Dublin - BusConnects

CatInABox · 25-01-2019 9:48pm

The Irish Times are doing their Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde thing again, every article finds the worse angle to misrepresent BusConnects, but when it comes time for the Irish Times to put their own opinion out there? A necessary inconvenience

AngryLips · 25-01-2019 10:53pm

Can anyone help me with this - I read somewhere that the NTA plans for north county Dublin, like Rush, Skerries and Balbriggan was to remove them from the Dublin Bus catchment because they were too far out to be adequately served by such a service. Did I imagine this? What is the alternative if they're to be moved out of Dublin Bus? Go Ahead? Bus Eireann?

cgcsb · 26-01-2019 12:07am

AngryLips wrote: »

Can anyone help me with this - I read somewhere that the NTA plans for north county Dublin, like Rush, Skerries and Balbriggan was to remove them from the Dublin Bus catchment because they were too far out to be adequately served by such a service. Did I imagine this? What is the alternative if they're to be moved out of Dublin Bus? Go Ahead? Bus Eireann?

Not true

fionnsci · 26-01-2019 11:46am

I can't imagine the one way Rathmines plan will be a runner. The locals won't accept it, especially where an alternative has been offered that doesn't end two way traffic. Castlewood Avenue is a nightmare for traffic as it stands.

LXFlyer · 26-01-2019 12:49pm

Deleted User wrote: »

My bad, I thought Terenure Place was one of the sidestreets off Templeogue Road, I had no idea Terenure Road East/West were divided by another streetname.

A plan mooted in 2006 was to make both Templeogue Road & Terenure Road West one way only (with contraflow bus lane on Templeogue Road) from Fortfield Road to Terenure Village. Nothing happened due to local opposition, even though at that time buses were regularly 45 minutes getting from Templeogue Village to Terenure Village.

It’s pretty obvious from the maps what is planned, but many people like yourself don’t seem to have copped it. People really need to study the maps carefully before making comments on it. The devil is in the detail with this stuff.

The plans completely change the traffic dynamic in the area with significant northbound diversions onto alternative routes. That has serious implications for a lot of commutes and until I’ve gone through all of the changes in the south central area I will hold fire on judging it, except for saying that to say though that the proposed diversion for cyclists north of Rathfarnham Village is unenforceable.

LXFlyer · 26-01-2019 12:55pm

AngryLips wrote: »

Can anyone help me with this - I read somewhere that the NTA plans for north county Dublin, like Rush, Skerries and Balbriggan was to remove them from the Dublin Bus catchment because they were too far out to be adequately served by such a service. Did I imagine this? What is the alternative if they're to be moved out of Dublin Bus? Go Ahead? Bus Eireann?

What you are thinking of is the recent consultation on the five year direct award to Dublin Bus.

A member of the public suggested that they re-examine awarding the 33 and 65 to Dublin Bus and re-evaluate the two routes into something like the Bus reann model of operating route 101 - as semi-express within the city area.

Whether that gains traction with the NTA or not is another question.

monument · 26-01-2019 1:59pm

fionnsci wrote: »

I can't imagine the one way Rathmines plan will be a runner. The locals won't accept it, especially where an alternative has been offered that doesn't end two way traffic. Castlewood Avenue is a nightmare for traffic as it stands.

It will be a fight between locals who want the car status quo and locals who want better cycling provision and stop worse cycling provision.

Rathmines and the nearby areas have the highest levels of cycling in the country — more commuters cycling towards the city centre than traveling by car, more people commuting by bicycle than bus etc.

LXFlyer · 26-01-2019 3:45pm

monument wrote: »

It will be a fight between locals who want the car status quo and locals who want better cycling provision and stop worse cycling provision.

Rathmines and the nearby areas have the highest levels of cycling in the country — more commuters cycling towards the city centre than traveling by car, more people commuting by bicycle than bus etc.

While there has been a noticeable increase in the number of cyclists along Rathmines Road, I’m not sure that there are more cyclists than people travelling along Rathmines Road on the buses. That’s quite a claim!

Marcusm · 26-01-2019 5:08pm

fionnsci wrote: »

I can't imagine the one way Rathmines plan will be a runner. The locals won't accept it, especially where an alternative has been offered that doesn't end two way traffic. Castlewood Avenue is a nightmare for traffic as it stands.

Is there a connection between BusConnects and MetroLink? If the Dunville Avenue closure proceeds, the only motor crossing point between Milltown and the canal will be at Charleston Road. Pushing all the non-bus traffic from Rathmibes Road and Dunville Avenue down Castkewoid/Charleston would seem to be coercive rather than necessary. An offline bike route as described in option B sounds like it might have attractions but might upset residents and, if not designed properly, be a hazard for pedestrians given the number of routes it has to traverse (unlike theo RRL bike lane).

26-01-2019 8:20pm

LXFlyer wrote: »

It’s pretty obvious from the maps what is planned, but many people like yourself don’t seem to have copped it. People really need to study the maps carefully before making comments on it. The devil is in the detail with this stuff.

The plans completely change the traffic dynamic in the area with significant northbound diversions onto alternative routes. That has serious implications for a lot of commutes and until I’ve gone through all of the changes in the south central area I will hold fire on judging it, except for saying that to say though that the proposed diversion for cyclists north of Rathfarnham Village is unenforceable.

It's not that obvious looking through it on mobile! Even zoomed in the maps aren't the highest quality at times and for some reason load incredibly slowly.

I've had a look properly now, and as someone who cycles into the city via either the 15 bus route (Templeogue Bridge > Templeogue Road > Terenure Road > Rathmines Road) or via Willbrook Road > Rathfarnham Road > Terenure Road > Rathmines Road, the improvements are limited and a lot of the cycling stuff is just plain stupid.

Inbound on Templeogue Road sends you through housing estates, Terenure Road East has spotty cycle lanes that stop and end higgledy piggledy, and Rathmines Road looks like it just won't have cycle lanes. The Rathfarnham diversion is risible.

Tallaght to Terenure to Richmond Street is the route of the old Blessington Steam Tram, and should be an obvious choice to create a high quality direct cycle lane straight in and out of the the city following arrow straight roads with few bends. Somehow though, they've managed to create a hilariously bad mess out of it.

Carawaystick · 27-01-2019 11:04pm

LXFlyer wrote: »

except for saying that to say though that the proposed diversion for cyclists north of Rathfarnham Village is unenforceable.

When I was at the consultation re the Swords road corridor, the bus connects people said that what is marked as bus only on the maps always will permit cycling.

So the route in Rathmines should be thought of as poor *alternative* to the direct bus lane route

Dats me · 28-01-2019 12:43am

Carawaystick wrote: »

When I was at the consultation re the Swords road corridor, the bus connects people said that what is marked as bus only on the maps always will permit cycling.

So the route in Rathmines should be thought of as poor *alternative* to the direct bus lane route

What was the atmosphere like at the consultations? Were many in favour?

LXFlyer · 28-01-2019 8:02am

Carawaystick wrote: »

When I was at the consultation re the Swords road corridor, the bus connects people said that what is marked as bus only on the maps always will permit cycling.

So the route in Rathmines should be thought of as poor *alternative* to the direct bus lane route

Which makes a mockery of the project.

The whole point of this is to speed buses up - if they have to continue to share space with cyclists then that won’t happen.

They need realistic segregated cycling options that don’t involve mammoth and unattractive detours.

donvito99 · 30-01-2019 9:02pm

LXFlyer wrote: »

The whole point of this is to speed buses up - if they have to continue to share space with cyclists then that won’t happen.

It's not the cyclists slowing the buses down in the existing bus lane on Rathmines Road.

Carawaystick · 31-01-2019 1:10am

LXFlyer wrote: »

Which makes a mockery of the project.

The whole point of this is to speed buses up - if they have to continue to share space with cyclists then that won’t happen.

They need realistic segregated cycling options that don’t involve mammoth and unattractive detours.

Buses slow me down, when I cycle to work. I bet they still will after busconnects too.

LXFlyer · 31-01-2019 8:30am

donvito99 wrote: »

It's not the cyclists slowing the buses down in the existing bus lane on Rathmines Road.

Carawaystick wrote: »

Buses slow me down, when I cycle to work. I bet they still will after busconnects too.

So both of you think it’s better for buses and cyclists to share the same space?

Grassey · 31-01-2019 9:10am

LXFlyer wrote:

So both of you think itâ€™s better for buses and cyclists to share the same space?

Well its preferable to sub standard infrastructure that won't be used and just pisses away public funds.

LXFlyer · 31-01-2019 9:47am

Grassey wrote: »

Well its preferable to sub standard infrastructure that won't be used and just pisses away public funds.

With all due respect if you read my original post - I was saying precisely that the proposed cycle route in Rathfarnham was a crazy diversion which would end up being a complete waste of money as it would never be used.

But the onus is on the planners to come up with a solution that provides segregation for cyclists, buses and cars.

Mixing them simply does not work and makes a mockery of the stated objectives of this plan.

Grassey · 31-01-2019 10:07am

I did read your post. And I do agree with you.

In the above I assumed you were makinng a general statement about the 2forms of transport mixing, and in general terms I was saying its preferable than pissing money away.

Amirani · 01-02-2019 4:05pm

LXFlyer wrote: »

With all due respect if you read my original post - I was saying precisely that the proposed cycle route in Rathfarnham was a crazy diversion which would end up being a complete waste of money as it would never be used.

But the onus is on the planners to come up with a solution that provides segregation for cyclists, buses and cars.

I don't see any possible solution for cyclists that could be put in place on Rathfarnham Road that would not involve a significant diversion.

Grassey · 01-02-2019 4:36pm

Amirani wrote: »

I don't see any possible solution for cyclists that could be put in place on Rathfarnham Road that would not involve a significant diversion.

Remove both right hand turn lanes for cars turning onto the R112 (both east & west direcctions) would free up an awful lot of road space here and not require a new bridge or diversion.

Amirani · 04-02-2019 3:42pm

Grassey wrote: »

Remove both right hand turn lanes for cars turning onto the R112 (both east & west direcctions) would free up an awful lot of road space here and not require a new bridge or diversion.

That makes things easier at the junction for cyclists for sure. But the rest of the road still doesn't have space for 2 dedicated cycle lanes, 2 traffic lanes and 2 bus lanes. At the moment there's 1 bus lane, 1 cycle lane and 2 traffic lanes, and that's pretty much all the space used?

CatInABox · 16-02-2019 11:22am

The Irish Times: "The NTA are coming to take every inch of our gardens, won't someone think of the poor, disabled, elderly people??!?!?!?"

Also The Irish Times: "Far too many commuters drive to and from their workplaces, even from areas that are well served by public transport"

Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde doesn't begin to describe their opinion.

Dats me · 18-02-2019 12:54am

There were lots of people here pointing out that the SW has the worst bus commuting times in the city. Busconnects would probably be needed with or without a metro in 10 years time.

https://mobile.twitter.com/DeirdreConroyIE/status/1097274041294032901

Councillors are starting to campaign against the busconnects corridors it seems, I'm not from the area so don't know what sort of groups there are but I thought I'd post in case people wanted to counteract it etc

cgcsb · 18-02-2019 1:45pm

phase 3 was to be out today afaik

marno21 · 22-02-2019 4:31am

Jim O'Callaghan both in the Dail and on Today FM today about Terenure residents having their gardens taken off them.

Think that'll be the end of that too.

cgcsb · 22-02-2019 11:03am

If we can't close Dunville for cars (maintaining pedestrian and cyclist access) then just forget busconnects and go with the status quo. The majority of the CBCs contain proposals that are just too radical. It'll be more of the status quo until we can have serious reform of how these projects are run.

LXFlyer · 22-02-2019 11:12am

I’m not surprised about this one iota. I predicted the level of objections from the outset. I’ve said all along that the plans will end up being watered down considerably.

That’s before you actually analyse the claimed improvements in journey time from the NTA which certainly in south Dublin seem to be far greater than likely. I welcome any improvement but I think they’re being a tad over optimistic.

What is surprising me is that many people don’t seem to have grasped the proposed effective closure of Templeogue Road inbound to general traffic by putting a bus gate on the approach to Terenure village just before Fergus Road, coupled with new right turn bans off Templeogue Road inbound. That will cause massive disruption on other corridors which doesn’t seem to be sinking in yet.

schemingbohemia · 22-02-2019 12:24pm

I'm looking at buying a house on Lower Kimmage Road. Lots of "Community not Corridor" signs in local houses - I really don't get this, they're maintaining local access and removing through car access, why don't locals want this it will lead to a reduction in car traffic outside their house, there's no CPO there.
I really think the locals haven't read anything themselves and are just taking at face value the fake news being peddled by the usual suspects.

is_that_so · 22-02-2019 12:25pm

Carawaystick wrote: »

Buses slow me down, when I cycle to work. I bet they still will after busconnects too.

Bikes slow me down when I'm sitting on a bus!:D

Dublin - BusConnects

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