Dublin City Council’s chief executive, Richard Shakespeare, has said that the Dublin City Centre Transport Plan will start to be rolled out as originally planned next month, in August.
Around 80% of the public consultation submissions were in favour of the plan, business groups took different positions on the plan, and attempts by a minority of councillors to delay the plan were rejected by other councillors twice, including by a vote.
Bus gates are to be installed at O’Connell Bridge, which means motorists on the north and south quays will have to turn them off at or before the bridges. As IrishCycle.com previously reported, only 2% of people around O’Connell Bridge are in cars.
The council further said that 60% of car traffic in the core city centre was through traffic which did not stop, for example, at shops or workplaces and the plan was focused on reducing the impact of that traffic on the city’s bus system. Under BusConnects and the plan for College Green, the quays are to become an even more important bus corridor.
The bus gates will operate from 7am to 7pm. The council has maintained that this is in response to complaints from Disabled Persons’ Organisations, but there is wide suspicion among those who support the plan that the change is to appease the car park owners.
It is unclear at this point how the concession will affect the ability to reallocate space, including for wider footpaths, public space, and cycle paths as had been planned. These measures were not expected to be put in place from the beginning but rather phased in as with other measures of the plan.
On a webpage outlining the details of the bus gates, the council said that “at least 50% of the road space is assigned to cars” and “this is causing delays to the existing public transport network, particularly buses which account for 50% of the users at this junction.”
In a memo to the Lord Mayor and city councillors today, Shakespeare said: “I wish to inform you that I have decided that the first measures contained within the City Centre Transport plan will come into effect from the 25th of August 2024.”
“As you know there has been much correspondence to my office on this issue and I have carefully considered the correspondence from all parties both for and against the implementation of the plan,” he said. “In particular I have reviewed the economic analysis from the DCCTA [Dublin City Centre Traders Alliance] and have met with them on a number of occasions and my officials have engaged with numerous organisations from disability groups to multiple businesses within the city.”
The Dublin City Centre Traders Alliance’s economic analysis report was heavily criticised by academics and groups who support that plan.
In an article on TheJournal.ie Barra Roantree, an assistant professor and director of the MSc in Economic Policy at the Department of Economics at Trinity College Dublin, wrote that: “If this analysis were submitted as an undergraduate dissertation to the university I teach in, I would fail it. It shouldn’t have any role in informing the debate around the Dublin City Transport Plan
In his memo issued this afternoon, Shakespeare said: “I believe that the correct course for the city is to proceed with the implementation of the City Centre Transport plan beginning in August with two measures on the north quays at Bachelors Walk and on the South Quays on Burgh Quay and Aston Quay. These changes consist of road marking and signage changes. All other routes on the quays and all other routes in the city remain the same and North-South, South-North access to all Liffey Bridges will remain the same.”
The memo said that the hours of operation of the bus gates on the quays will be from 7am to 7pm Monday to Sunday.
The memo continued: “There are no changes to disabled bays, loading bays or taxi ranks. The vast majority of routes to hospitals will remain the same, as will the majority of routes to city centre car parks. Access for residents will be maintained although there may be a different route to or from the area.”
He said that a working group, chaired by the Lord Mayor, James Geoghegan, will now be put together to monitor the impact of changes included in the transport plan and that it will include business organisations, the NTA, elected members and other interested parties such as members of the disability community.
Shakespeare added: “These traffic management measures are being implemented to meet the policies and objectives of the Dublin City Development Plan 2022 — 2028. They look to address the fact that 60% of general traffic in the city centre is not stopping, working or shopping but is simply travelling through the city centre.”
Is it going to be as outlined originally, or with the disastrous knee-jerk 7am to 7pm for the bus gates?
Never mind, I re-read and see it is going to be 7 to 7 – argh. So no permanent road changes can be made. Crazy thing is that these hours has no significant benefit for anyone, so why introduce it? So that the lower volumes of private cars in the city centre at night can go up and down the quays at a time when the traffic volumes are lower and any more circuitous route will take a minimal amount of time to drive.
Other commenters have taken the words out of my mouth – as though cars will magically wait until 7pm to stay out of bus gates. You could have made the argument (if you’re an extremist like me!) that a 7pm to 7am window would have been to allow taxis into bus lanes!