk (the most I've cycled to the Park with was 2 on my bike).

The Visitor Centre car park is quite small but where were all these people? Was there an event on?

Flinty997

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118680047#Comment_118680047

My guess its people who would otherwise have parked on Chesterfield. Though its busy in its own right, especially with the playground etc.

The visitors centre is right beside parking along north road, at the triangle, at the national school and not far from the papal cross car park. If you can't walk 5/10 mins from those places to the visitors centre perhaps the park is not for you.

Im in the park every single day, a few times a day. There is literally parking available all day.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118680200#Comment_118680200

and my understanding is that there is going to be more parking provided on the north road when it’s gone one-way

Flinty997

No need as we're told it never fills up, unlimited spaces, and someone checks every very parking space everyday, all day, every year. Probably there more than the OPW it seems.

Former Former Former

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118680200#Comment_118680200

Let me guess, you don't have kids?

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118680325#Comment_118680325

What do you bring kids to the park for?

Flinty997

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118680412#Comment_118680412

Deer Hunting...

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118680556#Comment_118680556

Maybe it is. It’s obviously not for doing any walking…..

Former Former Former

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118680412#Comment_118680412

So you don't have kids. That's fine but you're making absolutely no effort to see other perspectives here. If you had small kids, you'd know how ridiculous it is to suggest that the Popes Cross is a viable parking option for visiting Ashtown Castle.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118680767#Comment_118680767

I have kids in my family, when I bring them to the park, it is to walk, run, play football, ride their bikes etc etc

the papal cross is 10 mins walk to ashtown castle. But I wouldn't consider that I would have to park in ashtown anyway.

Flinty997

Google says 17~20. But I guess if I push Granny and fit low fiction wheels to the walker, she could do it in 10. Its probably down hill in one direction. To be honest even when the car Park is empty I make her walk a good 4k so she feels like she's earned that Lunch. I means its a park isn't it.

Why the need to park in ashtown visitors centre anyway? The park is massive

Flinty997

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118681574#Comment_118681574

For someone whos there everyday, you seem unclear as to why people (of all ages and mobility) might choose to go to the visitor center over some other Random location, like the Magazine for example.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118681615#Comment_118681615

If people only wish to visit one small part of the park, and park their vehicle in the one car park in that small part of the park, and are not willing to walk to that part from anywhere else, then my sympathies end there.

obviously not everyone can park in the same place and ridiculous to think otherwise.

Flinty997

It's all just one field basically.

Former Former Former

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118681574#Comment_118681574

Because that's where the playground, the hedge maze and the enormous trees that my kids love to climb are. It's where the toilets and cafe are. You cannot expect a small child to walk 20 minutes each way from the Pope's Cross car park. If you had kids you'd understand that.

I'm delighted that you have the time on your hands to visit the park several times a day and that you live close enough to walk there. That's great. But that's you, and the park is supposed to be for everyone. It is NOT a local amenity. A family in Donegal is supposed to have a much right to access the park as a lonely spinster in D7.

So maybe they should tarmac all the park except the ashtown castle area, so there is plenty of parking for the playground? As I said, the children in my family can walk, when they could not walk they were pushed in a pushchair.

Not that it's any of your business, but I don't have 'time to visit the park ' several times a day. I'm in there several times a day, that doesn't mean I'm visiting the park.

Who is a lonely spinster in Dublin 7? Is there some reason you feel the need to throw out personal insults? Pretty disgusting attitude there, personally attacking posters.

Former Former Former

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118683447#Comment_118683447

In fairness, you keep making digs at people, eventually you'll get one in return. Such is life.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118683651#Comment_118683651

Can you point out one single post where I have made any personal attacks on any posters? I would be grateful if you could.

I don't engage in abusive bullying behaviour, online or in real life.

Now, I seem to have lost the point of this thread, I thought it was in relation to parking and traffic in the Phoenix park.

Flinty997

Pointing out there are different types of people using the park isn't a personal attack. Unless by some unlike coincidence you are a family from Donegal. How is that offensive exactly.

I don't see how someone can be in the park all day every day for work or whatever and have such a narrow understanding of how it's used by different types of people. Unless of course they can't see beyond their own situation.

Flinty997

People say the park will never get as busy as the lockdown.

But it has been that busy before the lockdown. When cycling home from work on nice summers evening I would often chosen to avoid my usual route though the park because it was impossible to cycle through. Paths and roads jammed.

If someone has never seen that, they don't use the park that often.

Seth Brundle

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118683277#Comment_118683277

Your kids love being active in the maze and climbing trees but can't manage a 20 minute walk? I know my kids quite happily walked a lot further when they were small.

I used to live in the Southside of Dublin, and went running/walking in the mountains with the dog everyday. In very good weather in holiday times, I would know that the car parks and roads around the popular areas would be full of cars. So, I then changed my behaviour. I went earlier, or went to less popular areas.

As pointed out many times in this thread, users cannot expect to park in the exact place they wish to at all times in a public park.