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?
Motor tax is paid to help upkeep the roads.
When do you feel cyclists, tourists and pedestrians should start to pay that tax?
Politicians are well aware the sheer volume of offences and won't annoy the electorate, even if for their own good, when it will apparently annoy lots of them.
Thats always been the way with cameras, it is then up to the owner to transfer the offence, via the gardai, to the actual driver if they were not driving at the time by notifying the authorities. A relatively harmless procedure.
Yes, mainly by the parking warden but it can be.
Most of the GPOs perceived work is done in sorting centres, not in the GPO itself. Penneys and Arnotts are big enough to get out of peak hours deliveries. None of this is rocket science.
You have to imagine there would probably be an initial rush of offences to deal with then a big drop off as people get the hint that if they act the maggot then they're going to get caught.
Absolutely buses need to be prioritised now. Hence the bus gates.
Rail or light rail development is glacial in Ireland.
The thing that bothers me about the "we need a Metro/rail solution first" piece, is the following:
In the meantime, I'd really like to know, for those who keep saying we need a widespread Metro solution first before we do anything to reprioritise road space to support more effective and efficient bus-based public transport - you're basically saying that bus passengers should remain deprioritised versus private traffic, for the next 20-30 years.
This in order to continue the convenience of more often than not, single occupancy private motorists, many of whom don't need to go via the city centre but chose to do so, just because that access has always been facilitated for them. And also to continue the convenience of a limited number of high wealth individuals who we are told are special petals, who won't go to Arnotts or Brown Thomas unless they can park precisely three feet away from the boutique handbag or expensive electronics department.
No, it's just a completely meaningless statement.
Car drivers pay towards the upkeep and maintenance of the streets and roads.
If that's true, then so do the following: pedestrians, bus users, cyclists, people who spend money in shops, smokers, employers, employees, tourists, businesses of all sizes, the EU, other states, and just about every person that has ever set foot in Ireland (and some who haven't)
The Garda have argued in the past that they're not able to deal with the sheer amount of offences caught by cameras.
https://www.irishtimes.com/crime-law/2024/06/03/roads-policing-technology-can-help-catch-law-breaking-drivers-but-not-without-more-gardai/
I assume if cameras are put in by DCC , the fine goes to the owner of the car regardless if it was them actually driving
Absolutley. Yet there seems to be a strange aversion to cameras being rolled out, for whatever reason.
Then its not, not true.
The worst part of that is the had stopped cars during Covid and then brought them back and removed all the outdoor dining etc.
It is insanity - especially when you look at the actual number of people driving though (and ruining) these areas. Even on the quays, we are talking about a few hundred people per hour blocking the thousands on the buses.
You can see Dublin turning into a London like place. So much traffic in London.
They can be as bad as we are sometimes. I can't understand how cars are still allowed drive in around Soho. I used live on a street absolutely perfect for full pedestrianisation and all we ever got was traffic calming.
No issue with the concept. But it would hugely expensive and it would be bottle necked (for buses) any way due to local congestion in D15. So it would have negligible impact on congestion on the M50 in my opinion while costing a fortune. Local amenity value is a different argument and wouldn't get the same investment.
My concern with all that is continuing to cover every thing in concrete to facilitate road traffic.
How long before the liffey valley green belt of strawberry beds and porterstown, Luttrellstown etc disappears under roads and estates. All filled with traffic. Solving nothing.
And there's still too many cars in London
Indeed. In London in 2023, the underground accounted for 1,063,000 journeys. Buses accounted for 1,762,000. Source: https://www.statista.com/statistics/1327715/transport-london-passenger-journeys-by-mode/
Nowhere did I suggest redirecting currently deployed Gardaí to enforce traffic violations. I responded to a poster asking if it was legally possible to enforce a particular type of violation, confirming that it was.
Separately, I queried whether there was the political will to do what's needed to properly enforce the law. I made no comment on how it should be achieved. But since you brought it up, yes, Dublin City should be absolutely blanketed with a massive amount of cameras for the enforcement of traffic laws. That it hasn't already been speaks to the lack of political will.
We will be "stuck" with buses forever.
People have a very weird view of the big cities in Europe. Buses are a massive and essential part of the transport network in all the cities with comprehensive underground and rail networks. People actually give the impression that they think Londoners all get the tube everywhere.
And that's fine because the idea that buses are "clogging up the streets" is only disingenuous bullsht. Same as the "do nothing till the metro" bullsht.
You are correct with this assumption. I suspect there might be a reduction of buses on OCS. Multiple metros and luas lines will be required in the future. Unfortunately, we are stuck with buses for a while yet!
Metrolink is going to make close to zero difference to the number of buses coming up the quays.
This isn't true (any more than for any other central tax). Motor tax is paid into the central fund, there is no specific allocation of motor tax to particular types of expenditure
Car drivers are also the majority of public transport users and everyone is paying for the maintenance of streets, not just car drivers.
It doesn't matter what a small minority of people want, we have a majority rule democracy
How often do you see a Guard in the city centre?
For the limited time they are visible, enforcing minor traffic violations is the last thing I want them to prioritise.
Bring in cameras and fine poor road behaviour that way.
Exactly. There is no appropriate solution for PT in Dublin without an underground network.
That is where the priority should be.
Choking the city centre with buses, that ultimately conspire to slow themselves up, is not the answer.
It would seem a little perverse if they were not able to use those same streets and roads.
The people own the city streets, indeed. And not every person in the city wants to see it transformed into a bus only network.
The Bus Gates proposal started out as a compromise between car users and bus users. BOTH modes of transport represent the people.
We will never have a situation where 100% of people visiting the city centre do so by public transport.
A compromise is fair and I think that is broadly where we are at now, as far as this proposal is concerned.
A bus, bike and ped bridge between LV and disswelstown road would really improve the M50 situation. The M50 is choked with people in cars doing short trips, the views from the bridge would make it a mm attraction also
Not much bulk going into or out of gpo now, but they can have the same access arrangements of available in all similar locations
The chances of a bus breaking down exactly at this junction is very slim. It would only be a single lane for a short distance either side of the junction. Beyond that you have plenty of bus stop locations, almost a continuous lane in fact.
The current quay width varies, but west of Bachelors walk it's between 10m and 11m wide. Create a 3.5m wide two-way cycle track, 4m wide bus lane and then a 3m wide bus stop "lane". That gives you 10.5m.
You don't need a metro for this to work.
