Blanchardstown SC to charge for parking

I think the issue with the multi story is more that once the road outside is busy it's hard to exit. Then it all backs up. Most cars parks have the traffic inside looping around. But it's not a great design I'll give you that.

Everything in the center is compromised by the dumb main entry and exit routes which all conflict with the local traffic that's not going into the center. All the car parks could have direct entry up off the main entrances. Instead all the traffic goes through the same roundabouts entering and leaving. Never going to fix that. It was built too close to local estates.

Paying for parking was only a matter of time. Another money grab. I don't find it that slow in Liffey Valley. But the general traffic in that general area is now so bad the car parks barriers make little difference.

Blanch is the same the general traffic volume has risen so much every where it's congested now. More congested and peak time is stretching earlier and later.

A few years ago, just before Christmas, I jogged 2.5km to the centre and easily beat the drivers. I was collecting some library books.

Even outside of the extra busy Christmas time I find cycling up there as quick if not quicker than driving.

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It is true a car is mostly a fixed cost. Once you have it, you might aswell use it. Only something like very bad congestion or very high extra charges will change that habit.

There was a time I would go to the SC and hangout somewhere like borders with a coffee shop and books etc. These days is too expensive to do that, and there's little to browse anymore.

Same as ourselves. Lugging a toddler and newborn on a bus or even walking down just isn't worth the stress/hassle.
We regularly kill time around the SC at the weekends she'll get a coffee and we might pop into Dunnes grab something small for the dinner and then hit pennys spend a few bob on clothes and maybe grab a book in Easons. We might do these things over 2-3 visits at the weekend. This will stop now and I can bet many people in D15 operate this way. They will lose business over this and for the people quoting Liffey Valley hasn't lost business I'd love to see the hard evidence. I can bet many tenants are seeing less footfall and especially from locals.

The thing with Blanch was it didn't have paid for parking so my brother for example would take his family over from the midlands and avoid liffey valley because (queues for parking and parking charges)

Blanch will feel this harder than liffey valley in my opinion because the footfall which re-directed to blanch will now not bother with blanch as the parking isn't free.
Will the centre close down- Absolutely not. But I will cut my trips by at least 70% and I reckon that will be the case for a lot of people particularly families with small kids.
You will see smaller business go bust at a faster rate and bigger business take a small hit and it will be disguised as cost of living.

On the plus side this will save me a few quid also another thing worth mentioning is Dunnes just brought in click and collect at blanch which I was using. Back to Charlestown I go.

Can't say the paid parking in LV has caused queues. All of the traffic there is outside the SC. It's a very smooth system.

Unlike Blanch where it's congested since it opened.

Do you ever get tired of playing the victim?

I dont believe there is planning in place for the Westend Retail park, so this will be packed when the charges come in.

It should not be difficult to give free passes to employees - that would kill that argument. The downside is that it would encourage more driving instead of incentivising active travel.

The argument about the trees being removed, I think that those are the small trees are those between existing parking spots. Even though they are likely over 20 years old they aren't very big - maybe they are 'pot bound' in the small plots they are in. Maybe they could be moved.

Manna will need bigger drones :-)

The one silver lining to moving to paid parking would be if the centre only allowed free/subsidized parking for staff in whatever carpark is furthest away from the entrances. :) Over beside Mr Price sounds good to me!

The submission by Fingal's Transportation department says "495 staff car parking spaces will be consolidated on the 2 and 3rd floor of Blue multistorey car park."

I'm not sure if this is from their reading of the planning docs (I only looked at the maps back in September) or it's their suggestion. I would guess it's the former.

The same submission mentioned the 2009 Framework doc for the Centre and how it "envisaged" parking charges!!
Parking charges are encouraged by the Greater Dublin Area Transport Strategy 2023-2042 and the current Fingal Development Plan!

Maybe because people want to go buy stuff? Bizarre I know.