Five Cities Demand Management Report (Congestion Charges, 15-min city, parking charge increases etc)

How about ban all cars altogether?

Otherwise it's just a charter for the rich to be permitted to drive around a city.

If retail is under pressure, the solution is lower rents, not to scrap plans to reduce car use.

Retail rents in Galway city are too high, they exceed Leeds/Manchester/Edinburgh/ and London (City)

That's utter tosh.

Actually BusConnects was changed from a fundamentally flawed initial plan, the design of which was framed by ludicrously idealistic parameters set by the NTA, to one that actually should represent an improved bus service in the second and final drafts. It also focussed far too much on new passengers, to the detriment of the people who already used the bus service.

The NTA wanted to significantly reduce the number of buses coming into the city centre, and force people to change to LUAS or DART with many existing direct services switching to become feeder services into rail or LUAS. The problem with that was that the rail and LUAS were already jammed to capacity. That was never going to work.

The first plan also cancelled many direct routes to/from the city and replaced them with infrequent connections at the outer sections. This meant there was the potential for waits of up to 30 or 60 minutes if the bus coming from the city ran late and missed the scheduled connection. Again, that wasn't acceptable.

The NTA also failed to understand the importance of the bus service within local communities, particularly in what would traditionally have been council estates, many of which have a large older population, and force people to walk out onto the main roads, and that fundamentally got people's backs up. That was political suicide.

In my own case, the area I live in would have lost one high frequency citybound route along with an orbital route, and certain direct connections would have been replaced by the need to take two buses and excessively large detours.

It was idealism gone mad frankly.

The final plan includes the two key principles of the concept, namely:

• Key corridors being served by Spine routes with integrated timetables along the spines
• A large increase in orbital and local routes to facilitate new journeys and potentially reduce cross-city centre transit

But it also put in place radial routes where needed to maintain connectivity, and recognised the importance of community bus services serving housing estates (which could run at a reduced frequency) and linking them with hospitals and relevant public services.

The changes certainly were not based on misguided nonsense, but rather balancing the needs of existing passengers, and also attracting new ones by providing a large number of new routes.

I see Eamon Ryan on his way into his party conference in a Lansdowne Road phonebox, shyting out of him about lunatic fantasy solutions for the haulage and logistics sector.

Little or none of what is being considered at the moment seems to address the realistic needs of society. They'll sleepwalk the Shinners into power at this rate due to the sheer incredulousness of the electorate.

The soon eamon Walter mitty ryan & Co. are out the better.

How do they expect people to travel to & from work?

Not everyone lives in an urban environment with adequate public transport but

does the country have the necessary funds to pay for both buses & drivers?

In the current pandemic is it sensible to overcrowd the public transport system?

I agree though that something needs to be done but penalizing a driver because they

have to drive to work is a little insane!

Not everyone lives in an urban area, hence why its called the 5 cities report, not the rural areas report.

I do for instance. No WFH at my workplace following the cyberattack.

Driving to the work carpark takes 35 minutes and a 15 minute walk to the office.

Public transport I would have to drive 10 minutes to (live in the country), train then takes wait time (5 mins) plus 25 minutes, then a bus which takes a further 25 minutes, plus wait time.

Thats about 70 minutes overall assuming everything runs properly which it NEVER does here. Bring in the necessity of staying late often enough, and poor public transport in the evenings and there is no way it is feasible to do anything other than drive.

There are no cycle lanes at leaving where I live, and nor will there be without a €100 million road/cycleway/pedestrian project that simply is not going to happen anytime soon.

But thats the trouble. Going in, it adds 20 minutes to my trip. Coming home, could be anywhere from 20 - 30 minutes, depending on timing. Thats a full hour out of my day and when I work 8 - 6 anyway, every minute counts and I have elderly parents to look after in the evening so driving will still be the preferable option, by a long way. Especially when I COULD WFH, but IT won't allow it.

I can't cycle following an accident years ago, and would you really want to cycle along here? As part of your 30km cycle to work? - https://goo.gl/maps/WLXf2qfMuTmgMjqD6

Proper/better alternatives need to be put in place before, or at the same time, as any of this. I understand everyone will have their own excuse, but they really need to make improvements to public transport. In the case of Cork for instance, have much, much, MUCH better links from Kent station to the rest of town. And build the Cork Luas like, now. Not in 20 or 30 years. Fast track the planning, get it opened in 5 years, or at least an ambitious timescale.

Most of the particulates from diesels come from trucks and buses. Cars tend to be Euro 6 compliant and have catalytic converters as standard.Petrol cars still emit toxic particles. Congestion zone charges favour the rich, as has been amply proved in London, as they couldnt care less about congestion charges.Ordinary punters are stung by congestion charges, as they are simply another tax. Anyone who lives in rural towns or outside cities are utterly dependent on their cars and cannot afford EVs and the charging system is pathetic.