M4 - Maynooth to Leixlip [constr. of inbound bus lane underway;planning and design underway on rest]

No assessment was done for M1 or M7, it was just assumed that widening the road was the solution to the problem. An assessment has been done for the M4 and creating bus lanes was selected.

DART to Maynooth isn't going to displace huge numbers of cars on the M4, the western half of the city isn't served by train from Maynooth.

I'm not interpreting it "that way". I'm simply taking the the sacred word "Induced", and using its everyday meaning, to persuade.

Why can't you call it what it is, increased demand arising from an increasing population and rising economic activity? So, blame the motorist for driving to work when in the vast majority of cases there is no alternative PT.

Who exactly is being "persuaded" in this case? In the main, nobody. They are being forced due to a disgraceful lack of planning and investment in PT.

I've asked why, if I took the car, has my commute time more than doubled over a period of 30 years? Is it because of all the people persuaded, oh sorry induced, to drive my route? If that's the case, where have they come from?

As regards subsidising roads, now I might be wrong here, but as I understand it, the taxpayer pays for everything, one way or another, and the gov. decides how to spend it.

In my view, the reason we're in this mess, is because we're great at commissioning reports, surveys, whatever and not doing a lot to remedy the problem. I'll accept that talking about induced demand sounds great, this person must really know what they are talking about. Imagine, I never knew that me and my car was the cause of all this. As there's no PT, I'll sell the car, buy a push bike. God, if I'd only known about induced demand.

It's getting a bit Orwellian, don't believe the evidence of your own eyes…

The better option is to focus on investment in public transport for the next 30-40 years. After that, if public transport hasn't fixed a problem, look at investment in roads.

The evidence in front of your eyes isn’t anyways proof of anything. There can be many reasons why traffic on a particular route has increased and many reasons why it didn’t. An increase in population will absolutely cause an increase in traffic. An increase in house prices will push people further from the cities where PT is viable - that too will cause an increase in traffic.

Adding road capacity in a city will alleviate some of the increase in traffic but it will also make driving more attractive so people will drive rather than take the train or they’ll accept jobs or go shopping further away or in places where PT isn’t viable. Those things will cause an increase in traffic again.

On the other hand, improving public transport or charging for road use might cause a reduction in traffic. Or it might cause traffic elsewhere (people driving to train stations or avoiding tolled roads).

Looks like the bus lane is nearly finished judging by a couple of drives-by over the weekend. I hadn't realised it wasn't going to extend to exit 5 but looks like it falls short by a few hundred metres.

Reeled in, H, L & S.

Funny, I asked a GP councillor over the weekend about the sacred ID and his response was, verbatim, "that's the type shxt that's makes is so difficult for us". His words, not mine.

Can't see what bait there was there. All I could see was a lame joke justifying behaviour that shouldn't be justified.

As for “induced demand”, it's like death and taxation: it doesn't stop existing just because people don't like it.

Very easily trolled.

Your attempt at humour justified the behaviour of someone who assaulted a politician who was doing nothing except explaining his party's policies in an attempt to get votes. Oh ha-ha, it was O'Gorman's own fault he got battered, sure he said “Induced Demand”, didn't he? as if a simple difference of opinion is a good enough reason to hit someone just because they're a “politician”…

There's lots of people that talk to me on their canvassing trips that I'd never vote for in a million years, and there's some who I think are pretty nasty people. But, as citizens of this country, they have as much right as I do to go about their business without being accosted by dickheads. And I, not being a dickhead, have never felt the need to punch or slap them.

What happens when someone breaks down and cant reach a refuge? They just block everything up. The hassle this carry on has caused commuters over the last month is disgraceful. For **** all benefit.

WHAT WE DO IN IRELAND HAS ZERO IMPACT ON THE GLOBAL CLIMATE CRISIS INCLUDING REMOVING CARS FROM THE ROADS.

We are insiginificant.

We needed extra lanes for cars. For people who have to commute. We didnt need a rag tag mockey mouse bus lane which wont be usable for parts of the day.

We do not need a lane used for undertaking by scofflaws.

And what I pay in taxes has zero impact on the national tax take. However, collective action is needed to tackle the climate crisis (and fund national projects such as roads), but I'm sure you already know that.

People have to commute, not cars, and busses are much more efficient than cars are moving large amounts of people. This will improve bus reliability and speed, and make public transport more attractive. This will take more cars off the road, and make life better for people who actually need to use vehicles for their work. Everyone's a winner!

Stop. That argument about the collective has gone out the window and lost any sort of credit years ago. When the Chinese and Indians are increasing their footprint and the yanks are selling gas guzzlers by the thousands every week what we do has zero impact on the climate.

That is a legitimate argument and viewpoint yet just gets shouted down by the green lunatics. This bus lane is crazy. Another savage waste of public money. I'm all for improving public transport. Improving commuting times and making more areas accessible. This project will do none of that for the vast majority or people. If I get the train from Maynooth to Pearse and then onto Stephens Green by bus or by foot it takes around 1hr40mins doorstep to doorstep. Doesn't matter what time. If I get in my car I can do the same journey in 55 minutes avoiding peak times.

3 Hours and 10 minutes commuting for some people each day.

Why don't we spend money trying to improve what we actually have rather than throwing money at nonsense.

Another typical green rebuttal. I'm all for meaningful public transport IMPROVEMENTS.