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LAST UPDATE | 1 Jul 2024
SEVERAL SIGNIFICANT CHANGES to the proposed Dublin City Centre Transport Plan have been laid out at a Dublin City Council meeting this evening after accessibility concerns raised by Disabled Persons’ Organisations (DPOs).
Removing the planned ban on private cars on Bachelor’s Walk and dropping several restrictions from 24/7 down to specific time windows are among changes developed in response to the concerns.
The discussion also comes in the wake of of Minister of State Emer Higgins calling for a delay on its implementation, a move that has been criticised by councillors.
The transport plan is seeking to reduce traffic congestion in the city centre by restricting private vehicle access on certain roads and changing some traffic routes in the hope of freeing up more space for public transport, walking and cycling and discouraging private vehicles from using the city centre as a through-route.
The plan is part of efforts to ease traffic and to help reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the transport sector that are harmful to the climate.
Some measures, such as restricting private car access around Bachelors Walk and Aston Quay, would come into effect later this year under the current proposed timeline, while others would be implemented in the coming years up to 2028.
A number of significant changes are expected to be made to the plan after consultations with DPOs, which had raised concerns about how the plan would impact people with disabilities and Blue Badge (disabled parking permit) holders.
A meeting of Dublin City Councillors this evening heard an update from planners that a key concern raised was about access for Blue Badge holders to the North and South Quays.
An update to councillors details that Dublin City Council does not intend to add Blue Badge holders to the list of exceptions to the proposed traffic restrictions because they are not classified as a separate type of road user but that it will make changes to “maximise the area accessible for general traffic, including Blue Badge holders”.
On the north quays, the planned bus gate would move further east to O’Connell Bridge. It had previously been planned that vehicles would be required to turn left at Jervis Street; instead, all vehicles would be able travel as far as the junction of O’Connell Street and Bachelors Walk, meaning all vehicles would still be able to travel along Bachelors Walk and turn left on to O’Connell Street.
The road straight ahead from Bachelors Walk to Eden Quay would be for public transport, taxis and cyclists only and the right turn on to O’Connell Bridge would retain its current status of being restricted to allow only public transport, taxis and cyclists.
That means any general traffic would be able to access Bachelors Walk but would need to turn left at O’Connell Bridge.
To allow access to Eden Quay, the right turn from O’Connell Bridge to Eden Quay would be reintroduced. It was previously removed as part of the Luas Cross City works and is currently only available for public transport and cyclists.
Additionally, the hours of operation for the restrictions are to be reduced from 24 hours to 7am to 7pm (Monday to Sunday). Outside of those hours, the restrictions would not be in operation and vehicles could travel along all areas of the north quays.
On the south quays, all vehicles would be able to turn left from Burgh Quay to D’Olier Street and turn right from Burgh Quay to O’Connell Bridge, which allows access to the right turn to Eden Quay and straight onwards to O’Connell Street.
The stretch from Burgh Quay to Aston Quay would be restricted public transport, taxis and cyclists only.
The left turn from Westmoreland Street to Aston Quay would also be limited to public transport, taxis and cyclists, while the left turn from Westmoreland Street to Fleet Street would be for deliveries and access only.
Access to the Temple Bar area for deliveries would be from the Westmoreland Street turn to Fleet Street, as would access to Fleet Street carpark and the disabled bay on Aston Quay.
The update to councillors would detail that there would be only 50 metres of Aston Quay where a vehicle cannot access, located at the junction of Aston Quay/ Westmoreland Street, because of the access point via Fleet Street.
The hours of operation on the north quays would also be reduced from 24 hours to 7am to 7pm.
At the meeting, several councillors expressed support for the consultations with DPOs but said that the implementation of the plan should not be delayed.
Minister of State for Business, Employment and Retail Emer Higgins is asking Dublin City Council to delay the plans until at least after Christmas.
In a statement to RTE, Higgins said: ”For me it all comes down to protecting jobs. We heard from retailers in the last two weeks in particular that there are very valid concerns.”
“I really do think we need to get this right. And part of that is going to be around getting the timing right. I would prefer for further consultation with retailers and further implementation of Bus Connects before we introduce a significant change like this.”
In response, Green Party councillors labelled the move as “bizarre” and a “major overreach”.
Transport Minister Eamon Ryan said he supported the plan and the nature of it being up to the council to decide. Fianna Fáil Minister of State in the Department of Transport James Lawless also said that he supported the plans and that the decisions of local government should be respected.
Social Democrats Councillor Cat O’Driscoll said in a statement this afternoon that the “intervention by the new Minister of State with Responsibility for Business, Employment and Retail is most unwelcome”.
“Just weeks after taking up office, Minister Higgins has gone on a solo run and is attempting to undo all the hard work of democratically elected Dublin city councillors.”
At this evening’s meeting, Councillor Ray McAdam – a Fine Gael member – said he “does not favour any prolonged delay or deferral of the implementation” but that engagement with businesses and representative groups needs to be increased.
Sinn Féin’s Daithí Doolan was critical of Government ministers being “at loggerheads with each other” over the plan and labelled the intervention as an “unpacking” of a plan developed by the Council.
He said the council should “stand up” to “drive this plan home”, adding: “If we allow big business to step in and stop it, I think it would be undoing the democracy in the city.”
Green Councillor Feljin José said he opposed any delays to the plan and that the council “cannot be dictated to on how we make our decisions on this”. He also questioned the decision to reduce the restrictions down from 24/7 to 7am to 7pm and asked for the project management to provide a reason for that particular change to the plan.
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The so called Bus Gate at College Green still has private cars going through it all the time, no enforcement what so ever.
I know of at least 20 sets of traffic lights in the city centre that are completely out of sequence causing traffic gridlock all day every day,year in year out.
If they at least fixed the traffic lights traffic would flow a lot better.
@Gerard Carey: tell us a few ?
I do be round town all day, I’d be interested to see what ones you have noticed. Cheers
@Gerard Carey: The traffic light was invented in 1868.
Tinkering around the edges like this,
moving traffic from one part of the city to another is only intended to increase car journey times, with the added result of increased emissions and is NOT a valid transport plan!
Their needs to an understanding of why people will not use the poor quality bus services, due to it being painfully slow, regardless of how many bus lanes are put in, the stop start nature of bus means it could never be as fast as car travel for the majority of travelers door to door transport needs, even in rush hour!
We should expand on the success of the Dublin Port Tunnel and put more of all Vehicle traffic underground as proposed by the DublinLoop unfortunately the powers that be seem unwilling to accept realistic behavioral change and we have to do all the wrong things before we finally do the right thing.
@Cormac McKay: Painfully slow bus services because there are TOO MANY CARS
@Steve Brennan: The only cars in bus lanes are taxis, people use them because they deliver a faster door to door service and are more comfortable and desirable than traditional public transport.
@Cormac McKay: Put traffic under ground. Great idea except how much would that cost? Billions upon billions. A metro and a dart underground were supposed to be operational at this point. Instead one is back out for planning permission approval and the other has died a death. In all of the years of boom Dublin City got a port tunnel and two and a bit LUAS lines. There is zero ambition or urgency and it all takes just way too long.
@John Moore: Classic middle isle vibes. It’s why we have nothing John!
@John Moore: the proposed spend on BusCONnects with the compromised tack-on poor quality narrow cycling infrastructure is approaching €3 Billion and will cause chaos across the city for something that will deliver very little improvement to the painfully slow double Decker buses public transport and will not be an desirable alternative to private car/taxi travel
The mythical Metro guestimate is now anywhere between €12-25 Billion
The Boring Company are constructing over 100km of underground vehicle tunnels to provide door to door transport in smaller tunnels connecting the Airport to all major venues and they can be constructed much more rapidly and affordably and don’t require large station blocks that are required with traditional Metro’s.
I proposed something similar the DublinLoop for Dublin but the NTA refused to do a feasibility study.
@Cormac McKay: dublin loop is techno bro fantasy. Trams, rail, buses, bikes and walking all work at scale. No need to reinvent the wheel
@Liam OTailliuir: We need 21st century technological development to meet our individual transport needs and climate goals
nostalgic delusional ideology 20th century solutions that never worked and never will is not going to improve our quality of life and quality of our city the urban realm air quality and reduce the stress of transport and travel
@Cormac McKay: how’s the Vegas loop going? Even in a point to point tunnel fsd isn’t up to running a reliable service and uses human drivers. It’s still the mythical 5-10 years away.
@Cormac McKay: The car is a 20th century solution that no longer works well, if it ever did. That’s why the car has to make way for more efficient types of transport.
@Shane O Neill: Personally love the new people carrying drone solutions.
@Shane O Neill: the RoboTaxi is the next evolution of public transport and will come in all shapes and sizes be adaptable and multi purpose
Might be an idea to invest in providing efficient and extensive public transport to provide an alternative to using the car
Just saying
@Michael Fehily: The plan is literally a proposal to invest in efficient public transport. As Dublin Bus CEO said in support of the plan, the private car is the biggest barrier to an efficient bus service.
@Michael Barry: What about metro. Dart expansion. Interconnectivity between all modes . Big words for the Irish media I know but that’s what’s needed
@Michael Barry: The biggest barrier I’ve found to an efficient bus service is the ghost busses. You know the one that you’ve waited more than 10 minutes for and is “due” that suddenly disappears and the next bus is due in 30 minutes. How did the private car make the bus disappear?
@Ger Whelan: there’s also far too many bus stops on some lines, nearly stopping every 100 metres
First, get better public transport then you can do that.
Public transports are completely crap in Dublin.
Not enough bus, not enough luas, almost no train at peak hours.
@Alex: Claiming to want better public transport while objecting to a plan for better public transport. Slow clap, genius.
@Michael Barry: No they’re determined to make life miserable for people who NEED TO drive to work. People who don’t have the luxury of a luas, people who are afraid to chance the ‘ghost’ bus not turning up. People who start work before dawn where no buses service. People who have worked 30+ plus years who are being made out to be ‘evil’.
@Lilly Lalogue: Yip
@Michael Barry: The plan isn’t for better public transport at all. If you wanted better transport you would put more regular trains, more luas. Those don’t suffer traffic. Also you would get trains or more of them during the week-end because it’s not the case.
Public transport isn’t Dublin cut center, the people using them the most aren’t living there and need to get there and they can’t do it properly. If you live in Lucan and want to go to Tallagh? Impossible without a 2.5h journey. You don’t seem to understand how public infrastructure is supposed to work do you ?
@Alex: I agree. Living in Drogheda and working in Sandyford, leaving the office at 5, using public transport I’m not home before 8 pm, whereas with a car, I could be home by 6:30. What’s needed are more Luas lines, like in almost any European city of Dublin’s size
@Larissa Caroline Nikolaus: The Greens and DCC want you to cycle home from Sandyford to Drogheda…only cyclists matter it seems!
Thank God that pompous buffoon, “judge” o’donnell in Limk, is being held to account by the DPP. Let’s hope something meaningful will come of this.
Drain the Liffey and reroute private traffic down there.
@Simon Eales:
Moving the deck chairs on thr Titanic springs to mind!
But what about the added traffuc congestion,noise and emissions from diverted traffic into residential communities?
Spilled water runs somewhere else, and the traffic will likewise flow elsewhere.
So, what are the areas affected?
Have any studies been conducted to identify urban populations which will be affected, what are the environmental consequences for them, and is the wider traffic load less or more harmful?
Please defer this City central fiddling til this wider analysis is proven positive for all Dubliners.
There is a mad situation on Bachelor’s Walk where busses have to get from the left across to the right to go across O’Connell Bridge. There is a mad traffic light situation. I bet this is a reason why they want to kick out the cars. Problems don’t seem to be anticipated. Look at the plastic bottle situation – now the bin companies want to put the bin charges up. Did anyone in authority think this might be a possibility? Nothing ever seems to be thought or planned through – and it always seems to be fix it as we go.
@John Kelly: They’ve already set the lights with a lengthy advanced green for busses. Helped quite a lot with buses clearing the junction.
Ban all cars from city centre just like any city in France or Spain
@Peter Byrne: not in Barcelona, only back from there and there’s plenty of cars in the city and also unlike here a great public transport system
@Peter Byrne: And how do people get to work ? You didn’t really think this through did you ?
What about Westland row to pearse street?
@You’re Not Serious: what about it ?
What can they do there ?
@kevin rock: you tell me- there was no mention in the article and that was a major adjustment
Private motorists are destroying the city
@Argus Romsworth: private motorists are hard working people who are using their cars to drive to work, to pay their mortgages and feed thair families. Terrible evil people
@Lilly Lalogue: Bus users are hard working people who are using the bus to get to work, to pay their mortgages and feed thair families. The difference is motorists pollute, endanger and delay people around them. So why should bus users face endless delays caused by drivers using the city as a shortcut?
@Michael Barry: Bus users should get better jobs if they can’t afford cars.
@Argus Romsworth: I agree, unfortunately the problem is that the car for many people is still the quickest option to get home after work, if you can choose between a 45 minutes to 1 hour car journey, or spending 3 hours commuting by Luas, bus or train, people will choose the car. Especially if public transport is unreliable
@Michael Barry: Haulage, freight, hgv, planes, also hard working people (lucky for them their never legislated against as we are spineless in the face of commercial interests). Also are you mention ‘endanger’ a valid point, how many attacks have their been on public transport, more or less than accidents caused by cars? I wager the figures are more.
To solve all this all we need to do is this week cancel all our tax and insurance declare our cars off the road then on Monday morning all take public transport or walk / cycle to work. They would soon listen to us.
@Be Lucky: Yes but their bosses wouldn’t, and they control our lives.
Banning private car usage from the city centre would clearly discriminate against physically disabled people who need their modified cars to get them around. They cannot cycle or use public transport at packed peak times when it isn’t suitable for their needs, many use snd require walking aids crutches..good luck getting them onto a crammed dart or luas. Disabled people are entitled to get to work the same as anybody else. Numerous discrimination cases in the courts would result flooding the entire system.
Here’s a thought slow down the numbers emigrating into Dublin non essential at present hence trying to lesson the amounts on the roads and on buses. The more enter ireland the more busier it gets,the more transport in use,the more those cabbages in the green party then hammer us with they’re climate crap taxes aswel. Oh sorry, the now possible leader roderic for that who helped fuel migration will possibly be running the green party now so then. Round and round we go in circles achieving sweet fa.
@Paddy C: ‘Dept. of Infrastructure’…. needed.
Nó enforcement cars use bus lanes go through bus gate at college green camera enforcement needed
@paul hughes: Drive a bus lane in the UK and you get an £80 fine in the post with a picture of your vehicle in the letter… It like ‘the future’ or something over there!!… no tax or insurance in the window even!!!… how do they kno!?! s/
Brilliant. We know the problems but when proposals are made to address them business lobbies nobble them, just like agribusiness.
Why has no one questioned the people who drive in because they are making purchases that will not be suitable to carry on public transport? Large toys for Christmas, for example. They will drive business away from the city centre to the suburbs, resulting in job losses.
With the increase of Hybrid working taking multiple workers out of the city every day, retail and hospitality are already feeling the pinch. Add to that the fear of walking the streets in Dublin, and we will see a return to multiple derelict units impacting the rates income for DCC.
It is a hamster wheel running in reverse.
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