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?
Michael McDowell has stuck in his oar in what comes across as a somewhat ill-informed moan…
Elsewhere in the IT, Bernice Harrison has a podcast on why the plan has stalled…
I'm getting the feeling public opinion is quite firmly in favour of the plan and professional town planners have designed the scheme but an unelected CEO with no qualifications and has cozy meetings with private sector CEOs will decide. Bonkers system, needs tearing down.
the mistake was presenting it as some big overarching plan. They should have just done one junction and street at a time; "this left turn is now banned to improve bus priority - here's the alternative route".
But it's not a massive curtailment as it is. However, any closure to drivers means that much of the quays becomes more hassle to drive hence the opposition
while im in favour of speeding up bus journey times…..they should still allow access for ppl to traverse the city, yes, in their cars - i dont use one for commuting. An underground metro type circular city loop was spoken about yrs ago, never happened. this would of been a great idea. But you have to give these ppl who traverse the city an option ? Look at the m50, there was supposed to be an alternate route for ppl who didnt want to cross the city and have to pay - that never happened either, so in effect they'll cut the city off to all private cars with no alternate.
i traverse across the city by motorbike / scooter most days , via M50 which is almost at a standstill peak times for 3/4 hrs on average morning / evening , and the other half of the time I go through the city centre mornings / evenings. i myself still wish to commute through the city , and i should be "allowed" to do so like others.
Dublin is a small city, and what works in some european cities doesnt work here. And while you have clever ppl elsewhere, we dont here. Our public transport is a shambles. it would take me 3.5 hrs to get to work by buses each way, as opposed to using the bikes in 40 mins or so. even for me to get to the city centre on the weekend by bus, it takes around 40 mins for a few kms journey on a bus - having to endure fvcktards on speaker phone etc. If i had a 45 min or so metro link from north-south and vice versa i would use it some days. but that will never happen, and im quite a ways from either luas unfortunately, where i live and work.
some clown commented to me a while ago on another thread about me moving from where i chose to buy and live, go closer to work to use public transport, its this idiosy and thwarted mindset thats selfish and spiteful towards ppl who are not close to the city and live in the suburbs or quite far from their place of work - which isnt in some lunatic utopian pedaling / cycling orbit ;-/
Dublin city centre is effectively being cut in half slowly and cut off to ppl ? sensationalism, i think not.
Nobody is being prevented from crossing the city.
if thats the case this is good. BUT, do you not think it will extend to all of the bridges etc, all parts of the quays ? Its not a totally bonkers observation, given the way some ppl are talking about it.
No, it doesn't. The plan is very specific, very limited and very targetted.
https://www.newstalk.com/news/dcc-chief-denies-watering-down-dublin-transport-plan-we-listened-1743572
so he pretty much is going ahead with the changes then, so that blue badge holders can get to certain sections of the quays. what a load of bollocks, using disabled people as an excuse.
can we never have pedestrianised areas again now because some disabled people wont be able to drive down those streets? why are they more important than the rest of us? does this mean college green plans are cancelled?
So he's made his decision then in spite of everything? Defund this sh1tshow immediately. He did not consult disability groups by the way. Dublin cycling campaign rang around and found out they weren't consulted, so it's just what the car parks want basically.
It really doesn't sound like there's much chance of the plan being implemented as originally intended, based on his comments this morning. Very frustrating. It's always the same with Dublin City Council. I don't see how he can deny it's been watered down before listing all the ways he has done just that.
From what I can gather, the primary disability group they have consulted is VVI - Voice of Vision Impairment. At this stage I think these people are a front as they are campaigning to have blue badge holders be allowed drive up Grafton Street.
It is farcical. There isn't even any parking along that section so what good does being able to drive along it do for any blue badge holder!?
Are blind people legally allowed drive without headlights at night?
Yes it is.
He doesn't really have to justify anything to anyone.
Its an executive function and subject only to consultation with the traffic authority, aka An Garda Síochána.
But without enforcement, most people will just shrug and ignore it anyway, as the daft and pointless tinkering that it is.
The visually impaired want to drive up Bachelors Walk? It's clearly a front for car parks. So much corruption it's exhausting.
Last I checked this was still a democracy so yes he does have to explain it to the public.
He's talking about the logistical scale of it. You can't really break the project up that much because there's not much physically there to break up.
Has anyone done more damage to public transport in Dublin in recent years than Michael bloody McDowell?
The lack of shame required to be wrong about every single public transport related concept in history and just continue on the same track is something I genuinely can't even fathom.
I often find that when people write "The latest plan should have been the subject of a much wider consultation process" they actually mean "I hadn't heard about this plan, but it's a no from me". But of course this is just "pro-ban rhetoric".
It is interesting to see an article in the Indo's Commercial Property section praising the Dublin Transportation Plan and how it will improve the city centre overall including from a public safety perspective...
https://m.independent.ie/business/commercial-property/paul-mcneive-i-was-wrong-and-the-greens-were-right-about-getting-cars-off-streets/a705030187.html
I think the public opinion is fairly concrete in favour of the plan. So when the watered down version happens we can probably see to some protest days to block cars off at Jervis st/ormond Quay until the proper plan is implemented.
That's how SWS got a small stretch of pedestrianisation.
Just for a bit of historical perspective from 15 years ago:
https://www.independent.ie/regionals/herald/suspend-bus-gate-its-bad-for-business/27925548.html
Back in 2009..... I'd say the global financial crisis had something to do with the downturn in trade, but yeah blame it on buses. Good grief
And would they seriously suggest letting private cars back into College Green now?
The ever visionary Business Lobby Groups need protecting from themselves.
What you're actually asking for is a time machine...
Public transport isn't ideal. But we've come a long way. Giving back capacity (priority) to private transport is trying to turn back the clock. The solution to traffic can never be more traffic.
Shakespeare is not coming out of this looking good and is a worry for the future. Keegan I think would have stuck by the decision.
Yeap, there's no going back to having a free reign for cars through the city centre, I'm not sure if many of the objectors are old enough to remember traffic congestion in the 1980's and the thick smell of lead petrol and diesel fumes in the air that would choke you.
