— Nearly 62% of local Dún Laoghaire residents who responded said they are supportive vs 25% against.
A majority, 54%, of the 7,057 overall respondents to public consultation on the Living Streets Dún Laoghaire project indicated that they are supportive of the project in its current form, with just 35% rejecting it outright.
A Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council report shared with councillors outlines how another 10% of respondents said that they would support the proposals with changes, while 1% were unclear if they supported the project or not.
Cllr Lorraine Hall (FG), a local councillor for Dún Laoghaire who supports the plan, posted sections of results from the consultation report to Twitter.
Cllr Hall thanked the staff involved with preparing this report so quickly which she said was a “mammoth task given the record level of responses received”.
She said: “Very interesting to look at support for #LivingStreets in neighbouring areas — Blackrock (73.9%), Cabinteely (71.7%) & Deansgrange (62.7%) were areas that exhibited high levels of support, while Glasthule/Sandycove (58.2%) & Dalkey (55.2%) exhibited higher levels of opposition.”
People replying to the councillor questioned if the level of negativity from Dalkey and Glasthule had anything to do with the predictions of doom spread by some residents in those areas including on local Facebook pages and a resident claiming at a public meeting that Dalkey is like Gaza because of the yet-to-be implemented traffic changes.
Others pointed out that Dalkey overall has a history of resisting changes to make its town centre more walkable while there is a heavy level of support from Blackrock which has successfully made its main street less car-dominant.
A key part of the proposals includes the pedestrianisation of 220m George’s Street Lower from the junction with Patrick’s St to St Michael’s Hospital.
Modal filters — which allow only people walking and cycling to pass but not motorists — are planned on Tivoli Road, Cross Avenue, and Clarinda Park West. The point of the modal filters is to block rat-running traffic and make more streets low-traffic and thus safer and more attractive for walking and cycling.
The Council’s plans outline how motoring access will be maintained to all houses around the filters and in the wider area.
As well as the aim of making the area more walking and cycling-friendly the project includes a significant element of greening.
The council said that all 7,057 submissions received through different methods including the consultation survey on its website, hard copy surveys, letter and email submissions were analysed. The full consultation results are expected to be published later today.
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The areas most positive, interestingly, are the ones most likely to go TO Dun Laoghaire, whereas, Dalkey, Glasthule/Sandycove (DGS) are more likely to go THROUGH Dun Laoghaire to get somewhere else. Realistically, DGS is not a go-to destination, and can generally be reached by using the N11 for those north and west of Dun Laoghaire, so less likely due to existing one-way systems in DL to drive through DL.
From the CSO, those negative areas are also with the oldest average age population and thus perhaps least likely to favour change.
To Marks point, the most important data here is the 61% in favour from those living in the area and 65% in favour from the wider area. These are the people who will actually be living in the “living streets” and reflect similarly to the approval rates for the city centre plan from those who actually live in the city.
These are the voice who should be listened to as it’s their daily life and their health that’s up for debate here.
Similar to the City Centre plan and your coverage of the media reporting on it, I can see a lot of very strong opinions come out about this plan in the coming weeks to try and sway the conversation toward negative points and general disinformation.
The media loves hot topics and negativity sells, let’s see what they make of this.
Yes, a lot of very elderly people (80+) driving in Ireland – more than ever I’d say.
High time councils explored more local mini buses like you see in European towns that just stick to the town, not going long meandering routes.
The main stretch of George’s street before the town is a nightmare to cycle- no cycle lanes at all. And on the other side Monkstown is equally intimidating to cycle.
Shifting thinking from cars to people…
“If you invite more cars, you get more cars. If you make more streets better for cars you get more traffic. If you make more bicycle infrastructure you get more bicycles. If you invite people to walk more and use public spaces more, you get more life in the city.”
Jan Gehl is a practicing Urban Design Consultant and Professor of Urban Design at the School of Architecture in Copenhagen, Denmark.