Ormond Quay, Dublin 1 yesterday
Further to the reduction of car lanes along Dublin’s quays to one and cars no longer being able to turn right onto O’Connell Bridge from Bachelors Walk…
This frustration of those who commute by car is misdirected at Dublin City Council, when it is their fellow motorists who are better placed to alleviate the problem.
Dublin City Council will inevitably attempt to promote methods of transport which are more efficient in bringing people to the highly congested city centre.
Private cars are the least efficient method possible in terms of road space, parking space, energy consumption and pollution. While there will always be a need for private cars for certain individuals, their present use among city centre commuters is excessive.
If the only people insisting on using private cars to commute were those who genuinely could not use other means, be it due to infirmity, distance or a lack of a reasonable public transport alternative, the congestion in the city centre would be a much smaller problem.
The reality is that commuters in areas of Dublin such as my own, which are well served by public transport and within cycling distance of the city centre, continue to drive past the bus stop 10 metres from their front door on their way to work.
Restrictions are only necessary because certain commuters need greater incentives to change their behaviour.
Once they do, the commute will be easier for everyone, including those who need to drive.
Christopher McMahon,
Castleknock,
Dublin 15.
FIGHT!
Traffic and Dublin’s quays (Irish Times letters page)
Leah Farrell/Rollingnews
Only a matter of time before there’s a congestion charge
fact
People are forced to use cars with the cutbacks in public transport over the last several years. Ireland has a woeful public transport system compared to the rest of western Europe. If they want less cars in the city start funding Dublin Bus instead of privatising it!
What a broad generalization and sweeping statement, unless you have figures to back this up I’m going to call porky pies on this. People are lazy, they don’t like busses, they don’t like walking, they don’t like cycling. But the love complaining.
+1
People are not forced to use cars.
But they choose to use them because the alternatives are crap…
Cycling in the rain, while competing for space on the road with HGVs or buses?
-Standing on an overcrowded bus or train?
No thanks.
If public transport was properly funded it could be comfortable and inexpensive. Then far more people would use it.
It is properly funded. Dublin bus gets more than enough, it just wastes it. Do people actually want so much money thrown at the company, that they have so much they need to worry about the waste.
It doesn’t rain that often. And I agree that it is better to separate cyclists from heavy goods vehicles; the new configuration of the quays will help achieve this.
“-Standing on an overcrowded bus or train?
No thanks.”
– this just serves as an acknowledgement that people will continue to use the car and contribute to gridlock, even when there are alternatives available. It is for this reason that we need to make it a bit more difficult for cars to enter the city, increase the ‘stick’ factor.
Buses aren’t generally over crowded in my experience. I always get a seat when I get the bus.
The Buses in Dublin are appalling, If I got a direct bus to work it would take 58 minutes according to google maps. Reality is, its usually longer.
I could walk the distance in 40 minutes as long as it isnt raining too bad, or cycle it in 20.
But yeah, Dublin Bus are awful.
You either walk very fast or cycle very slowly.
More, better & cheaper park and go options will help.
I waited for over 30 minutes this morning for a bus from D7, three were full and drove passed the stop. Would have walked but couldn’t this morning. Need more buses.
D7? Cycle
Need more buses? Maybe get up earlier. Buses will always be chokka at peak travel time. 20 minutes earlier? Not a problem.
Or just get up three hours earlier, then you’ll never be late.
Christopher, I disagree with you for myriad reasons – too boring and too practical to expound. Meanwhile, I agree with those savvy posters who have posited a “congestion charge” (I.e. another ‘Revenue Stream’ so beloved of this Government). In any civilised and well planned city there is room for all modes of conveyance – and individual choice. REMEMBER ALWAYS that the people advocating these changes have their own, personal, paid for by tax-payers, parking places. Congestion charges, and the like, are just for us untermenschen.
When was it exactly that you decided to affect the persona of a kooky-yet-contrarian Edwardian dandy?
Rob G. I’m sad to see that, to a person such as yourself, advocating choice and a tiny modicum of personal freedom is to be seen as some sort of eccentricity or wacky fad, to be instantly dismissed as ‘an affection”.
I’m a motorist and I approve this message.
I think the bus service needs to be privatised.
Look how efficiently the Luas operates
The Luas is a shambles too, so expensive.
Fix public transport giving people a viable option, DCC are constantly putting the cart before the horse when it comes to restricting car access, also owen keegan is a d1ck
Resisting traffic along the quays will allow for faster and more predictable bus journeys. No point in running loads of new buses if they are jammed up behind all the existing buses on the gridlocked quays.
*restricting private car traffic
Our public transport system is muck and costs a fortune to use. Until it improves cars are the best option out there, especially for those who have to get to work from their homes in Wicklow, Meath, Kildare and further afield.
Sadly, having to travel so far just to earn a crust points up so many other problems too, Booskidaboom, not just public transport.
the problem is the price of public transport is so expensive.