In Dublin this will affect civil and public servants the most, which is why it hasn't been implemented. It's a great idea though......
There's no reasoning with the likes of you, too concerned with your own convenience to give two flips about the environment, the damage large scale motor transport does to peoples health, the cost of providing free vehicle storage to all citizens etc.
Failing to see the wood for the trees here, so long as the state keeps providing for free, plentiful and convenient access to beaches, parks and city centres then it causes sustainable modes of transport to become much less safe and attractive to many people who don't want to cause congestion and damage the environment..
If this is what relaxing in nature and enjoying the "fresh air" looks like to you then there's no hope really! (No doubt you will blame the cycle lane on this!)
Some on this thread have moved so they are not near anything and are waiting for PT to pass their door. Good luck with that.
Ironically they don't want the locals in there. OPW do their best to block the locals driving. A bit of money and every car on the planet is welcome.
I must remember these posts any time a thread comes up from people coming up from the country asking about things to do and visit in Dublin.
Don't visit Bloom, or the Phoenix Park, clogging up the roads and inconveniencing the locals.
Anyway, you don't need to sign up for the anti-car brigade. Your attitude declares you as a flag waving member of same. Best ignored.
OPW seem to have no problem signing over the land for car parking..
Come for the "Fresh air" and natural beauty.. if you can find any...
sure bloom is coming up, where far more of the park is cordoned off (for a few weeks, AFAIK) for car parking than it is for the actual exhibition space.
No one got frustrated here (apart from you) and I don't recall ever signing up for the "Anti-Car brigade"..
If you can afford the car and the fuel you can afford to pay a few Euro for parking...
If a small parking charge encourages more people to travel by more sustainable means then why the delay in doing it...
No one wants to see the Phoenix Park looking like this on a sunny bank holiday weekend:
Yes, silly me for buying a house 26 years ago. And for not selling and moving every time I moved office, which must have been at least 5 times over those years.
Really, this is one of the most stupid arguments on the thread.
@randd1 - see what I mean? Its all your fault for not planning your life around public transport.
It shows how selfish the car brigade are, they expect to get preferential treatment over everyone and to everyone else detriment. because they planned their location poorly.
Well this is what drive everywhere leads to. Housing everywhere and concrete over everything.
The nearest park to my house is over 6km away.
this is worth highlighting; if you live in an urban setting, 6km to the nearest park is appalling. this topic came up during lockdown, about having access to outdoor space.
Thanks for showing the arrogant attitude of the anti-car brigade, who just assume that accessing local amenities is or easy or convenient for everyone.
You only see one side of the argument. "Car bad". And when you have no counter argument to plain facts put in front of your face, you get frustrated.
Now I guess families who want to take their kids to the park for the afternoon, will also have to consider if its affordable.
No one said people can't go to the park but at the same time expect to pay for storing your vehicle on park lands while you go for your walk in the "Fresh" air....
Deleted post.
Actually, I was responding to another poster who brought up the Phoenix Park. I did not introduce the subject of the Phoenix Park to the thread.
As for getting a bus, Luas, cycle, walk - you're making the mistake of assuming these options are easily available to everyone.
The nearest park to my house is over 6km away. The Phoenix Park, is over 11km. (2 hrs 25 mins would be a bit of a walk, alright.)
Public Transport is inconvenient, involves changes from bus to luas, and takes nearly 5 times as long to get there as my car.
As for
"Stop clogging up local roads where people live and work..."
The arrogance of this ^^ is simply off the charts. Why shouldn't I go to the Phoenix Park for the afternoon if I want to? It's a national amenity.
The drive everywhere brigade already brought parks up previously. How will I get to a forest unless they build me a railway.
Well you specifically brought up the Phoenix park so I addressed that..
Parking at a public amenity has to be paid for somehow, the roads maintenance, the paint on the road, the signs etc. all has to come from somewhere, i.e. general taxation so even a non-car owner has to pay to provide things like this, so a usage charge makes much more sense..
If you don't live beside the park, get a bus, the Luas, cycle, walk! Or just go to your local park and save on your cars pollution/carbon footprint and stop clogging up local roads where people live and work....
Parking at work is different and the costs are covered by the employers.
People should be free to live in the middle of nowhere miles from anywhere and have a train outside their door. They are entitled to it.
People work in the Phoenix park.
Lot of people use it as park and ride commuting in their car, and leaving it in the park all day.
Well you'll soon have more parking and a multistory in the Phoenix. Happy days. You'll just have to pay for it.
But don't you get it @randd1 !
Those who would like to see you charged for parking at work, (or anywhere else) consider that it's your own fault for choosing to live where you do!
You were supposed to have the foresight to arrange your life around public transport links, not your kids!
And now they'll also want you to pay to park your car at the public amenities you mention too.
Timely reminder that this thread is supposed to be about ending free workplace parking.
Introducing parking fees at the Phoenix Park (or any other public amenity) has nothing to do with reducing the numbers who commute to work by car.
And once they get away with it in one park or public amenity, they'll do it in the rest.
What is actually ironic, is adults, and in particular parents, are constantly told they must get their kids outside, get them away from screens 0- but drive them to the park for the afternoon (because you don't live conveniently right beside it) and you'll get nailed for a parking charge.
I swear whomever dreams these plans up are intent on cutting off their noses to spite their own faces with this kind of stupidity.
I'm a civil servant. I have flexi, which means I have to be in work at 10:00 at the latest, which is a god send the truth, I'm blessed to have it. Myself and herself work it between us dropping the kids to creche and school (their grandmother collects them after school, luckily for us). We live out the country.
The nearest bus stop to me is 3 miles away. The earliest bus I can get that goes near my work is at 9:50 and it drops off at around 10:15 at the main bus station, which is 2.5 miles away. There's a cross town bus there, but that's another 20 minutes. So using the bus to get to work is out of the question.
The kids school is about 4 miles away in the opposite direction from the bus stop. No bus route, or public transport. There's one bus in the school, it comes from the other side of the school from us, and it's organised between the parents themselves with a lad who's a semi-retired bus driver in his 60's.
To shorten it, there's simply no public transport near us that is of any use to us, or simply none at all. Our cars are an absolute necessity to bring the kids to school, and to get to work.
I have free parking at work. Banning free parking for people when the free parking is already there is beyond **** stupid. It makes no sense, as that free parking means there's cars not taking up other car park spaces, and thus easing congestion. Even if it was changed to €2/€3 a day, such as it is in the nearest pay for the day car-park, that's fine, I'll pay that if I have to, but banning parking (free nor not) in places that can be used for parking is simply out-of-touch madness.
The reason Irish people use cars so much compared to other countries is because instead of building up in our towns and cities we build out so we have further to travel, and our public transport options are, outside the cities, pretty much useless to the population. They can barely function properly for the cities either, but at least they have them.
So either put public transport that does by schools and links towns and villages, at times that give them opportunity to go to work or drop kids to school, or stop lecturing about (and more importantly stop punishing) people for needing to use their cars.
One last thing. Being out the country, we have some incredible public facilities. There's a wood near us that has about 15 different walks in that go for miles, but that's about 2 miles away. There's 2/3 playgrounds near us, the closest is 4 miles away. There's a few rivers to walk along the closest 2 miles away. The beach is half an hour away by car. We do these things as much as we can, or things like them, the kids love doing them. But without the car, we wouldn't be able to do them. That's not mention the sports they're involved in. But again, no public transport.
It's not always about work/school, as while they're necessities, they're not the only things in life that matter. I often think that the people who are part of the anti-car brigade seem to completely ignore that aspect of what driving a car can give to people.
Jeeze Loueze!! Going to the park to get "Fresh air" when the Phoenix park is more like a Car park on a sunny weekend, my god! The Irony!
Introducing parking charges for people to visit "public amenities" is nothing to do with commuting.
It's just blatant gouging of motorists again.
Want to take your kids to the park for the afternoon? Get some fresh air?
€10 parking, please.
This is where those low occupancy for cars stats are misleading. Those 70 cars with one person on each car aren't travelling on their own. They are all together, just in different cars.
It's also the beauty of those massive traffic jams in the phoenix park. People get to see the natural beauty of congestion in a natural setting.
So popular in fact they are going to make you pay to see it...
The multi story car park will be a nice addition.
The anti-car lobby don't like realism.
Things like actual journey times, or having a busy schedule that involves getting more than just yourself from one place to another.
It messes with their neatly packaged lofty ideals.
It's true that banning free workplace parking is too focused on commuters. They should make it all parking paid like Liffey Valleys do and Hospitals. It's a fantastic revenue earner. Use it to build roads through forests.
The solution to poor planning activities too close together is obviously higher speed limits so you can drive flat out between every car park and leaving the car running at the football pitch. So they can breath in that car goodness. Air quality being improved with increased congestion.
I've lived a non-car owning urban lifestyle for the last 15 years.
It's a lot less stressful, and cheaper. There are things I simply cannot get so, so I don't even try. No time spent looking for parking, getting fuel or NCTs, services. No insurance, parking, maintenance or capital costs.
But it has costs. There are jobs I just couldn't get to. Social events I'm not invited to: people assume I can't get there (they're wrong, with planning, it's usually cheap enough to hire a car for a day). Potential friendships have died due to the look of incredulity/scorn when I say I catch the bus. Visiting nice parks / walks / beaches has to be booked in advance: no chance to be spontaneous when the weather is nice. I budget for some taxis (extra wet / wild days, or if I need to work on-site at night).
I've weighted this up, and with my location, age, family and lifestyle car-free is better. But I'm very much a minority - and it has some real personal costs. Visiting parks / forests for a casual stroll is what I miss the most.
Having to pay for parking at work would not be enough to alter the equation for many.
A departmental spokesperson said there are no hard criteria on how each department should decide on the rules, or a hard date by which the measures must be implemented, but added it will be decided by "green teams" in each department who are responsible for complying with the overall Climate Action Plan.
So, no criteria, no date, and it will be decided by each dept how to implement it.
Good thing I'm on my dept's green team. 😁
In fairness, about half of the measures I suggested are carrot or have a large carrot component.
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