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?
The Climate and Health Alliance have written to Mr Shakespeare of their opposition to any move away from the Dublin Transportation Plan…
Their membership includes:
Are they advocating for the implementation of the original scheme or the revised proposals to accommodate blue badge holders? I feel the latter proposal is a given at this stage.
A lot of people seem to be missing a fundamental point here and it comes down to planning over decades but in particular the last 20 years.
What have they done in the last decade to the city center?
They've stuffed in as much social housing, addiction centers and homeless hostels as they can in to the area particularly D1. The results everyone sees everyday.
This has a serious impact on the very businesses complaining most about this (particularly more upmarket) because what they will correctly say is that a lot of their customers are never going to use public transport.
Not only have they ghettoised the city center with drug abuse, begging and anti-social behaviour which businesses endure daily - they now want to take away their customers.
If you take away cars it leaves these businesses hopelessly reliant on a small catchment population where income can't support them by design of planning.
The problems are unfortunately very fundamental.
This traffic plan is just another victim of the appalling neglect of the city center and that is why it can not go ahead.
If they treated the city center with respect and stopped making it the dumping ground for all social ills this could go ahead no problem.
That's not where Dublin City Center is. Everyone knows it.
I don't go into the city centre because of accessibility issues. It takes too long in a car and it takes too long in a bus. The only solution I can see is that cars are restricted from going through the city centre and people like me can regain the city centre on public transport.
This is an insane rambling post, and truly insane thought processes to create it. It's so insane I can't even constructively respond to it, because there's nothing sensible in it to attach a point to.
It's all true and ideologues will never engage with fact so your response is absolutely no surprise.
The concerns of these businesses is entirely justified.
This is hilariously and hysterically wrong on so many levels.
They're trying to take away cars transiting the city whose occupants aren't spending diddly on anything. And neither the majority of shoppers or the majority of retail spend are drivers.
The concerns of these "businesses" are mostly related to their car parks. The project is supported by far more actual city centre businesses.
Assistant professor doesn't think the new "analysis" is too great.
"If this analysis were submitted as an undergraduate dissertation to the university I teach in, I would fail it. It shouldn’t have any role in informing the debate around the Dublin City Transport Plan."
No, the concerns are not justified.
If they were their "expert" report wouldn't be full of holes and your post wouldn't be so non-factual.
Sustainable transport already accounts for the majority of shoppers and the plan targets through traffic while still allowing access to the car parks. So, nobody is talking car users or the majority of customers away
Furthermore it's daft to suggest the city centre or even D1 is just social housing. In the city centre overall the problem is the opposite of that you claim -- too much of the new housing is at the higher end and unfordable to most.
Gotta love this plan!!
Edit: how do you embed a tweet?!!..
https://x.com/aaroadwash/status/1811858842764075133?s=19
This is a very important point. There are many people in this position, and it is why business would benefit if the bus gate is introduced.
"the analysis assumes that 65% of all traffic – car, bike and public transport – that crosses the canal between the hours of 7am and 10am does so primarily for the purposes of retail shopping."
Is that accurate? It's so comical I have trouble believing they'd have submitted something so insane.
Jeeze you know it's bad when the AA, literally the motoring lobby, is satirising the car parks
That's not the AA you think it is...
Ahhhh I just seen the account
Have a look again. Aaroadwash
And who elected them do anything? Bunch of wasters.
Nobody elected Shakespeare either, yes, but he has the keys to the City, and he is there to protect the economic fortunes of the City Council area, nothing else.
Can I ask who exactly you are calling a waster?
Shakespeare's role does not include "protecting the economic fortunes of the city" and if it did he'd have to put the traffic plan in place which is in Dublin's economic interests. The only benefactors of not implementing it are crooked car park owners.
Please don't engage with Walter Mitty, it dirties the thread.
Another reason to justify plan going ahead. Also think how much quicker it would be for emergency services responding with less traffic.
In fairness to Dublin Bus CEO he's vocal in support. Needs more voices - NTA, Luas operator, HSE
https://www.rte.ie/news/health/2024/0716/1460075-pollution-mental-health/
I saw from a tweet by Dublin Commuters that Mannix Flynn has decided to follow the report being peddled by the car park owners and is now threatening to sue to the council to avoid job losses, etc.
In a stark warning about the plan’s impact on employment in the city centre, the report said: ‘Many of those at work in the retail sector in the city centre are on comparably low wages and may struggle to find new work if they were to lose their jobs as a result of the Draft Plan.’Mannix Flynn told the MoS: ‘The first time we have had any definitive economic modelling on the fiscal consequences of this is via the Dublin City Traders report. It is, to put it mildly, a disturbing gap. The city is being shut down to suit 300 cycling glampers.’‘It is another confirmation the Green Party are unfit to govern. They have hollowed out the centre and turned it into a cyclists’ desert, which even fire brigades and ambulances struggle to negotiate.’‘This will be a key general election issue. This is part of a process that is destroying city centres. This is not just happening in Dublin; it’s happening in Cork and in Limerick.’Mr Flynn said of the report’s findings: ‘The document is very clear. Thousands of jobs will be gone. The only thing left in the centre of Dublin is the seagulls.’
In a stark warning about the plan’s impact on employment in the city centre, the report said: ‘Many of those at work in the retail sector in the city centre are on comparably low wages and may struggle to find new work if they were to lose their jobs as a result of the Draft Plan.’
Mannix Flynn told the MoS: ‘The first time we have had any definitive economic modelling on the fiscal consequences of this is via the Dublin City Traders report. It is, to put it mildly, a disturbing gap. The city is being shut down to suit 300 cycling glampers.’
‘It is another confirmation the Green Party are unfit to govern. They have hollowed out the centre and turned it into a cyclists’ desert, which even fire brigades and ambulances struggle to negotiate.’
‘This will be a key general election issue. This is part of a process that is destroying city centres. This is not just happening in Dublin; it’s happening in Cork and in Limerick.’
Mr Flynn said of the report’s findings: ‘The document is very clear. Thousands of jobs will be gone. The only thing left in the centre of Dublin is the seagulls.’
One reply to the tweet made the point that whilst he rants on about cyclists and cycle lanes, Flynn doesn't mention the benefits for public transport users who this proposal is really aimed at but then again, we shouldn't be surprised given that we're talking about Flynn here!
Who votes for him and why?
I'm glad to hear Mannix Flynn is in support of it. Now everyone knows that the report is bullsh*t without reading it if it's got his backing!
Yay! Bus gates starting August 25th. 7am to 7pm unfortunately, but it's a MASSIVE first step. Great news, all things considered.
https://www.dublincity.ie/residential/transportation/city-centre-transport-plan-2023/dublin-city-council-transport-plan-faqs
The right hand turn for cars on O'Connell Bridge to Eden Quay? Is that not going to make a messy area even more chaotic?
It's been watered down to 0700 to 1900.
Anyway what's to stop people ignoring the new rules like on college green and Fairview?
I think (hoping) that the left turn only from Bachelors Walk to O'Connell Street will generate only a very small amount of traffic from 7am to 7pm as most cars along that road go straight to Eden Quay at the moment.
Ultimately it's all about enforcement which is non-existent so I won't be holding my breath.
Dick isn't much of a friend to you after all is he?
How many drivers will abide by it in reality? I wouldnt get too excited just yet.
Ah, maybe it's leading to cameras and automatic penalty points along there. In 80 years time
