The government are currently investigating increased parking, congestion charges and speed limit reductions in order to help the country meet its climate goals. Looks like a split in the coalition is emerging over the proposals, which are likely to be deeply unpopular. Do you see anything of the proposed that could be considered politically palatable?
You mean the Garda chose not to police it
Isn't it interesting about Fairview that people chose the next best option and just ignored the restrictions, which seems to be working fine.
Galway seem to do everything possible to stop any progress on stopping car reliance though, hard to feel sorry for them. The ring road will only make even more people reliant on cars too whenever it gets built.
I agree with you on the "mansion in the middle of nowhere" - one off-housing is an almost insurmountable barrier when it comes to economical or anyway practical public transport for a huge proportion of our population, but repartitions (in the form of fuel taxes) for decades of awful planning policy is now being foisted on individuals who saw no other choice on where to raise their families.
I live just over 1km from Stephens Green. I have the Aircoach on my doorstep, a bus to the city center every 5 minutes, DublinBikes minutes away, private secure parking for my bikes, ability to charge my car on my doorstep or at a fast-charger 5 mins away. I pay dearly to live in a 1 bedroom apartment in the area, and like you I have very little sympathy for mansion dwellers who complain about no broadband or busses.
But, my job means that I need to work in a town 30 minutes from Galway. It has a population of 9,000, not huge but not tiny. After 10pm, no public transports exists from Galway, or to anywhere else for that matter. People who live in a large regional town, often in modest houses, who have done their level best to limit their car usage within the confines of their income (not being able to afford a house in Galway), are still forced into their car if they work shifts, go out with friends in the city, or dare to travel for any reason whatsoever outside of peak times. I think that's totally unreasonable, and there are plenty of people who fall into that category, who certainly aren't living in mansion.
And I know the retort will be that public transport to such towns isn't viable because so many people are driving, but put in the (loss making) public transport FIRST, and THEN raise taxes on private car usage.
you mean i dont suck you dry for it....... this is looking like a far better deal for me now :P
In anywho, prices for everything are really becoming a joke, one garage in my local town is 149.9 for petrol and the rest are 165.9. its going to be madness later on in the year when all the government schemes stop.
The issue is that introducing the penalties is orders of magnitude easier and cheaper that the investment of money and time required to build the alternatives which means we get more stick and far less carrot a lot sooner than we should if we are trying to be fair.
Building a new rail line or bus corridor takes years and tens of millions of euro , Quadrupling parking charges is completed overnight with the stroke of a pen.
So which choice will a politician make??
Packed to the gills off peak.
population is spiking out of control but get out of your cars, into a bus Q for a bus which you might not be able to get on.
Because punishing people for making the "wrong" choice is so much more satisfying than making the "right" choice more reasonable.
Ok but no one is being penalised yet and plans are in place to improve everything else, so don't worry about it for now
Every Bus and train is packed to the gills - Where exactly will all these drivers go when they stop driving?
You can't "make it harder to drive into Cities" without "making to easier not to".
No one is arguing with the basic premise of reducing car journeys and carbon emissions etc.
The argument is about the best way to do it - Penalising car drivers ahead of the provision of viable alternatives is not the right way to do it.
Most people don't have confidence in that. Your response also suggested that it was unreasonable to expect such a thing whilst citing an example from a city with a congestion charge.
"Like what do people expect ffs"
The choice is clear that we need to make it harder for people driving when they can take a 36 minute public transport journey
No, I’ve been all over Europe including living in Paris.
my journey to work…
7.5 kilometers - 26 minutes according to google maps, on foot and metro / RER
this journey for family member
5 kilometres approximately - 50 minutes
its not about inconveniencing car drivers , it’s about giving convenience to car drivers by having an appropriate, effective, connected, efficient and far reaching public transportation, ie. a metro..
That's true, for me to drive to the office it's 12mins, to get public transport it's 3 x times that... the choice is clear..
They will be when we make it much harder to drive into cities.
It has everything to do with congestion charges. Its one example, of many, where public transport is a total joke in Dublin, the same Dublin where they want to bring a congestion charge in.
People will not abandon cars until public transport is the stupidly convenient option.
People expect public transport journey times to be competitive with the alternative. Its not that unreasonable.
You made it inconvenient. Its a daft argument and nothing to do with congestion charge.
Exactly this. I'd be happy to use public transport if it wasn't both more expensive and less convenient than driving is. But trying to solve that just by making driving more expensive is daft.
That example is not a case of poor infrastructure. It deciding to live away from everything, and expecting the mountain to move to you.
It wasn't a cinema showing, it was a theatre production so not anywhere else to watch it.
LOL cmon, if I was going to the cinema I can walk to DL. I'm pointing out that the new bus connects program, that was allegedly brought in to change the "all roads lead to Dublin city" issue with more cross town routes that don't go into the city. The bus connects programme leads a lot to be desired.
I'm also aware it was my choice to do this, but it highlights how inconvenient it is.
It's deeply weird how people misunderstand the difference between 'reduce' and 'ban'.
'wanting to reduce unnecessary car journeys' and 'stopping people from using their cars' are not the same thing.
You decide to pick a cinema thats entirely out of your way. Bypassing who knows how many cinemas en-route.
Its 40+ mins on a circular route by train when its a 25 min cycle.
They will NEVER ever get people to use public transport as the defacto option if this is the alternative to a very short car ride.
I think you are proving the point they need to make your car more inconvenient before you switch.
Also there's unlikely ever to be a congestion charge between Blackrock and Dundrum on a Bank holiday or a problem with parking in a shopping center.
You're describing a pretty normal public transport journey there for any city though. Like I live about a 15 min cycle from Liverpool St Station but it would take about 45 mins to walk and get a bus there and sit in traffic. Like what do people expect ffs.
Exactly ^. Probably the worst public transport of any EU country yet according to O’Gorman and co. their only answer is that we….‘STOP USING CARS ‘…
I’ve spent time in 20 of the 27 EU member states and every other country pisses all over Ireland in terms of public transport… far better frequency, better options, further reaching, better connectivity, cleaner, more comfortable and more modern..
a family member needed to go to mass in Gardiner St this morning…examined public transport…
walk to bus stop : 12 minutes
wait for bus : 5 minutes
bus journey : 33 minutes
Car : 12 minutes
thats according to google maps.
50 minutes vs I’d say 15, including securing parking, 12 sounds a tad ambitious… O’Gorman and co. simply are not living in the real world and are not listening to citizens …
they want people out of cars, taxing them, charging them…. You need to have proper, efficient, far reaching and integrated public transport systems… BEFORE you make demands..
Wow so that’s where we are now? Poor infrastructure isn’t the governments fault, no no, it’s your fault for where you live.
Does that boot taste nice?
One of the things I find frustrating (conceptually! It doesn't affect me practically) is this business of sports clubs basing themselves well out of easy reach, or being in easy reach, thus on valuable land and being bought out by developers. E.g. fingallians near portmarnock, which didn't have a footpath to it till recently. Coolmine rugby club, which would be suicidal to walk to and when originally built had no one living nearby. Etc. Just ironic that so many people had to drive to a place of physical activity.
The same people you said would have the works in fairview shut down by the end of last September? Looooool never gets old.
Also it's FFFGs fault for our awful public transport for ignoring it for 100 years in power.
You're 20k out side the city. You moved there knowing the transport links.
You moved to a place that needs a car to get everywhere, then complain about you need car.
That's on you.
I found myself trying to forgo the car on a the Sunday of our last Bank Holiday to go to a matinee Theatre showing in Dundrum. I live in Blackrock, a 15 minute car journey.
I took the dart into town (20 minutes) and a luas to Dundrum (20 + ish minutes). The bus service by the way between both these villages is literally non existent.
On the way home a luas pulled up which looked like a Tokyo bullet train, everyone left stranded on the platform, over 10 minutes to the next one which would no doubt be just as bad given everyone had to get on the next luas.
Took a punt and decided to go in search of a bus, 20 minutes to next bus down the ways in the village, got off on the N11 and just gave up and got a taxi home. The whole thing was just a joke. They will NEVER ever get people to use public transport as the defacto option if this is the alternative to a very short car ride.
As for rural Ireland? where do you even begin. This Country continually fluffs such basics, its an embarrassment.
![Photo of [Deleted User]](https://w9.vanillicon.com/v2/925678a10b2fdb0546d802550390a10f.svg)