A local resident who posted a video of chaotic scenes of motorists mounting footpaths on a road in the northside of Dublin has said that residents want Dublin City Council to act on the issue.
After residents protested to highlight motorists mounting the kerbs and driving on footpaths on Richmond Road the council has already regulated parking and put planters on the footpath. But the problems have persisted.
Andrew Cahill, the local resident who took the video, said that there was a residents’ meeting held recently and that there was broad agreement that implementing the parking scheme has been a positive step.
He said: “The stop-go system certainly makes it better than what was there beforehand but as you say, it just takes one driver to get impatient and the knock-on effect is a nightmare.”
“It’s reduced the amount of people driving on the path for sure and the road looks better now that it’s not overrun with parked cars. That said, given how narrow the road is — all it takes is one impatient driver and the whole system collapses like you seen in the video yesterday. We have seen speeding increased and it has done nothing at all to stop HGV’s illegal using the road,” he said.
Cahill said: “Bottom line is, it’s still unnecessarily dangerous and the whole community would like to see the hierarchy and priority of Cars, SUV’s and HGVs change to residents, pedestrians and cyclists.”
On solutions, Cahill said that residents are looking for filtered permeability or a one-way system to be considered for a trail and the residents association has written to Dublin City Council to communicate this.
He added: “Outside of that we are open to options. Drumcondra is probably the most well-connected area for public transport in Dublin. Given all the talk from the government about emissions targets and reducing car journeys in the city, you would think this could be an opportunity to show they’re actually serious about change. We’ve been watching filtered permeability trials across the city so keen to see what it would look like for Richmond Road.”
The planters have helped a little. Cards often raced along with 2 wheels up on the path leaving little room for pedestrians. Now they move slowly leap frogging between the planters. It’s still not good but the hazard has reduced a little.
There already is a filtered permeability trial on Richmond Road. They shut it to through traffic whenever there is a Shels home game on. Doesn’t cause chaos.