Dublin. 3rd slowest city to drive through.

NIMAN

So it appears a study has shown us what we already know. Dublin is a frustrating place to drive through.

3rd in the world, behind London (1st) and Bengaluru (2nd).

A bronze medal we shouldn't be proud of.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-64641426

On a positive note, it keeps plenty of people employed by AA Roadwatch.

John_Rambo

Would you like cities to be places you can drive through at great speed?

NIMAN

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120244715#Comment_120244715

You know that's not what the study shows or was trying to highlight.

It was highlighting jams and slow moving traffic.

kirving

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120244715#Comment_120244715

False dilemma there.

There's a big difference between sitting in traffic, and speeding.

Reasons are numerous, but the lack of a metro, poor cycling infrastructure, horrendous urban sprawl, building large apartment blocks well over 10km from the city center, all feed into this.

TheIrishGrover

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120244753#Comment_120244753

Brown envelopes (Or lack of brown envelopes. Or brown envelopes to the right/wrong people) feeds into this.

Overheal

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120244715#Comment_120244715

Considering its TomTom GPS data and it's a TomTom study I don't think they would have studied eg. European cities that have (rightfully) banned cars in the city center etc.

https://www.independent.ie/regionals/dublin/dublin-news/dublin-named-as-third-slowest-city-in-the-world-to-drive-in-42342050.html

magicbastarder

any link to the study which concluded this?

NIMAN

Sorry , had link copied and forgot to post it

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-64641426

deirdremf

When I saw this, I thought, Hmm, Galway is obviously No. 1, and Cork is probably No. 2, particularly if you're driving across the river.

Are those two cities even included in the study?

redlough

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120245019#Comment_120245019

It's done by TomTom....does anyone even have a TomTom anymore? I thought they died out around 2015 when most cars just had their own system

Cluedo Monopoly

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120245019#Comment_120245019

The thing about Galway is that it's not too bad unless you have to cross the river. The key is to work on your side of the river. We badly need a new bridge and ring road. Galway is also very small and the gridlock is very concentrated.

NIMAN

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120245019#Comment_120245019

It's a worldwide study, probably weren't studied.

Thelonious Monk

You can blame FF/FG for ignoring public transport and other infrastructure since the foundation of the state. Thankfully we have Eamon Ryan and the Greens in Government who are moving forward more transport projects that we've ever had going on before while constantly improving cycling and walking infrastructure. It's a mess but the Greens are doing their best to fix it.

_Kaiser_

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120245194#Comment_120245194

While making a mess of everything else they touch - our energy security, immigration and so on.

I'm not sure some cycle lanes is worth the trade off long term myself.

kabakuyu

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120245194#Comment_120245194

🤣 very good ,excellent greenshitting.

road_high

Had to drive from the south city centre to the airport a few weeks ago and Christ yes i couldn’t believe how slow it was. A painful crawl through Drumcondra and Whitehall. Took me the bones of an hour, in fairness it was evening rush hour. Several of the traffic light sequences seemed to be all wrong and not favouring the heaviest traffic approach

road_high

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120245194#Comment_120245194

There is delusion and then there is this post

Thelonious Monk

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120245846#Comment_120245846

How is it deluded?

Andrewf20

The EU want you out of your cars to reduce emissions I suspect. Its all about the gradual ramping of pain for motorists. Might be a good thing in the end. My missus cycles into the city as the traffic is so bad.

John_Rambo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120246048#Comment_120246048

Someone got it.

There's a global reduction of cars in cities. They don't want people driving through them, they're making it more difficult for cars to get through the cities.

AndrewJRenko

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058284412/dublin-3rd-slowest-city-to-drive-through

Didn’t AA shut down the Roadwatch thing a couple of years back?

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120246524#Comment_120246524

Are you sure it’s not all the people who insist on driving around with four empty seats that are making it difficult for cars to get through cities?

fly_agaric

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120245194#Comment_120245194

I'd hardly lay all the blame on them (as you say they are not the big 2 parties that have held power over history of the state) but they're not really doing great at all imo (as regards Dublin, which is what I am interested in).

The timeframes on the very expensive stuff we have been waiting on for 2 decades at least already that will really change transport in Dublin seem insane to me. The way there is little noise about it is telling, I think noone really believes the big projects will happen any more, "jam tomorrow" has been said too many times now and it's greeted with a shrug.

Even the "Busconnects" (better bus lanes, road changes, and changing of routes - woop, hardly f-cking rocket science) is a bit of a joke as regards how long it is taking.

I think it is maybe 2025-30 for the Busconnects, 2035 for the Metro and beyond 2040 if lucky for the DART/rail interconnector!

The big rail projects are all so slow and so far away from starting construction let alone completion it is all but certain there will be another economic slowdown in Ireland in the meantime. A cynic like me might predict the rural electorate and their TDs will treat them as extravagant expenditure on fancy geegaws for "city folk who just get too much anyway" + scream for them all to be cancelled yet again.

I may be pushing daisies before anything except the high tech bus lanes gets done.

Thelonious Monk

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120246663#Comment_120246663

Current government is trying to prioritise it in Dublin anyway, unfortunately with our planning system and all the red tape it will take a long time.

You'll get people out of their 4 x 4s by using bus gates and restricting cars from much of the city.

howiya

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120246677#Comment_120246677

A bit disingenuous to blame it on planning and red tape. The planning application for metro was only submitted in September last year. The reality is that the political will wasn't there before to support the project despite all three parties of the current government being in office at various times over the last 15 years.

Lavinia

I'm sure the traffic lads will get it to number one in no time

SafeSurfer

It’s a blessing in one way.

Even terrorists ploughing into crowds drive slowly.

batman75

Whilst the the M1/M2 cutting through Belfast was probably crude in what buildings were lost to make way for it it is bloody handy especially for a car centered society which we have become.

AndrewJRenko

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120246888#Comment_120246888

If only we could work out what kind of developments caused us to become a car centred society?

Del2005

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120246677#Comment_120246677

Considering the Metro isn't going South of Stephen's green because some people would of had to drive a bit longer to access their home, which is nearly in the city centre, I doubt we'll get many bus gates.

francois

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120244753#Comment_120244753

Add the school run, traffic noticably lighter during breaks and holidays. I see parents dropping kids of to my one's school in cars, some living less than 1k away. It's ridiculous, and contributes to the obesity issue.

magicbastarder

The falloff during the school holidays is not 100% due to the lack of school run; parents also time their holidays during the school holidays, and thus there's less general commuting traffic anyway.

I don't know of any study which has tried to capture that though.

Thelonious Monk

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120246736#Comment_120246736

Yes it has been the lack of political will, but having the Greens and Big Eamon in the driving seen now RE transport means these things are actually happening and the man is determined to get it done. I do believe it'll be too late to turn back on the project by the time they're voted out in two years, so regardless of how much they're hated at least the Greens will have the legacy of getting the Metro started. I'm worried SF would throw out the project because of the homelisses or hospital beds but hopefully too many contracts are signed by then.

Thelonious Monk

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120246738#Comment_120246738

Dublin most definitely needs bus networks and bus connects. Buses are the backbone of any excellent public transport system like London for e.g.

The Bus Connects routes will be a gamechanger for many when planning permission is granted for the road widening etc. that is required to have bus lanes going directly into the city from places like Clongriffin. They will be utterly pointless though without bus lane enforcement, and I don't know if the powers that be have the balls to implement cameras etc to stop this as it would annoy too many motorists having to stay out of the lanes. Works in London though.

Murph85

https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/2023/02/16/frank-mcdonald-darttunnel-is-the-missing-link-in-dublins-transport-plans/

Those absolute morons has planning permission for dart interconnector and metro North. Both were cancelled around 2012. For sums which have now increased minimum five fold in ten years... I think dart underground was 2 billion, wouldn't run the country for more thaN a few days a year now... could have kept thousands of construction workers in Ireland, just pathetic short sighted governance from varadkar and the rest of them, that we have become accustomed too... they are now spending 30 million on 2km of canal greenway in 2023. Totally scandalous

PopePalpatine

Imagine thinking Frank McDonald has anything relevant to say about urban planning. Someone should just distract him with running a living museum instead of keeping Dublin as one.

Compo82

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120246888#Comment_120246888

I was thinking the same thing, it would be handy to have a motorway right into the city centre and cut through the city, but there are also some negatives. Maybe if some of it was underground like in Boston.

Gregor Samsa

@NIMAN On a positive note, it keeps plenty of people employed by AA Roadwatch.

A minor note: AA Roadwatch ceased in 2021.

Donald Trump

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120247291#Comment_120247291

I think there have been plenty of studies where they removed major roads that ran through cities and greatly improved traffic as a result

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Braess%27s_paradox

cruizer101

One major contributor to it is our (or at least DCC's) aversion to high rise. Instead of having a dense population centre we have a sprawl which means far more people have to travel further distances. I can't get my head around how this isn't raised as an issue more often, from an environmental energy usage point of view it makes far more sense to have higher densities, Green party should be pushing stongly for it.

Donald Trump

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120247375#Comment_120247375

I'd disagree on the not having a dense population bit

Going by average boards.ie posts, it seems most of the population are decidedly dense

Donald Trump

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120247300#Comment_120247300

To be fair, it was never a good idea putting alcoholics in charge of issues relating to driving cars

Seth Brundle

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120247275#Comment_120247275

My late father was quite significant in the field of Irish plannng. He could never understand why McDonald, a journalist, was percieved as some kind of expert on planning.

blanch152

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120245194#Comment_120245194

You are absolutely correct. They have a load of projects going through planning stage. Implementation will be starting around the time of the next election, it is so important that the Greens get into government as it is likely that a SF government would cancel some of the projects in order to spend the money elsewhere.

magicbastarder

much as i hate generalisations about countries; it's ireland. the urgent drives out the important.

e.g. if this nursing home bill issue blows up, it'll be transport projects canned to pay for it.

PopePalpatine

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120247613#Comment_120247613

The planners didn't hang around the right golf courses.

Marcos

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120245841#Comment_120245841

Several of the traffic light sequences seemed to be all wrong and not favouring the heaviest traffic approach.

Supposedly that's by design, create delays in traffic in the hope that commuters will leave their cars for a sub standard public transport system.

howiya

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120247199#Comment_120247199

It's not too long ago that Big Eamon was part of the campaign to delay and redesign Metro.

Thelonious Monk

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120249288#Comment_120249288

Well Big Eam is leading the charge now and hopefully gets the works started before SF can cancel it

Murph85

Voting greens as crap as they are, might be the only vote i bother giving. The rest of them, including greens, are pretty much identical on all other policies. A decent transport system is probably number one priority to me, of stuff that actually could be delivered. My other wishes, not a chance, reducing marginal rate of tax, sorting housing. Its comedy to even entertain the notion any of the morons will do anything

Murph85

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120248145#Comment_120248145

Great expression! So true!

fly_agaric

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120247205#Comment_120247205

Not sure that they are? 😕 Dublin is heading towards being a mid sized European city. I admit I am a non expert but would have thought rail/metro/tram type systems that are predictable and carry tons of people per unit of time are the backbone and busses are a supporter + fill in the gaps in a good rail network and provide service at the edges. Dublin does not have a good rail network, and probably won't have anything much better than what it is today for guts of another 2 decades at the very pedestrian pace being set by govt. for building any more.

With rate of population growth here...well it looks a bit ugly. Just a gut feeling but a full implementation of "Busconnects" (edit: incl. all those nice old trees at the side of roads getting the chop + loss of vital parking space for the 4wd or BMW saloon!) might be needed alright to keep it from getting unmanageable.