Dublin City Council officials have defenced 24-hour bus lanes after a councillor recently submitted a motion asking for the “rationale for converting bus lanes around Clarehall Avenue and Hole in the Wall Road from 12-hour bus lanes to 24-hour bus lanes.”
Motion in the name of Councillor Tom Brabazon (Fianna Fáil) said that the: “North Central Area Committee calls upon the Director of Services to explain the rationale for converting bus lanes around Clarehall Avenue and Hole in the Wall Road from 12-hour bus lanes to 24-hour bus lanes.”
The move to make more bus and cycle lanes 24 hours was outlined by the council last year and reported by this website. The bus lane element of it comes as an increasing number of city bus routes are made 24 hours as part of BusConnects.
The motion was in the agenda pack for local councillors’ latest North Central Area Committee (link) meeting.
An official response from Dublin City Council said that it is the council’s “policy to continue promoting the modal shift from private car use to increased use of more sustainable forms of transport, such as active mobility and public transport, as referenced multiple times in Chapter 8 of the Dublin City Council development plan.”
In an official written response to the motion, Niall Bolger, acting senior executive ITS (Intelligent Transportation Systems) officer with the council, said: “The bus priority team is reviewing bus lane operational hours throughout the city and intends to extend them where possible.”
The response highlighted that Route 15 operates 24 hours a day from Clongriffin Train Station to the City Centre and beyond, and that it will benefit from the 24-hour bus lanes.
It said that the benefits of operating bus lanes on a 24-hour basis include: “Improved bus speed and reliability, increased public transport ridership, it’s safer for cyclists who sometimes share the bus lane, the 24-hour operation makes it more evident to other road users when the bus lane is operating, and there is an improved ability to enforce.”
The response also outlined the change in hours for the Clarehall Avenue and Hole in the Wall Road bus lanes, which the bus priority team proposed in April 2024, and that the council’s Transport Advisory Group approved the measures at their May 28th 2024 meeting.
The response also indicated that councillors at the North Central Area Committee noted the Transport Advisory Group report at their meeting on May 15th, 2024.
Following this, An Garda Síochána reviewed and approved them, the council manager’s orders were signed off on July 24th, 2024, and the council changed the signs to enact the 24-hour bus lanes on August 19th, 2024.
The official reply also noted that warning signs were erected to warn motorists of the changes.
Incredible headline to have to write. Real Ballymagash stuff
The response from the TD is typical of their perspective, i.e. it is better to pander to a cluster of voters, who do not use buses or active transport means to commute etc, so as to increase their chances of being elected.
This, rather than think of the greater good.
I hope people that use buses remember which parties those td’s represent