2024 - Dublin STILL ranked as second worst city in the Europe for traveling by car

People have traditionally voted for the car centric and 3-4 bedroom semi d for all policies of political parties.

And here we are…

about 1.27 million people living in in the greater Dublin metropolitan area.

Public transport in the city isn’t adequate for a city of this size with a population of this size. Hasn’t been for a long time.

Should have had a metro 15-20 years ago.

Should have had more Luas lines.

Look at the billions / trillions of our taxpayers cash spent on various international and domestic ‘humanitarian’ projects over the last 10 years…..yet we can’t get a capital city and it’s citizens efficiently moving ? Zero enthusiasm shown, zero zest or earnestness or get up and go… well… “ all these other problems, we have obligations blahh blahhh“…

If you deprioritise the wellbeing of citizens this is what happens…gridlock. Because often there is no alternative or the alternative is so incomprehensibly inconvenient people don’t want to use it.

Bus disconnects is another fûcking shambles of an effort. Our direct area has been gutted of bus options. That’s another example of why so many cars and gridlock.

Dublin is just the worst city I’ve been to for travelling/navigating full stop.

basically nothings changed why would anyone be surprised it hasn't improved.

had to go through dublin a few times recently, havent been for years, I usually just go to the airport or ferry. it was fairly horrendous.

Sounds like Norman Tebbit from the 80s.........get on your bike!

The truth is we have rubbish public transport. Put in half a dozen metro lines and car usage will nose dive.

The simple reality is that Dublin is not Amsterdam, and we are not Dutch - no matter how much some may wish we were.

We don't have the necessary culture, the infrastructure or the political (and more importantly societal) will to change that beyond tinkering at the edges and grandstanding.

Most Irish people don't want to live in apartments in the city above/among dirty streets, retail outlets and junkies. They don't want to be reliant on buses and multiple changes and huge amounts of lost time to go anywhere that isn't a simple A-B trip on a main route.

Nor do they want to walk anymore than a few hundred metres as evidenced by the number and closeness of bus stops.

Despite arguments to the contrary by enthusiasts, I'd wager very few are actually cycling to work because they enjoy it - rather it's the least worst option for their particular commute. Who wants to be dealing with rain, wind, uneven or poorly surfaced roads (especially shared bus lanes), hills, having to change and shower at work.

As I type this I can hear the rain and wind lashing against the window here in the Midlands. Who really wants to go out on a bike or on foot in that?

Irish people want their semi-D in the suburbs, their 2 car spaces and freedom to get around when and how they choose. Car ownership is also essential outside Dublin because of even less public transport and greater distances generally involved, but even within the city it's still frequently - despite the traffic - the best option to get around, especially if you've been called back to the office having voluntarily or otherwise had to move a county or two away as a result of the housing crisis.

Park and ride? Not something we really do beyond a few train stations and the Red Cow interchange, but even that leads to slow and overcrowded trains and trams, and the additional costs of parking and tickets on top of the fuel, tax and insurance that's still needed to get there in the first place.

Nope, we're a car-centric country for many perfectly valid reasons (even in 2025). We could have actually changed that post Covid with the rise of WFH, but thanks to commercial landlords, complaining coffee shop owners, and narrow-minded managers, that is slowly being eroded with the (literal) drive back to the office desk.

Time to face that reality and plan accordingly.

Public transport, EV or cycling is nothing like as bad as the media (and people who won't try it) constantly complain about it. Media especially constantly publish negative and bias articles.

For example on a wet day traffic will be worse but cycling will more or less unaffected by traffic.

Public transport is overcrowded but we've more more options than we had a few decades ago. If you don't you need to move to somewhere with better links, or go multi modal.

Driving around Dublin is definitely getting worse. Even off peak. There are simply more people and more cars. I don't use the bus but I don't begrudge more space for bus lanes. When we had no bus lanes traffic was also brutal.

So the thousands of people sitting in their cars in traffic blame cycle lanes for traffic and not the actual traffic itself?

The usual suspects complaining about the “terrible traffic” while theorizing the solution is more traffic yet the cause of all this traffic is nothing to do with the volume of traffic.

look at our climate. Look at rainfall… on average we see rain roughly 151 days a year along the east and southeast coasts, to about roughly 225 days a year in parts of the west…..

Also lots of people people working far away from home with the housing situation. Choose..

A : walking 50 meters from your desk to your car and home in 20-30 minutes let’s say..

B : walking say 200 meters to the nearest bus stop, waiting, taking the bus, which orbits and stops, repeatedly, get off, walk and arrive, maybe an hour or more since you left your desk. Lessens your quality time at home.
Want people to stop using cars, provide an efficient, comfortable, interconnected alternative. But our politicians haven’t done that. They have failed. Thats why Eamonn Ryan swans off into the sunset as the most justifiably despised, ineffective and incompetent minister we’ve probably ever witnessed and experienced in the history of the state. Been shocking.

Setting ambitions for our climate is fair and right. But if you are employed in a job where the portfolio is to help and facilitate citizens get from A→B, comfortably, safely and efficiently and you actually do sweet fûck all to help achieve it.

People travel by car because often they just need to. They have families and deadlines at home, taking kids to training, doing whatever, maybe relieving another parent to go to work gym, or a class…. time is a factor.

Look, Of all the European cities I spent time in, for public transport, Dublin is the worst. Look at Lisbon, Copenhagen…two examples…properly integrated, modern, efficient, effective, reliable public transport systems…. Buses, multiple metro and tram lines in both, as well as suburban rail. And us………🤦🏻‍♂️

Dublin metro will be capable of carrying 20,000 passengers per hour in EACH direction, but no, we'd be better off building a motorway from Limerick to Cork for 3,000 cars a day that has a capacity of 57,000 vehicles a day.