Finally.
The new proposals jointly unveiled today by the National Transport Authority (NTA) and Dublin City Council would enforce the restriction [no traffic on College Green] seven days a week and also extend the ban to taxis.
A number of other measures to stop through-city traffic include a ban on private cars on Bachelor’s Walk on the North Quays and a section of the South Quays, possibly George’s Quay.
The plan would create a civic space at College Green and the pedestrianisation of part of St Stephen’s Green North and Suffolk Street at either end of Grafton Street.
Streets like Westmoreland Street would have wider pavements and better cycling lanes.
No traffic would be allowed to turn left from Westmoreland Street onto the quays removing, what the report calls a “major source of conflict between pedestrians and vehicles on this thoroughfare“.
FIGHT!
Cars may be banned from College Green (RTÉ)
Pic: Archiseek
Utterly stupid.
Why?
Utterly great! Solve Ireland’s obesity problem and improve the capital with one stroke.
okay.. i take it they’re going to lift some of the one way restrictions to compensate?
You’ve put the title in the url field when creating that link.
there should be different weekday and weekend restrictions. all of this would be great for weekends.
This looks like a great idea except that there seems to be a huge gap now in how taxis can get from Dame Street to O’Connell Street. For late-night home-time that’s definitely a disadvantage if you live on the more eastern part of the city.
As a driver this will make things a little painful, but I think it is no harm for the city centre.
It would be a great initiative if they also included new routes for cars and a free flow operation for major arteries during morning and evening rush hours.
But I think the point is to stop cars entering the city centre. I drive, take buses and cycle and since moving to Dublin I’ve found the single-occupant car issue to be outrageous. I don’t think that many people need to be driving to/from work/school – there are alternatives in the city and it would free up congestion if people would stop taking their cars into the city.
The only viable alternative I can think of would be to introduce a London-style toll system for driving into the city; I would prefer to drive the extra distance around and have a semi-pedestrianised area but I can see arguments for either.
I don’t think I understand some of this. How do you get down the south quays from Pearse St. if this system is in place? I would have thought that’s a fairly vital artery out of the city. And how do you get to the southside from Bachelor’s walk without going halfway round the city?
isn’t that the point?
Burgh Quay will still be open so Pearse St traffic will still be able to access the quays.
As long as signage and detours are clearly marked. It would definitely put me off coming into town though if I wanted to visit the shops. Busses are all very well for heading in for a few pints, but if I was planning any decent shopping or buying household stuff i’d give town a miss.
Have you ever tried driving around Cork?
Not sure how this is any different. You drive into town, park somewhere and walk to shops. There’s nowhere to park around the proposed areas anyway.
Beg to differ… Fleet st carpark and tara st carparks are both accessed via westmorland st or dolier st. How will that work!?
great idea, nice to see the city become more and more cycle friendly though lots more work to do
Yessssss. Excellent idea. college green is always swarming with people anyway.
Great idea. Take back the city centre!
So how do I get my elderly Granny into town?
Tell her there’s a sale in Guineys.
:)
You win Broadsheet Bertie.
makes alot of sense to pedestrianise Suffolk St, such a stupidly tiny street for so many bus stops
FFS… Idiotic at best.. Stop trying to make peoples lives more difficult for those that commute.. why dont you look at building an underground HUMMMMMMMMMMmmmmmmmmmmmm?
Yes, they were proposals for an underground ten years ago! But the Government rejected it as they thought it would be too expensive and disruptive to the city. Look at where we are now, tearing up streets and building bridges for more LUAS lines. Ireland is the mongoloid of city planning. Idiots!
Are you suggesting that you could design and build an underground system for the capital (of only 1 million people) without causing major disruption? Please enlighten us all.
Of course there’s going to be some disruption if you build an underground, numb nuts, but if they had agreed with the Japanese Construction firm who offered to build it at the time, for no charge, except taking the tickets profits for the first 10 years, then it would have been completed by now by professionals who know how to build in highly congested areas, such as Japanese cities. A little bit of pain for a massive gain.
Yeah, you’re right. We are the only city in the world with a tram system alright.
It’s a disgrace in 2015 we still haven’t a rail link to the Airport.
No it’s not. Numerous comfortable bus services get you into the city centre using the tunnel in the same time a metro/rail link would.
This ridiculous planned DART spur to the airport is a colossal waste of money/
The point of a rail link is to offer a more efficient quicker higher capacity connection to and from the capital and also linking into other rail and transport options for national onward/inward travel, It should not about funnelling everyone on the roads through the city or it’s environs as you seem to think is the best option. Dublin Airport handles 20.17 million passengers a year, the majority who arrive & depart by road. If people are discussing intelligent transport planning in Dublin, this should be a priority in easing congestion
The basic route infrastructure is already part there to Clongriffin from Connolly, This gives access North/East/South & West nationally. Green fields remain between the few odd miles to Dublin airport.
Who the fluich wants to get a train to the airport anyway!! Plenty of buses (public & private) and taxis to do that job! Always silly for a train!
Ordinarily this might be a good idea, less traffic, more bikes, but I’m sure Ireland can F*** this up completely with lackluster public transport, unconnected routes. Is anyone really confident of this working? How late will the LUAS lines work? Why don’t they run until 2 am nightly? Where are the buses gonna leave from now? What happens on a Bank holiday, everyone stranded probably
If done right, this would be great.
Need to see the detail first though. But a great start!
that’s a huge ‘if’.
Indeed. We’ll have to wait and see if the massive cross-town detours for motorists are by design or oversight.
The four angels fountain and statue of Thomas Davis on college green seem to be removed in these plans, which is a shame.
That’s not a planning picture, it’s a (poorly done) mock-up of what College Green would look like if fully pedestrianised, from a good while ago. You’ll notice there’s no Luas lines or cycle/bus lanes pictured either.
Possibly done on Microsoft Paint.
I don’t mean the picture above. I mean the one on DCC website.
http://www.dublincity.ie/TransportStudy
Now I look again I think it’s just the statue moved and the fountain gone.
Unless you can spot the fountain there.
Thanks for that link, Dan.
The fountain with its angels are the best part of that statue.
Where’s the Spanish student lanes?
that’ll be the smoking area outside the Mezz
Why can’t Dublin just implement a congestion charge in the center of the city and lift the M50 toll?
That would be segregation based on financial means. Personally I prefer to see cars disappear from the core city centre all together. It will make the place far nicer, relaxed, better for business, better for tourism.
that big pedestrian area will be a wasteland of junkies and buskers
Bingo!
unfortunately, i think you’re right.
Yeah, we should just do nothing to make the city better. We should just give up. Sure it’s the junkies sure, they’ll ruin everything.
You’re part of the problem.
That CGI of College Green is rubbish. People look like ants and there is no indication of the bus lanes through it.
I’m not too sure the B of I would be too happy about it’s courtyard being turned into a public square either.
Will this finally get rid of the dam trees on College Lane that block on the finest vistas in the capital??
Good to see they’re finally moving on this, but I’ve always thought a bus tunnel between Dame Street (before the Bank), emerging a Westmoreland and D’Olier would be much better. Therefore allowing for a fully pedestrianised College Green, and the potential of an underground bus interchange.
In some Greek cities you can’t drive your car in to the city centre if your registration plate ends with an even/ uneven number, they alternate it accordingly between Mon-Sat and it works very well in keeping traffic congestion to a minimum, and Sunday’s are a free for all.
Every day is a free for all in Greece hey wha?
Right. And if your car is purple you pay road tex – for everyone else, only if you feel like it.
Papa & Hoop, my comment was in the context of reducing traffic congestion in Dublin, as per the post, and I provided an example of a system that works in another country, which could be considered here along with other proposed changes; what were your comments pertaining to?
The Greek economy.
Well, there is a tenuous link between my comment and yours regarding the Greek economy, because the fines imposed by the Greek city councils for people not adhering to the rules are quite hefty [if memory serves me correctly], so it would generate some revenue as well; something which DCC would benefit from.
Take a chill pill Zarathustra
I’m grand Papa, although, I do find inane comments like yours somewhat bemusing because they don’t contribute to the discourse, yet, they couldn’t exactly be classed as trolling either; and, there is no red/green thumbs system here for you to validate your existence, so, why bother?
Aw u ok hun?
oh you won’t beat the children of the revolution
Great idea. As many probably know, College green used to be a park and that was cleared to make the road in the bad old days of poor civic planning. The center of the city should be a pedestrianised zone. Many Dutch town centers are similar, in fact go to any city in the world where the center doesn’t allow cars and you’ll think it’s better than Dublin, because frankly, it is. People need to start thinking more radically about their transit, use multiple ways of commuting, get on their bikes, use park and rides and leave the cars out of the city. I welcome this wholeheartedly.
That’s all well and good if that is the actual intention and the planning has been done properly. This plan has all the hallmarks of a poorly thought out hotchpotch.
If we go back far enough, College Green was called Hoggen Green and was common land where pigs were grazed. I’m just putting it out there as an idea :-D
says Ms Piggy oink oink
Agree. I’ve seen the Park n ‘Ride system work successfully in UK cities such as Oxford. When the Naas Road and Stillorgan Park and Rides were created here along with the Luas, they actually had the audacity to charge people to park! That just killed the incentive.
it’s free in Greystones – silly dub planners wha
Will there be a concomitant improvement in public transport services in the city? Ideally, one that doesn’t necessitate a price hike for no apparent benefit to the user.
Just ban the Dublin buses – less aggressive drivers sneaking through red lights and polluting the place
Looks like somewhere else for junkies and knackers to hang out/rob/shoot up/generally hassle people instead of some of the many other public areas like temple bar,Stephens green,grand canal dock area.
lol if you get out of the house more and off the internet brian – whatever it takes baby go for it
I’m out of the house every day and regularly see the dregs of society stumbling around Stephens green,grafton St, temple bar.
Anything else to add?
shamone! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PivWY9wn5ps
This would be amazing! Get cars out of the entire city centre.
proposal? do it, do it now!
Not a fan of long engagements?
I may become if you show me the benefits.
Looks like they’ve a pile of the new Grafton St paving left over they’re trying to use up…
Seriously though – looks great! IF it’s done well. It’s always hard to give the council the benefit of the doubt.
Here is an overview of a successful Dutch project that cut the core city centre for road traffic. Granted, it is a small city, but I really believe this is a scalable model. https://goo.gl/115YVT
Total gridlock. Nice idea but the reality is that cars, vans, buses etc need somewhere to go. They should pedestrianise drury st and sth willy st.
I think you should all read the report before making stupid observations. The idea is to give the city back to the people. Of the plan is put together properly then it will work.
Excellent. Ban the suckers.
a) it will improve bike safety
b) improve public health (bike it)
c) it will irritate the bejasus out of fat geebag traders like louis copeland.
More Cûntology
Well that ended well Ha ha
Four wheels aren’t the problem. It’s six, eight, twelve, eighteen… Ban the lot.
What about trucks loading up shops?