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?
“I don’t believe”.
Nobody cares what you believe.
Decisions will be made on hard data.
First of all, I did not call you bonkers. I called your post bonkers. There is a massive difference.
I’ll stand by that assessment. There is zero independent data to support the assertions that were contained in that post that the car parks are essential for retail to survive. All there is are your reported anecdotes, and reports cobbled together by retailers & the car parks themselves which clearly are not independent.
The notion that we should facilitate these apparently significant numbers of people who won’t use public transport to access to the city centre is just absurd. Access is needed, but they shouldn’t expect to be able to do so easily anymore - public transport has got to be given the priority that it needs.
The numbers of young people using public transport have shot up all around the country, with the 50% fare reduction playing a major role in influencing a change in mindset.
It’s just not going to be possible to facilitate people who won’t use public transport to the same extent any more. The costs to the economy of facilitating them are just too great.
Car access is still needed, we agree.
But not at the same level as there is currently. It has been crippling the city centre. It may have to be more circuitous.
Of course there has to be some access - no one is suggesting otherwise.
They were suggesting otherwise.
No one is suggesting otherwise!
I drove to Dublin Port last Monday morning. I was aiming to be there for 7am, I just threw the destination into google maps and followed it. It brought me down the quays and I encountered all of the signs talking about the quays being bus only from 7am to 7pm. I got a bit nervous with the heavy traffic but I did manage to get down the quay just before the 7am so that was cool.
One thing I'd note about the new rules are that (a) GPS may not have them built into their directions yet and (b) the signage for non-locals is poor to say the best. It just gives a vague update to turn left with no real indication as to where you go or where you end up.
Just my €0.02.
I'm just waiting for all the good work to be undone in December when the City Council announce a suspension of the bus gates in the run-up to Christmas.
Hasn't been done in a decade or so so I can't see it coming back
I think that those days are over.
DCC should work with Google to get Maps updated with correct private car availability here — I don't think Google Maps has the flexibility to have time-limited bus gates, but I think it would be preferable if they just indicated it as a 24/7 bus gate instead.
Perhaps if other posters in this thread could do what I've just done, which is right click on Bachelors Walk on Google Maps, choose to Report a Data Problem, choose "Fix a Road", then choose "Other" and indicate that traffic can longer go straight ahead or turn right at the O'Connell Bridge junction.
I had to do that for about three years in my estate before the randomers stopped trying to get through a dead end. You'll have to persist.
They're quick enough to respond if there are enough reports.
The Dublin City Traders Alliance have commenced judicial review proceedings against the City Council, concerning the implementation of these measures. Excellent timing on their part with folk coming looking for votes.
Oo they have any basis for a judicial review?
Only their own sense of being victimised despite everyone having already bent over backwards to accommodate their concerns.
It should be funny seeing their "Economic Impact Assessment" getting ripped apart in court.
Maybe Dublin City Council will learn that giving in to these retailers and car park owners doesn't mean they'll be appeased. Should have just implemented the original plan, not the watered down one
Irish Doctors for the Environment make their thoughts known...
Can't see them winning their case.
DCC was supposed to proceed with he left turn ban at wetland row / pearse St this year.
I wonder will this be like all other dcc plans, 2 points half implemented and then forget about the rest of it.
I saw that they did some resurfacing works on part of Pearse Street (and Dame Street). Makes me think that the future proposed works here are a long, long way away.
I cannot see any further changes being implemented this side of the general election.
None of the parties will want to rock the boat beforehand, no matter how sensible the proposals may be.
DCC will however have to implement the measures sooner rather than later in order to unlock the additional government funding that is tied in with them.
so frustrating, I hope it's not the case that the rest of the plan is forgotten about and then re-packaged in 5 years.
For the greater good, more of this please
https://www.irishtimes.com/transport/2024/12/04/bus-journey-times-cut-by-up-to-one-third-on-dublins-liffey-quays-nta-says/
Am curious as what a 25% reduction actually means and measured. Does that mean your average end to end journey to and from blanch has reduced by 25%
From the article, it is measured just on the time spent on the quays, not the end to end journey time. It wouldn't make sense to measure the end to to end time when the improvements only apply to the quays.
Though it does very clearly show the benefits of reducing and restricting cars and giving more space and priority to buses. Hopefully we will see the same benefits more widely on the core bus corridors as the BusConnects Infrastructure projects are delivered.
BTW In the past I saw the same sort of benefits when they widened just 100 meters of road outside the Cat & Cage pub on the Swords Road. Fixing that relatively short bottleneck cut my journey time into town in half!
"The number of taxis in the city is up 8.2 per cent in comparison to pre-pandemic levels, Ms Graham told the council’s mobility committee, with a 14 per cent increase in new licences compared to this time last year. Taxi numbers have increased from 15,390 in March 2020 to 16,228 last October."
Would taxi's not contribute a percentage to the Bus journey's total time? As mentioned in the article there's a lot more of them on the roads and many driving around empty looking for fare's and thusly contributing to congestion..
Yes, and the taxis in bus lanes experiment - that's what it was called, and we never saw any actual findings from it - should be ended.
Taxis prowling and making a meal out of loading/offloading add significantly to bus trip times, particularly at night.
Good point, I would say at night time in particular Taxi cars would contribute most of the congestion in the core city centre streets as there would be no other commercial traffic and very little private motor car use either.
the South Quays and Georges Street are particularly badly affected, further down the Georges→Camden name change continuum also gets messy at times.
