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Parking and traffic in Phoenix Park

horse7

Phoenix park is the biggest public park in Europe, so why is there no parking allowed since Corona?

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Caranica

Until recently I was seconded to an office just off O'Connell Street. Was surprised to get an "X is retiring email" which celebrated that while X lived in Meath they drove to the Phoenix Park every day and parked there and walked to work for many many years. Until then I didn't realise people did such things.

Hurrache

Man-made? Ah sure look how convenient it would be to knock Dublin Castle, Christ Church, The Four Courts and so on, shift them out of the city and replace them with carparks for the convenience of all the commuters.

Research the history of the Phoenix Park before making any further comment as to its man madness.

beauf

Hurrache wrote: »

Man-made? Ah sure look how convenient it would be to knock Dublin Castle, Christ Church, The Four Courts and so on, shift them out of the city and replace them with carparks for the convenience of all the commuters.

Research the history of the Phoenix Park before making any further comment as to its man madness.

Because moving a gate or creating a new one is exactly like moving a castle.

2011

The gate piers at the Parkgate Street entrance, which were dismantled for the 1932 Eucharistic Congress,
have been re-erected along with the adjoining link walls

Gates all used to have cattle grids on them. Maybe they should restore them :rolleyes:

The Avenue lights have been modernised even electrified at times. The Popes Cross etc is are not original, the extension to the Zoo. The new hospital in Mary campus, and they've removed and then put back the roundabouts, did it once simply for the Tour De France. The "cycle" path on the north road is recent.

They spent 800k on the gates (removing then restoring) before an after the recent Popes visits.

But yeah lets keep using a not fit for purpose gate. Makes a lot of sense.

beauf

Maybe they should restore it back to this...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OrtX83l65wQ

I particularly like this one, with an "average speed" of 102mph.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6C5_WnF5l8U

Pinch Flat

Caranica wrote: »

Until recently I was seconded to an office just off O'Connell Street. Was surprised to get an "X is retiring email" which celebrated that while X lived in Meath they drove to the Phoenix Park every day and parked there and walked to work for many many years. Until then I didn't realise people did such things.

Could never understand this. A huge amount of free parking within walking distance of the city centre. No wonder it's chocablock in the morning with cars.

hotmail.com

Larbre34 wrote: »

Yeah it should be signal controlled like the NCR gate.

Then traffic will spill over into the Navan Rd creating a traffic bottleneck at the Halfway House roundabout.

They are better off keeping that gate closed permanently.

The Park was packed yesterday with walkers because of the good weather. It was quieter on the days mentioned here because the weather wasn't great, not because of parking.

beauf

They rebuilt the N3 with what is 3-4 lanes, then narrow it to one lane at Ashtown. Yeah I know bus lane etc.

As the stories above indicate, this traffic is coming from much further out than D15. Look at the queue into the N3/M50 in the mornings. Queues from the back roads from Lucan into Chapelizod. They further restricted traffic through Castleknock with the Lidl Junction.

beauf

Put tolls on all the gates. If you go in and out the same gate free. If you go in one gate and out the opposite a toll.

If you are in the park for longer than 5 hours on a weekday, toll.

Just clamp people parking for more than 4 hours on a weekday.

Use all the money to subsidise the attractions that lose money.

Of course, since you aren't allow change anything thats not possible.

horse7

That's not a great idea, I work in James hospital ,12 hour shifts,no parking available in the hospital,so I park the car and cycle from my car to the hospital.

beauf

I assume you'd get a pass.

...or an eBike...

(Joke)

Phil.x

Was at the zoo today and was asked by ticket inspector on arrival what mode of transport I used to get to the zoo today, she said it was for a survey.

beauf

Will they view the results out of context I wonder.

Maybe they are trying to see how sustainable removing cars for all amenities in the park? Would be.

horse7

Also suitable for parking,there is a huge parade ground in the park with helicopter parking ,it's very secure. Garda GHQ. Polo grounds is hardly ever used and only by a few let's.

horse7

Also suitable for parking,there is a huge parade ground in the park with helicopter parking ,it's very secure. Garda GHQ. Polo grounds is hardly ever used and only by a few elite.

daymobrew

bubblypop wrote: »

The car parks & Chesterfield ave are full at 9am weekday mornings. They need to limit the time for parking.
The only people parking on grass happens at the weekends when the park users increase

This is not true. The zoo car park does not open until 9:30am or later. The Pope's Cross car park is certainly not full at 9am if ever.

There used to be a lot of early parking between Wellington Monument and Parkgate Street but OPW changed that stretch to a cycle lane and this pretty much eliminated that.

[Deleted User]

daymobrew wrote: »

This is not true. The zoo car park does not open until 9:30am or later. The Pope's Cross car park is certainly not full at 9am if ever.

There used to be a lot of early parking between Wellington Monument and Parkgate Street but OPW changed that stretch to a cycle lane and this pretty much eliminated that.

How would the car park be full if its not open? The two car parks opposite are open early & full by 9am.
I said its a good thing that Chesterfield ave is now closed to parking considering it used to be full every day from early morn.

Hurrache

beauf wrote: »

They rebuilt the N3 with what is 3-4 lanes, then narrow it to one lane at Ashtown. Yeah I know bus lane etc.

As the stories above indicate, this traffic is coming from much further out than D15. Look at the queue into the N3/M50 in the mornings. Queues from the back roads from Lucan into Chapelizod. They further restricted traffic through Castleknock with the Lidl Junction.

The solution is not to make it easier to get traffic into the city from outside of the county boundary, it's to provide better alternatives.

There's a car park at the parkway train station, not sure how full it gets. But even if the trains are pretty full by then, they can run regular express buses into the city from there, there's a bus lane right into the city apart from a section at Cabra and into Stoneybatter.

beauf

When I used to cycle it the ave would have a few cars at Castleknock end then it would have cars from the Polo grounds to the zoo. Mostly on the zoo side as that's side going into town.

It's certainly isn't full the whole length as people like to exaggerate. I would generally be cycling between 9-9.30 so I seriously doubt there is rush of parking of commuters after that.

On my return after 6.30 there would still be about the same numbers of cars though not as clustered more evenly spread the length of the avenue and on a nice evenings lot more cars, and the foot traffic would have increased enormously.

Never had much of an issue with the cycle paths. But then I'm only going at a moderate pace not the high speed of the lycra brigade. Though I did upgrade my lights so I could see further at night. Specifically for the park. Especially on the parts that are unlit.

Even at that time in the morning you see a few people obviously heading to the zoo.

beauf

Hurrache wrote: »

The solution is not to make it easier to get traffic into the city from outside of the county boundary, it's to provide better alternatives.

There's a car park at the parkway train station, not sure how full it gets. But even if the trains are pretty full by then, they can run regular express buses into the city from there, there's a bus lane right into the city apart from a section at Cabra and into Stoneybatter.

I'm not promoting more cars and yes there's vastly more traffic than 30yrs ago. But during this time we've actually reduced the throughput of the roads that used to carry this traffic.

The train capacity has increased something like a factor of 3 in that time. Unfortunately the demand had increased by x10.

I've had an annual train pass for decades. Hardly used it last year and didn't renew it this year. It's miserable now so overcrowded. Also I was doing a lot secondary journeys on the way home from work which required a car. If you are going across the city it's a lot faster to drive than get public transport. (Cycling is the quickest). But this is why you won't get people to switch out of their car unless they are heavily penalised for it. For many there isn't a lot of alternatives.

I say that as someone with far too many bicycles in the shed. I can see me moving to an eBike in the future. I'm fed up with the train.

polesheep

beauf wrote: »

I don't see why they can't make the gates wider put a wide roundabout in.

Any signal controlled junction would make traffic worse. It makes it safer...but slower.

I don't see why they cannot cover the entire park with tarmac. That way everyone driving to visit the park will get a parking space.

beauf

polesheep wrote: »

I don't see why they cannot cover the entire park with tarmac. That way everyone driving to visit the park will get a parking space.

Obviously you don't want anything changed. So the hour long tailbacks, and dangerous junctions, and parking on the grass, destroying it, will remain.

Same extreme views with the children's hospital. Hence we now have that in the worst possible location and made it one of the most expensive hospital building projects in the world. 90% of people will travel to that in car. But there won't be any space for them either.

Same with the park. Remove all cars, when the majority of people use car to get to it. But thats fine. Limit access to those who use public transport and those that can walk or cycle to it.

iamwhoiam

Going to the Zoo tomorrow at 3:30
Are the gates open and where can we park ? We have a young child with us who can’t walk too far . Thank you for any help

beauf

Can't find any official info on whats open in terms of car parks. There is no parking on the main road anyway.
( some have said they are parking on the grass on the north road when using the parkk

). Not sure a visit to the zoo is worth the potential hassle at the moment.

[Deleted User]

iamwhoiam wrote: »

Going to the Zoo tomorrow at 3:30
Are the gates open and where can we park ? We have a young child with us who can’t walk too far . Thank you for any help

castleknock gate & parkgate st gate are open.
zoo carpark is open everyday, as are the other two carparks opposite.
no hassle at all

polesheep

beauf wrote: »

Obviously you don't want anything changed. So the hour long tailbacks, and dangerous junctions, and parking on the grass, destroying it, will remain.

Same extreme views with the children's hospital. Hence we now have that in the worst possible location and made it one of the most expensive hospital building projects in the world. 90% of people will travel to that in car. But there won't be any space for them either.

Same with the park. Remove all cars, when the majority of people use car to get to it. But thats fine. Limit access to those who use public transport and those that can walk or cycle to it.

Not true. I would like to see changes made that reduce the number of cars in the park. I say this as someone for whom not being able to drive through the park will become a PITA. It's a park not a carpark. I'm reminded of Dollymount beach where people turned the beach into a carpark and thereby removed the amenity of a beach. It defied logic.

horse7

It would be better to have more carparks there so people could enjoy the park. It's not 1660 any more, we have to move with the times.

polesheep

horse7 wrote: »

It would be better to have more carparks there so people could enjoy the park. It's not 1660 any more, we have to move with the times.

Surely you can see that more carparks in the park means less park?

beauf

polesheep wrote: »

Not true. I would like to see changes made that reduce the number of cars in the park. I say this as someone for whom not being able to drive through the park will become a PITA. It's a park not a carpark. I'm reminded of Dollymount beach where people turned the beach into a carpark and thereby removed the amenity of a beach. It defied logic.

Except AFAIK you can park on bull Island. On Causeway road. There's even a golf course on it. With parking.

https://www.google.ie/maps/@53.3697732,-6.1487581,3a,75y,320.41h,72.52t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sYk7ul1wTsYqNGn3pPaDsBg!2e0!7i16384!8i8192

https://www.google.ie/maps/@53.3750808,-6.1378664,3a,90y,342.82h,73.83t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sCVrPU-qH3UAkkOVhTCbOXA!2e0!7i16384!8i8192

Also it doesn't go anywhere so not a transport link 9 million car journeys.
Its doesn't have 10 million visitors. The Zoo alone is Irelands 3rd most popular Visitor attraction with 1.3 million.
Garda headquarters, Hospital and nursing homes. Etc.

Do people want to ban cars from Causeway road or the Golf course?

So exactly the same.

beauf

I think its worth a try. Block all cars for 6 months. Let us know how it works out.

horse7

polesheep wrote: »

Surely you can see that more carparks in the park means less park?

There's 1747 acres in the park ,I think we can afford a few for car parks and let more people enjoy it. Aras an Uachtarain had 160 acres for 2 people, you could park the whole country in it.