I read the following article this morning. "From August, bus gates will be in operation on Bachelors Walk and Aston Quay in order to restrict drivers from travelling through the city centre."
https://www.breakingnews.ie/ireland/major-changes-to-dublin-city-traffic-to-come-into-effect-in-august-1610937.html
The quays have always been a pain in the a$$ to use, no matter the time of day… So, how will this effect people?
This is just politics .. it's telling that it's not a senior minister making the statements and the request (because they know it's going to be rejected).. also telling that Eamonn Ryan has already called it as nonsense.. This allows Emer Higgins to raise her profile, and go back to the business groups and say "at least I tried, sorry".
this is the doing of the council, which only has a few green councillors out of 63 or something. how is it eamon ryan's thing?
Problem is the media are running articles with headlines like this so the likes of Higgins can appear to be populist in opposing bus gates;
https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/eamon-ryan-says-plan-to-ban-cars-from-dublin-city-centre-should-go-ahead-despite-fears-for-retail/a505440392.html
Poor communication and poor planning, this is not going to work. The M50 is already a car park so how is traffic as in cars supposed to traverse the city. I live north Dublin and work in South Dublin. Public transport is poor, bus and Dart. So I use the car maybe 3 days a week, 2 days public transport.
150+ posts in and people still aren't getting that cars are not being stopped. It is a slight detour that will add on a bit of time for a car user and hopefully speed up buses. It's not the greens, they don't have the power or ability to push something like this through. It is DCC and rightly so because it will benefit a lot of people while inconveniencing a small number. And it is only inconveniencing.
I'd say Emer Higgins isn't doing this on her initiative. FG Hq throwing her out to keep in with a cohort of the voting public. Self preservation.
Exactly how much communication and planning do you want? This went to a public consultation. The pans have been around for a few years now. There have been a number of votes in relation to this by the DCC councillors. It hasn't been kept hidden from the public at any point. The main problem is that many didn't bother participating in the public consultation (in some cases they were directly asked) and now are annoyed that their voice wasn't heard!
This is a measure voted on by Dublin City Councillors, where the Greens did and do not hold a majority.
There was cross-party support for it.
Dublin city council have been talking about a number of core city centre bus gates for the past 25+ years and due to various objections it's been that slow to get them actually made.
Though I do agree with the likes of Michael O'Leary that an additional outer ring road needs to be built outside the M50 ring to take traffic by-passing Dublin off the M50.
If the M50 is blocked due to all too common collisions then people have little choice in some cases to go through the city centre, which will mean gridlock on a regular basis.
Do we have any idea what the bus gates will look like at this stage? It's only a few weeks to go so surely there's at least a basic design and a planned diversion route? It's actually one of the more exciting things to happen in terns of transport for many years. It'll be so much easier to get around. I presume there'll also be some sort of public realm project to follow on, to make the area a bit more people friendly.
There are drawings of the public realm plans in the transport plan itself, page 24 onwards:
I have sent Ms Higgins an email outlining that her views are not shared by me. Hopefully this is just another ill thought out idea from this one.
I don't think anyone seriously believes that the M50 is congested because of inter-city traffic bypassing Dublin. The cost of building a motorway like that, which would need to be very far from Dublin to avoid it becoming another city ring road, would be astronomical. So you'd simultaneously be spending a fortune to serve a very small number of people, not fixing the problems with the M50 and deny public transport billions in investment that might actually do something.
It's absolutely never going to happen, it's fantasy land stuff.
We don't need more roads, we need better public transport.
The Eastern bypass would actually do wonders for the M50 but it'll never happen. I know I'm contradicting myself.
how much traffic on the M50 is actually bypassing dublin? do we even know?
but how does the change affect you, or anyone who would otherwise use the M50 to get around the city? you're not going to traverse the city by going via bachelor's walk.
No there's a definite need for an additional ring road around the M50, ideally crossing off the M1 from Swords and linking the M2/3/4 N7… Take some of the load off the M50 and therefore out of the smaller roads towards the city centre opening up those roads for faster PT travel times.
I know. I’m just grumpy.
The population of the greater Dublin area outside the M50 ring road is growing, not everyone can afford to live in the city and are being pushed out further into Kildare, Meath, Wicklow/Wexford….I guess we can just ignore them eh?
Try getting to work from Ashbourne to Sandyford on a bus/train/tram every day and tell me how long it takes you?
The cost of daily congestion, road crashes, and additional pollution are also astronomical every year on the M50 ring road. And like I said if there's a collision then many vehicles are pushed into the smaller city roads to get around it.
People complained about all the city traffic in the late 1960's, so 30 years later the M50 was built to take out the cross city traffic so I'm sure people said the same thing "Uhh a ring road motorway.. never gonna happen..!"
How far north and how far south? Would it be doable on a bicycle?
I live in North Dublin myself and cycle over to the office 9km away on the southside every day. Couldn't imagine sitting in that traffic, in my car or on the bus. You're sitting on the quays for an eternity.
DCC are pressing ahead but are proposing pruning the measures back somewhat.
https://www.thejournal.ie/changes-dublin-city-centre-transport-plan-6423948-Jul2024/?utm_source=shortlink
One assumes councillors can say no tonight to this pruning back of course.
So the plan is cancelled basically?
Just about like any other far-reaching plan on transport. Professional moaners stick their oar in and the whole thing gets fudged.
One wonders if the accessibility concerns raised by DPOs were from the same organisations that wanted blue badge holders to be able to drive up Grafton Street 🙄
It was sort of predictable in fairness. I didn't see it happening tbh.
Well that's that so.
To even things up now, I think serious consideration should be given to only allowing Dublin Bus/Go ahead to stop on Bachelor's Walk. All other buses to Eden Quay. The footpath on Bachelor's Walk is often impassible on foot with all the alighting and boarding commuter passengers at so many bus stops together with all kinds of tour/long distance buses dropping people off and unloading their cases on the pavement. It's crazy.
I also think pedestrians are the forgotten people. Far more people walk around the city than drive or cycle I'd guess. The pedestrian lights are not in their favour either with a green man - and two seconds later it goes orange, and no one has a clue how long orange lasts. They could have a countdown timer at the pedestrian lights so walkers can see how long they have to cross. It's not rocket science.
I wonder if the tweaking by council officials will succeed. Probably, unless the Councillors vote to keep the original plan. We'll see.
Well they've just gone and made things actually worse. Good GOD!!!!!!
Reintroducing a private vehicle right turn from OC Bridge to Eden Quay - are they for real??? Do people remember buses struggling to cross the Luas tracks onto OC Bridge? It lead to buses backing up right down Westmoreland towards College Green and frequently blocked the Luas.
Wait for cars to block up each area marked in yellow, bringing traffic from EVERY direction to a standstill.
Is that a definite decision? Who made that decision and what professional background have they got in town and transport planning?
Complete disaster if that goes ahead.
That right turn is confusing me. Does it not also say that private cars cannot use that stretch of the south quays? So they can turn right but not proceed.
