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

Quite the deflection that someone has to use their car in Dublin because it's rains in Galway.

That motorway was built quite a while ago now. So hardly to blame for the complete lack of progress with the metro.

Over 4bn last year on ipas. That sort of annual appropriation would do wonders for public transport.

The sheer volume of cars entering the city is clearly a significant issue resulting in congestion. BUT, there are also some self inflicted blockages at some locations around the city that add to the congestion.

Two simple examples I encounter on a regular basis.

1. Bus Stop 1989 is located on the narrowest part of Emmet Road (city-bound direction). Move that bus stop maybe 30 metres nearer the city (near the lawnmower shop) so that vehicles can pass a bus at that bus stop.

2. Hill Street, Dublin 1. Two issues here -: (a) why the need for traffic lights to control this staggered junction - it was fine before lights were installed about a year ago. But even if you want to keep the lights, (b) why is there a 2-bay parking area towards the bottom of Hill Street - on a narrowish part of the hill - no need for parking slots at that location - get rid so traffic can continue from Parnell Street, up the hill towards Dorset St.

Two simple fixes in different parts of the city would help traffic in those locations. I am sure there must be many spots around the city where a little bit of common sense could be applied to make traffic move a bit better……

There are lots places like that. But the engineers won't listen.

On the flip side as soon as traffic moves a bit better more traffic will appear to fill that new capacity. So it never actually gets fixed except for a short window.

Seems like they've been talking about undergrounds and metros as long as I remember. I doubt I'll see them in my lifetime, and not while I'll still working.

That said I have seen great improvements in public transport. But it's been glacial and completely out of touch with demand.

why can’t we seek to speed up both, the motorist and the bus - it doesn’t have to be either / or….

It wouldn't work. The problem is there are so many cars today that if we try to speed up cars, all it does is to encourage more people to use their cars and the speed of traffic remains the same. There seems to be a given speed that people accept in order to have the comfort of their cars. This is why we need as far as possible to have buses using lanes that are not used by cars, and where this is not possible, we should give buses priority. Otherwise everyone is stuck at the same slow speed.

Sorry no, that's a nonsense idea. Buses at busy stops could be loading for several minutes. Imagine the traffic congestion this would cause behind it back to the next junction at least and likely include other buses as well.

Current situation in that regard at least is perfectly fine. The bus is pulled in and stopped. So long as it's safe to pass it then other road users should do exactly that.

100+ if it's full!

Still an idea that sounds more like anti-car sentiment than anything else … which is fine I suppose, but it still wouldn't work in the real world and nor should it.

The city is bad enough with the ridiculous amount of traffic lights and poor timing sequences without making it worse by having traffic (cars, vans, trucks and even other buses) sit behind a stationary pulled in vehicle "just because".

It's fantasy. You want to hold up every other vehicle until that bus is ready to get on the move again. Multiply that by every bus and bus stop every few hundred metres (or less!) and nothing would be moving at all!!

Rather than complaining about people using cars (which aren't cheap to run, tax and insure either), maybe it's worth looking at why these drivers are putting up with congestion and delays to get where they need to be vs sitting on that bus.

I don't buy the excuse that it's laziness, at least not to the levels of traffic seen on the road. Rather I would suggest that driving is still - despite the above delays - the best or only option for many to get around. Having spent 30 years on Dublin buses myself before I bought a car I know from experience that buses are an exercise in frustration most of the time - they may not show up at all or late/leave early, they wander all around the housing estates before they actually start the run into town proper, they are overcrowded and uncomfortable particularly during bad weather, they're often filled with undesirables and undesirable behaviour, and the overall time taken is usually significantly more over a longer trip vs the car.

Public transport generally is a poorer, more inconvenient, more time consuming choice. Cycling is even worse as you're dealing with the elements, terrain and poor roads and (as I said previously), people don't want to walk more than a few hundred metres generally given the number and proximity of bus stops.

As I said, rather than trying to push cars out, acceptance of the above factors needs to come and planning/road space allocation altered accordingly.

Suggestions and ideas are good, but not all of them make sense.

Holding up a line of traffic unnecessarily to wait for a pulled in bus to get back on the move is a suggestion that falls into the latter, not the former category.