dublin traffic

adnans · 04-10-2001 7:21pm #1

disclaimer: im not crazy and/or this doesn't bother me at all

as i was getting my share of the dublin's public transport (usually dart, then a bus, or just two buses) to college i get around between one and half hours (one way) traveling time on my hands which i spend wisely sleeping, reading or your normal staring out of the window looking outside the world type of thing. that’s the time when you cant help feel sorry for the people driving to wherever they are going in their cars (work, drug deal, job interview, school...)

clutch, gas, stop, clutch, gas, change gear, handbrake, honk, have a smoke... and so on. fair enough they are the ones that have decided to undertake this journey and spend 2+ hours of their day driving to and from the place they go to (you do the math per lifetime). and the crazy thing is, there is always, on most occasions, only one person inside every car i see. and behind that car there is another one with only the driver in the car, and behind that one... you know where i’m getting at.

is this the root of dublins traffic-jams at the moment? did any of the drivers ever think to ask their neighbor, friend or colleague if they would like to hop into one's car instead of driving alone and causing more problems for the road system not fit for a capital city of ireland?

this doesn’t affect me one bit at all (im lying). the buses got these things called bus lanes and darts have their own private routes and only one driver who gets paid for it too. how do you feel about this situation because if you live in dublin and drive, you're one crazy person and should talk to your nearest Dublin Bus/DART representative. i should also mention the pollution problems, breathing air quality in Dublin city is crap. i feel sorry for the bike owners too who have to breathe that crappy air.

adnans

Kali · 04-10-2001 8:05pm

I gave up driving to work a while back, same amount of time to get in (at least on dublin buses anyway), but I didn't like the onstreet parking charges off baggot st, if that wasn't there I'd still drive in, (I live in celbridge btw) basically because sitting in your car listening to the beachboys or pink floyd is infinitely more relaxing than standing in the rain waiting on buses, missing buses and then getting into work late.

But anyway I now get a privately run bus that goes up baggot st. now, and its a hella good form of transport, proper legroom, no crowding, litefm on the radio, only picks people up in celbridge so avoids the blackspots of lucan and chapelizoid getting in a good 20 minutes before a similar time dublinbus and leaves early on the way home so I have an excuse to leave work.

Its just after 4 years of college I hate dublinbus so very very much and to get on them every morning going to work now is just so so depressing and stressful, god bless Mortons buses

Xterminator · 05-10-2001 8:45am

I agree that 1 driver per car is a mad waste of resources.

But you will have 2 agree that they do pay for the priviledge.
The cost of runing a car is serious money.

One reason the bus or train does not meet the needs is that they are poorly run.

I have to leave my house at about 7 am, to commute to work for 9 am. This morning i got into work at 8.10 am. Yesterday it was 8.55 am. (I left at the same time both morinings.)

Coming home has taken 2+1/2 hrs sometimes. That is silly time.
I find that some buses dont arrive, or they come early. Other are full beyond saftey limits. The routes I travel are 13(a) and 77 or 50.

Dublin bus have decided these routes almost never get a bus hat is 'new' such as the new low ramp buses. Often they are barely able to go 30 kmph, when they do see a clear stretch of road.

And the smoking on the buses is no joke. I have already mentioned they are crowded. So you dont have a choice if you want to si down, sometimes you go to the top of the bus. And the smoking is always worst o a crowded bus.

I have travelled on Darts from tme to time aswell .nd the crowding situation is dangerous at times. I have sen anti social behaviour go unchecked, because the driver is locked in his cabin, and there is almost never a security presence.

As soon as i can afford it I will buy a car.

Dr. Loon · 05-10-2001 8:52am

Don't get me started here!!!

Dublins traffic, and public transport must be one of the worst in the world... excluding mad out of it places like... ehhh.... I don't know... India... loads of maniacs hanging off the sides of trains. Still I bet their trains are on time.

I have never in my life heard of, or seen a city, that has a public transport system which goes in a straight line (Dart)... it's so rediculous. Alright, they've added a route to Malahide and all that crap, but that's just made things worse, 'cos they haven't compensated with more trains. I walked up on a platform one day with my girlfriend... saw 40 minutes on the board and freaked the lid....!!! 40 minutes!! 40 minutes!! What the fúck.... is someone havin a laugh?

Anyway... London (underground) you don't have to wait more than 15 minutes (at the worst) for a train.... New York (subway) same thing... 10 mins max. Paris (metro) haven't been there, but I've heard it's better than the London/New York. So what's goin on?

We need an underground...and I don't think the Luas sytem is gonna cut it. Taking lanes of traffic away... fúckin up the city more, and it's already started. Is it still gonna be both underground and overground...? It's a fúckin farce. Sorry... I know there's not any real point to my post, rather than, we must have the worst traffic problem/public transport system in the world, and it's maddening!

Why isn't something being done about it.... I really hope someone can give me a good answer.

40 minutes for a train!??? Think about that!

BattlingCheese · 05-10-2001 8:54am

Kali you live in Celbridge too. I still get the 67(x) to work and I've never really got around to trying Mortons. How much? Where does it stop in Celbridge??

I can't believe that since Celbridge has grown(16,000 ppl) that Dublin Bus have never changed the 67's timetable. They're still few and far between and now they've put the terminus in town with the 66. Of course now all the lucan ppl just hop onto the 67 and by the time it reaches Celbridge the bus is nearly empty.
Very frustrating when you just wanna get home..

fizzy · 05-10-2001 9:04am

like adnans i spend about 3 hours a day commuting...

i can't imagine why people use cars instead of buses. but could it possibly be for any of the following reasons??

no waiting around at bus stops (especially on cold /wet mornings) for ages for buses that clearly follow no timetable and often just pass by too packed to let people on when they finally do arrive?

travelling in reasonable comfort instead of being packed into a smelly,dirty bus with people hanging out of it...squashed up in an uncomfortable seat if you are lucky, and if not then standing downstairs, often with so many that you can barely see daylight and work out when you get to your stop?

actually taking a reasonably direct route to where you want to go instead of going round the world?

making the tiny journey from your car to your doorstep instead of walking home from the bus stop....

dublin traffic is crazy whatever way you are commuting....but i'm with xterminator...if i could afford it i would buy a car (i would have to actually learn to drive first but that's a minor obstacle...;) )

basically dublin bus is a joke....for those who do not have the luxury of arriving in style via dublin bus, check out http://www.busrage.com to be eductaed

Supercell · 05-10-2001 7:33pm

Simple solution, buy a motorbike, fast, efficient, and traffic isn't an issue.

Kali · 06-10-2001 6:39pm

Originally posted by BattlingCheese
Kali you live in Celbridge too. I still get the 67(x) to work and I've never really got around to trying Mortons. How much? Where does it stop in Celbridge??

its £1.50, stops at dublin bus stops, even though its not really meant to... 2 go at about 7:25 and i think theres another 2 at 8:00am.. on the way back from town they really only pick ppl up from baggot st. to westmoreland st, its mostly just working ppl anyway cos 15quid a week is a bit steep for students

Anyway back on topic, I honestly think that staggered opening times for schools etc. in the same area would curb most non-work related traffic in the mornings around the satellite towns of major cities, not just Dublin here.

Gray · 07-10-2001 12:27am

The bus might be quiker going into town than by car but if your going across town its not. I live on the nothside & work at city west, time by car 30 minutes:) time by bus 2 hours:( if you can find one at 5 in the morning so no contest.

As to polution latest studies she that mor polution is caused by deisel as used by bus's than unleaded petrol

Giblet · 07-10-2001 1:02am

Yep over five hrs on buses a day to get to ITB really sucked

Bluehair · 07-10-2001 12:36pm

I actually think the motorbike isn't a bad idea depending on how far away from your work you are.

One of my friends has one and can cut a 40min journey to 15 mins on his bike even in heavy traffic.

However even he will admit that it's sh|te going during the winter..

One idea that has been implimented succesfully abroad is car-sharing. Three or four people take it in turns to drive to work and collect the others along the way. You MUST provide incentives for this to work though be it allowing cars with 3 or more occupants to use the bus lane and possibly some kind of tax break?

The '3 or more in a car' using the bus lane idea could be impliments overnight and could help very significantly.

A lot of people complain that morning and evening traffic worsens significantly once school starts (parents droping kids off).

A potential solution to this (needs to be explored further) would be to offer some sort of tax breaks to taxi-drivers/min-bus operators and indeed the *parents* who could pay to have their kids brought to school. Fill the car/mini-bus with kids in the one area and you've taken another few cars off the road at that time.

The only way to solve the traffic problems are to offer people attractive alternatives (the carrot rather than the stick approach).. Just my two cents

Casiel · 08-10-2001 10:10am

I left Celbridge about 15 years ago.

At that time, CIE was the only artery that carried us in and out of the big smoke. Even back then, the traffic was abismal. The train service from Hazelhatch wasn't available (not that I know many people who use it now) but even so, once you got near the quays you just came to a standstill. During that time, Dublin corp or whoever decided where the traffic should go, spent month after month re arranging the traffic flow up and down the quays to try and alleviate the jams but to no avail. I shudder to think what it must be like now. If somebody from the corp gave me a ring and said, look, we have a bit of a problem with traffic chaos, what do you think. Soultion 1, all you need to do is level say, Palmerstown, Crumlin, Phibsboro and a few other ring towns, turn them into massive car parks, and have a feeder bus system into the city.
Solution 2 would be to increase the amount of busses, have dedicated bus lanes and penalise people who insist on driving alone into the city and give free parking to those who carpool.

Down here in Sunny Perth, we have a train system that runs down the centre of the freeway where you can sit in comfort reading your morning paper as you zoom into the city or watch out the window at the traffic stopped on the freeway bottleneck into the city. It's the same everywhere. Cars are a huge nusiance, get a bike or get the train/bus.

goose · 17-10-2001 10:15am

i think you would have to have a death wish to drive a motorbike in dublin. the people in the cars are bad enough drivers to warrent carrying a coffin about with you.

a lot of them seem to forget the 2 shiny things on each door and one on the windscreen called mirrors

NeRb666 · 20-10-2001 2:23am

<snip>

phaxx · 20-10-2001 2:48am

*glares*

I'd give you such a kicking for that if I was anywhere near you.

Snaggle · 20-10-2001 6:11am

I think Motor Cyclists in DUblin (perhaps in general) aren't the most aware of the rules of the road. Often times I see motor cyclists beep at cars because they don't leave enough space for the motor cyclist to pass through (not just between the sides, but even between the front of a car and the back of a car in front of it), over take cars in clearly illegal places (such as crossing a single white line to the opposite lane because they probably have the room to where as a car wouldn't), or just go to the very front of traffic despite the fact that the car at the front is at the white line before a red light and the bike just illegally passes it. Car drivers in general certainly don't pay enough respect toward motor cyclists, but I believe that short of death or being crippled for life, motor cyclists generally deserve what they get

adnans · 20-10-2001 1:18pm

damn straight, couriers especially are the worst thing on dublin roads. im talking about the motorcycle couriers, the ones that run you over and dont even stop to see if you are alright (the bike couriers are cool with me).

adnans

ps. nerb666 you are a fucking looking for a good beating!!

seamus · 20-10-2001 2:00pm

I'm gonna bitch about 1 dublin bus route in particular. The 'Belfield Flyer' 46A. This damn bus comes way TOO regularly, sometimes one every minute(even written as such on the timetable), and so is pretty much empty most of the time. People have told me it does get full in the mornings and evenings, so regular times are good then, but what about the rest of the day? It's a total waste of resources!!!!one every 10 mins is more than enough.

And then we take the 15 bus route out of Knocklyon. This bus is NEVER, EVER, EVER, on time, only comes every 30 mins (if you're lucky) and times on the timetable can be cancelled at the discretion of the driver who has missed his lunch break/smoke break/p1ss break. This bus is full by the second stop(I used to get the third), every morning and friday/sat night. Why can't those wasted buses going to D4 be used in other, less serviced parts of the city, I mean ffs, the dart line isn't even that far from belfield!!!!! It's always the same. When the rich complain, it gets fixed straight away, but when everyone else does, it NEVER gets fixed(but that's OT).

Gordon · 20-10-2001 2:12pm

To add to Seamus' rant about buses...
I get the 18 bus from Rathmines/Ballsbridge sometimes and it can take 45 minutes for the next bus to come.

The problem is that the driver usually drives so fast that he can drive past you before you realise that the bus is coming. The annoying thing is that he knows that you want that bus because that is the only bus that stops at a particular stop. And sometimes the driver deliberately passes without picking you up.

If there are any bus workers out there reading this.. will you please stand up... will you please stand up?

20-10-2001 2:16pm

Originally posted by Xterminator
The routes I travel are 13(a) and 77 or 50.

Where are you going to?

From the sounds of it you should be able ot get the 2411.

See www.dualwaycoaches.co for more info.

I get that to and from DCU, and althought not brilliant it's better that going in and out of town.

- Kevin

NeRb666 · 21-10-2001 4:50am

Originally posted by adnans

adnans

ps. nerb666 you are a fucking looking for a good beating!!

yes the truth is a horrible thing

Pimp Ninja · 21-10-2001 6:28am

By far it is the best solution. I mean I can get from Clontarf into town, during Rush Hour, in 15 mins. As far as I remember it used to take me at least twice that to get into town on a bus. I remembe we'd get the bus to a certain point. Get off and walk, passing out 2 or 3 busses in the traffic, to get onto the bus we missed half an hour earlier.

think Motor Cyclists in DUblin (perhaps in general) aren't the most aware of the rules of the road.

I'll have to disagree with this. We do our test in the same centres as those that drive cars. I have a full licence for my bike (One year this month) and I drive with a lot more care than the vast majority of car drivers out there.

I will say that there are a lot of Learner drivers on the roads in both cars and on bikes that break traffic laws and I think you will find that it is mostly these L drivers, coupled with couriers and Taxi Drivers (but they own the road so theyre allowed to do it) that break the laws you mentioned.

i think you would have to have a death wish to drive a motorbike in dublin. the people in the cars are bad enough drivers to warrent carrying a coffin about with you.

I dont want to start a car V's motorbike arguement here, I agree with this statment that goose made. It seems to me, as a motorscyclist, if a car is behind you the driver has this need that he cant have anything smaller than him in front and must pass you out. The Driver of said car tires his damnedest to get passed often blowing his horn and flashing his lights in the process, even though I'm usually at or slightly over the speedlimit anyway.

However even he will admit that it's sh|te going during the winter

Bluehair, youre dead right. It is a pain in the thoin driving in the winter, the snow last year was fun, but its not if you buy the right equipment.
£200 worth of a jacket
Lined legins the same as the Gardaí aquired
£80 Leather Gloves
Yes its expensive, but out on a cold day on the bike I'm as snug as if I was in bed. Its all in the preperation.

[ADDED] Dond dis my spelling. I'm just not sk1ll3d with a keyboard.

MiCr0 · 22-10-2001 9:13am

don't get me started on dublin traffic
last wednesday it took me 2hrs 25mins to get to work - getting a bus into town (150) and then a dart out to dun laoire.
what a joke!!!

i've now started leaving @ 7am and get to work in 65mins or so.
much better!

Trojan · 23-10-2001 1:25pm

I've had experience with lots of different transport. One of the best was train from Donabate -> Blackrock, then DART-> town -> Donabate (that DART was nasty crowded after Blackrock though).

When I worked in Sandyford, I used to come in on the same train, though had to get the 114 with its nasty, evil drivers! They used to see a train coming in, watch us rush across the footbridge then drive off leaving us waiting for another 25 mins.

The trains are definitely vastly superior to buses, despite being over-crowded, except when they're on strike of course (lived through 2 months of strikes, that was tough trying to get in).

Now I work in East-point and live in Killester, so I take my life in my hands every morning cycling down the Howth Rd. Still, I can safely say that the 15 mins (at 8.30) it took me to get here this morning was at least half the time it took one of those cars to get from Killester village to Fairview.... I find cycling dodgy though, don't get annoyed at cyclists you see not using the cycle-paths properly, or those on the footpaths, sometimes it's far more dangerous to venture onto the roads, and the cycle lanes are badly placed if you don't want to follow them from Howth all the way into town.

Al.

dublin traffic

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