Dublin City Council has watered down planned sustainable transport priority measures along the quays — as well as the new alternative Liffey Cycle Route solution for the quays around Smithfield which we reported on earlier, the council are also going to plan for a single lane of general traffic on Eden Quay.
Eden Quay was planned to be only for buses, trams, taxis and bicycles, but after a large campaign against the plan the council are going to allow cars into the area where Luas Cross City trams will be crossing the north quays. The council previously stated taking cars off the quays was needed to keep buses and trams moving.
A council report on the issue states the following: “A number of suggestions were made that a single lane of general traffic could be accommodated on Eden Quay provided adequate protection for the bus movements was implemented on Bachelors Walk. We therefore considered if we could alter the design from a single left turning lane of general traffic on Bachelors Walk to a left and straight ahead lane to allow access to Eden Quay for general traffic.”
“It was clear that the protection of the bus fleet operation was the difficulty with this proposal and would require substantial additional bus priority measures using traffic signal control with advanced bus priority interventions.”
It adds: “The above layout shows the option considered, on Bachelors Walk the interaction between the bus lane and the general traffic lane will be controlled by traffic signals with the aim to ensure that at all times the bus fleet can efficiently and safely move from the bus lane on the left to the right hand bus lane. The signals will operate in a manner to allow general traffic to proceed only when it is clear to do so and they will be able to proceed left to O’Connell Street or straight ahead to Eden Quay.”
“It is not proposed to alter the arrangement whereby the right turn to the bridge is for Public Transport only as this measure, will as well as helping public transport ensure that the lane on Bachelors Walk for general traffic will be able to operate efficiently.
“DCC are of the view that this proposed alteration to the scheme helps to address a lot of the concerns that have been raised about the original Eden Quay proposal, as it allows a single lane on Eden Quay, it still retains the direct link to the IFSC and the car parks and entertainment centres there, it will reduce both the volume of traffic in this area and the amount of traffic diverted on to other routes.”
“We believe this proposal will help to address most of the issues surrounding public transport delays in the area and will also help to mitigate against any issues that the introduction of the Luas LCC raises. It does mean that general traffic will be queued particularly at peak times at the new traffic signals while public transport vehicles clear the space before them. However it does try to differentiate between commuter and consumer traffic as when traffic is light the delays to general traffic would be minimised.”
“It is however a compromise on the original scheme and there are concerns that this measure, which will rely on traffic signals and segregation of the bus lanes, may be difficult to operate and could potentially have knock on impacts for transport in general along the North Quays. The fact that the North Quays link is still open may encourage all vehicles to still use it rather than explore other options or modes.”
“It may therefore be necessary that in the future that Eden Quay may have to become public transport only, however DCC are prepared to introduce this alternative proposal and monitor its effectiveness prior to any further changes being proposed.”
Time for a massive congestion charge on all private vehicles (and taxis) in the city. Dirty, noisy, smelly, dangerous, ugly, polluting lumps of metal.
And I drive a car, btw.
“The interaction between the bus lane and the general traffic lane will be controlled by traffic signals ” and yellow boxes… Experience with other junctions ‘controlled’ this way will result in a) motorists breaking the rules resulting in gridlock disruption OR b) actually following the rules (by enforcement) resulting in huge delays for traffic in this lane. Either unpalatable result will be a stepping stone to abolishing private traffic on this route.
A very poor compromise – I dont trust the engineers to get the traffic control measures “right” nor do I trust private traffic to obey the measures. Oh and am I missing something as where, in all of this masturbatory engineering, are the measures to ensure a safe and pleasant environment for peds and cyclists?
Utter hypocrisy demonstrated by keeping cars on quays. Dublin City Council doesn’t care about children being able to cycle safely, or people being able to commute safely by bicycle.