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TRAFFIC CHANGES UNDER Dublin’s transport plan take effect in the city centre from today.
New traffic flow management measures are being implemented on and near the quays around the O’Connell Bridge area, the first step in a series of changes intended to ease congestion in the capital.
The transport plan is aiming to reduce traffic jams by restricting private vehicle access on certain roads and changing some 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.
In addition to easing traffic, it is hoped that reducing private cars in the city centre will help to lower greenhouse gas emissions that are harmful to the climate from the transport sector.
Today’s set of measures have been dialled down from the original proposals after accessibility concerns raised by Disabled Persons’ Organisations (DPOs).
The changes will apply from 7am to 7pm, Monday to Sunday.
Here are the changes taking effect, according to Dublin City Council.
Currently, there are around 252,000 movements at the Bachelor’s Walk/O’Connell Street junction between 7am and 7pm, according to Dublin City Council around half of which are Dublin Bus users (123,885 passengers).
Pedestrians make up 22% of movements at the junction and Luas users account for 14%, which means those three main forms of transport make up the majority (85%) of movements.
Other bus users (i.e. non-Dublin Bus) account for 10%, taxis for 2.4%, cars for 2% and cyclists for 2%.
“The measures on the north quays, which will affect approximately 200 users an hour (0.08% of all users each day), will allow for more space to be allocated to public transport initially which will improve the reliability, speed and service for public transport,” Dublin City Council has said.
“Similarly, on the south quays between 7am and 7am, just 2% of the users at the Burgh Quay/O’Connell Bridge/Aston Quay junction are undertaken by people in cars. However at least 50% of the road space is assigned to cars,” the council said.
“This is causing delays to the existing public transport network, particularly buses which account for 50% of the users at this junction. As creating additional road space is not an option, the existing space needs to works as efficiently as possible by moving the most amount of people whilst still maintaining access for businesses, residents and deliveries.”
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All to appease the Cabbage Heads!!!
@Ollie Fitzpatrick: Diverting traffic into O Connell Street is madness. It is the Main Street of the Capital city but more so a lot of time it is blocked by protest marches!!!
@Ollie Fitzpatrick: Protest marches don’t use the northbound lanes of O Connell Street, and they’re not happening ‘a lot of the time’
@Shane O Neill: There are protests most Saturdays now and sometimes midweek and many end up outside the GPO.
Green madness. I bet many Dubs will regret voting Green when they are stuck in traffic!
@common sense: they will evaporate at the next election
@common sense: you think people who vote Green don’t want measures like this taken? Also this is the work of DCC which has 5 or 6 councillors our of 60 or so, the greens aren’t the puppet masters of everything.
@common sense: We as an electorate need serious education in how to vote. Unfortunately the same morons are constantly voted in whether its local national or European. Wake up people!
Environmentalists will say this is a good move…it isn’t. It will just choke other areas around the city with extra traffic and of course pollution. DCC seriously need their heads examined.
@DJ D: I’ve been voting for 40 years it’s not that difficult, if you mean ” people should vote like me” nah a person’s vote is theirs to decide and you need to educate yourself on how democracy works.
@eoin fitzpatrick: was wondering how long it would take young Eoin to chime in
@common sense: haha hahaha hahaha
We are always stuck in traffic ye cabbage
@eoin fitzpatrick: you think! Sorry, but the Greens were holding the slim majority that they helped the government maintain over the larger parties’ heads, and got all the measures that they have introduced, passed by using it. But in case you have not noticed, with an election on the horizon, the cracks are beginning to show, even within the Green party itself, especially with the ousting and replacement of Ryan
@Paul O’Mahoney: Did I mention you specifically?
Some people are thick as f… in Ireland
@Paul O’Mahoney: Oh btw good for you!
Dosent make much odds now – The City has become such a dangerous place for anyone to be in, driving or otherwise.
City is gone.
@Éanna o Sca: The minister for justice thinks it’s a very safe place.
@Éanna o Sca: Ah the usual trope. I’m in town 7 days a week and it’s no better or worse than it was 20 years ago.
@Ian: tell that to the victims
@Éanna o Sca: so stay in the country then
@Paul Power: must be true so
@Ian: You’re wrong..I’ve lived my whole life near enough to city centre and have worked in city centre this last 20 years…Dublin city centre and north inner city are now a cesspit of anti social criminality and crime..especially after dark. Its gotten increasingly worst this last 10 -15 years. Honestly its not safe to travel about. Removing traffic makes space for more scobies to move into..recall what city was like during covid..like a scene from teh walking dead,,,
Montpellier in France a city with a population of 200.0000 people they have 5 tram lines. That connect all city and is free for residents Dublin 2 lines in a city close to 2.5 million and spend 10 years to do the connection between luas
Something wrong isn’t it
@Hugo Martinez: something wrong with your numbers, anyway. You’re doubling the Dublin population
@Hugo Martinez: we simply dont do infrastructure in this kip…
Am not convinced that these measures will achieve anything other than a very fractional improvement to that section of the city.
It will not reduce car traffic overall, but merely displace volumes to other, more residential routes, with consequential increased congestion & pollution for citizens in their living environment.
The basic traffic control issue for Dublin, and all road systems, is on street parking, allocating road space to out of use vehicle storage.
Eliminating that nonsense provides scope for cycle lanes, and buslanes, and with incentivised off peak goods & services traffic, will achieve vastly better road use.
Clear the arteries.
@William Kelly: I agree, all this effort just to prevent just, 2%. to private cars traveling through the city, people will find other routes to drive and I bet traffic will build up in residential areas.
@William Kelly: Its funny how we have an article about the WFH thing the government brought in being a dud, and the usual mob saying we need to force people back to offices to keep jobs. Yet other european countries openly embrace it and has helpe reduce the amount coming into the cities by car, well also that and great and safe public transport……but good aul Ireland will just eat itself from the outside in and wonder after why things are worse instead of better like the politicians promised it would
I am sure DCC and the greens have found the extra money for more public transport and also created a dedicated transport police over night to make sure the likes of the luas etc is safer for people to go on who will try and leave their cars at home
Oh wait, non of the above will ever happen?……ah well sure be grand
You can see the result of so many years of studies coming to effect :
An absolute failure.
Common sense is no more
We should set up a task force to discuss what way we could improve public transport..they could meet every now and then for the next 10 years and at the end of that they could recommend that the city would be best served with a metro system..built in the next 80 years…by BAM
Well done, Greens! Slowly killing businesses in Dublin city. Soon, all we’ll have left will be gear heads….
@Cormo R: this is DCCs doing not the Greens
@Cormo R: Those 8 green councillors rule the DCC with an iron fist.
@eoin fitzpatrick: But the Greens secure and provide the funding to local authorities for such measures:
Green Party Minister Eamon Ryan has secured record funding of €289 million for walking and cycling infrastructure in 2022, covering approximately 1,200 Active Travel projects across Ireland. We are determined to continue funding projects that make active travel an option for everyone across the country.
The transport plan is aiming to reduce traffic jams by restricting private vehicle access on certain roads and changing some 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.
It will be enforced for a couple of weeks and then it will be like College Green so called public transport corridor where private cars are constantly going through.
No point in doing these things if they aren’t monitored by cameras that actually issue fines.
We are years behind the rest of Europe when it comes to using camera technology to enforce the rules of the road.
It is the biggest cart before horse exercise I have ever seen. Dublin bus so unreliable, luas packed to the doors and doesn’t serve all areas of the city ridiculous. People will miss vital hospital appointments, flights, etc. Due to this Green nonsense
@Mark Gaffney: Who is using the north and south quays to get to the airport or a hospital? Wracking my brain with the possible routes and unless you live on that section of the quays, you’d be mad to take them before any restrictions came in
@Mark Gaffney: Dublin Bus is brilliant
@Liam OTailliuir: displaced traffic from the quays will clog up other routes…wrack that brain more…
Hopefully more pedestrianisation of areas to follow. Keep up the good work.
@Argus Romsworth: Id be more concerned about having a decent public transport so people can get from A to B first…..I mean such lovely weather like we have today is ideal to be walking in sure
People will still use the car. Public transport has not improved. Changing the route of traffic only causes chaos. People want to use their cars. This changes nothing. Just ridiculous on every level.
@Rafa C: yes many people want to use cars but the city can’t accommodate this. So change is necessary and as always, change faces opposition as it’s scary.
@Ciaran Foster: no this the wrong approach. Increase public transport first. There’s just going to be traffic building up in surrounding areas now, which will impact public transport coming into the city. It’s absolutely bonkers. Nothing scary, except inept planners
Move out of Dublin. Better quality of life.
That is all.
The final nail in the coffin of a city for Dubliners. It’ll be a ghost town populated by tourists and a handful of young cyclists
@Cflood: and well outnumbered by the zombies and vagrants.
Are motorcyclists included under cyclists ?
If not, why not?
There’s no specific mention of them.
I don’t agree with most of this anyway. Money has been squandered on traffic and road management around Dublin city and suburbs during this government’s tenure, making people who live there and need to use their cars stressed and miserable trying to go about their daily lives.
I rue the day I voted Green to a bunch of incompetents who were incapable of making policies to people along with them.
They’ve done a lot of damage and caused a lot of division.
@Evan Wakefield: I really don’t get the Green bashing. They have, I think, only 8 councillors in DCC. So obviously othe party and non party aligned councillors voted for this. Can you just maybe elaborate on the Green conspiracy?
@Sal Paradise: They have only 12 TD’s and look at the damage they’re doing to the country.
@Seanie: So are all other politicians that weak they can’t stand up to things they disagree with? Quite childish logic you have.
@Sal Paradise: Not really, here I’ll help clear a few things for you….basically, the Greens are using FF’S and FG’s fear of SF getting into power, the same fear that had them take the unthinkable act of forming a coalition, to get what they want, and if you are blind to that, then it is yourself is displaying the child like logic
@Pat Barry: You are letting your obsession of the greens give a free pass to all other councillors. This initiative was voted on by DCC and not the Dail. You do understand that? Greens have 8 councillors out of 63. FF and FG have 19 combined. Assuming FF and FG have a gun to their heads so that gives 27 out of 66. So do the Greens also have some control over the other councillors?
@Sal Paradise: For a start, is it 63 or 66? Secondly, 27 only leaves them needing 7 short of needing a majority to get a motion passed, assuming 66 councilors and that all councilors were present, with no abstentions…and while non-government members can vote as they want, and some will agree with the policies proposed, depending on how the proposal is made, (after all, look at the DRS), you can be sure that the FF and FG leadership have their members on council’s up and down the country instructed to vote the Green’s way, regardless of personal opinions, rather than risk them pulling out of Government forcing an election. Now, with an election due in the next 10 to 12 months, it will be very interesting to see how FF and FG will defend the decisions made at council and government levels.
@Evan Wakefield: I was just wondering, why would motorcyclists be included with cyclists? No where else in the rules of the road are they associated as they are 2 different classes of road users.
@Pat Barry: I think you are giving too much credit to politicians and councillors. They are as cunning as Baldrick in Blackadder.
@Pat Barry: because the measures are supposed to be about tackling traffic congestion and motorcycles do not contribute to that in Dublin.
They have a marginally larger road presence than a traditional bike, and there’s even less in it with some of these new Ebikes.
Wouldn’t go near the city now – much easier and cheaper and safer to do business out of town.
Doesn’t look like Google Maps were sent the memo yet!
@david.farrell33%mail.dcu.ie@gtempaccount.com: with Google maps in Ireland you would likely end up in the middle of the country side. How is this not happening in Netherlands ?
Oh wait, not the same level
What should be done is the east link M50 and the port tunnel should be free. Then there should be a toll to enter the city they could use anpr avg speed cameras if you enter at x time and exit at x time if you say did in 35 mins depending on time they would know you didn’t stop and you would be billed.
Where’s the map?
@Barry Sorensen: Here you are: https://www.dublincity.ie/residential/transportation/city-centre-transport-plan-2023
This is gonna be some shit show, the M50 is already to its limit and now they want people to drive around the city on it what a shower of muppets. Its really simple to explain lads, get a 500ml bottle and try put 750ml i to it. There is your answer, actually dont try that because it would probably take 6 of you lads to attempt it and then the confusion at the end would send ye all over the edge.
No left turn from Westmoreland street to Fleet Street. That’s to stop cars from using the carpark beside Thunderoad Cafe.
Nice change. Throughput for private vehicles is so low the change will have little impact for traffic on surrounding areas. Should help a lot with sequencing and throughput for other modes. Hope they put in an additional pedestrian green into the sequence. Those lights can be very slow with large crowds waiting for them to change
Jesus. Good luck with that
With all the parties singing from the same hymn sheet, there is effectively no opposition, they seem to have formed a political cartel. So it’s not voting, or voting Independents, poor option!
Dublin needs a metro system. Suspend all planning restrictions and just start building.
@Brendan Fitzsimons: in other words elect a dictator
City centre rapidly turning into a dead zone with a few meandering tourists and a load of scrotes on scooters.
Okay, let’s go! Let’s stop whining and start moving again – so sick of either being stuck in traffic or having to watch my shoulder for ejits in single occupancy 2ton vehicles!
@MeetClimatechangeOnOurTerms: If you are stuck in the traffic….. You are part of the cause of the problem!!!
Enforced by one Garda standing around on his phone for a week and then normal service resumes.
Why don’t they scan number plates of cars in bus planes. Technology has existed for over 20 years and the fines alone would pay for the system
@yourname: not even. Lad in high vis either side waving people away being ignored by 20% of people. Maybe enforcement will follow but based on the existing busgates I’m skeptical
Okay, let’s go! Let’s stop whining and start moving again – so sick of either being stuck in traffic or having to watch over my shoulder for single occupancy 2ton vehicles acting like they own the place.
Confusing AF
Fantastic news
Complete joke. Just took me 19 mins to get from Pearse street to Parnell street at 8:40pm. They haven’t a clue.
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