The Dublin City Centre Transport Plan, designed to tackle the city’s traffic congestion, will be implemented from next month as planned, despite concerted attempts by some city business interests to have it shelved.
Dublin City Council chief executive Richard Shakespeare has resisted pressure from groups who oppose the restrictions on private cars, and has determined the plan will go ahead.
The first elements of the plan, which involve day-time only restrictions on private traffic travelling east and west along the Liffey quays at O’Connell Bridge, will come into effect on August 25th.
Many proponents of the plan, including Dublin Bus chief executive Billy Hann, had warned against delaying its implementation, amid concerns it would be shelved indefinitely if it was not introduced before the next general election.
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Minister for Transport Eamon Ryan, and all parties on the city council had also strongly supported the implementation of the plan.
The Dublin City Centre Traders Alliance, a group which includes retailers Brown Thomas Arnotts, a number of car park owners and other businesses, had led the charge against the plan.
Following the intervention of the Minister of State for Enterprise, Fine Gael TD Emer Higgins, Mr Shakespeare agreed to consider an economic impact analysis commissioned by the alliance. The alliance asked him to delay implementing the plan until at least March or April of next year.
The report by Pat McCloughan of PMCA Economic Consulting, was submitted to Mr Shakespeare on July 11th. It estimated a loss of €141 million in consumer spending by 2028 due to the proposed restrictions on traffic, with knock on costs to the city amounting to almost €400 million a year.
Several commentators claimed the report was based on flawed assumptions about the usage of cars for shopping and associated spending of motorists.
Mr McCloughan told The Irish Times he stands by his methodology and it makes sense to conclude that people travelling by car will, on average, spend more in the shops.
However, momentum in favour of the plan received a boost last week when Minister for Transport Eamon Ryan last week warned Government funding for the project would be at risk if its implementation was delayed.
“It’s not a threat. There’s a choice. If you don’t advance the project then the funding will go to those councils that are willing,” he said.
Late last week all parties on the council signed a joint letter to Mr Shakespeare reiterating support for the plan. It read that “the view from the overwhelming majority of the elected side of the council is clear: you have our support to advance the implementation of this plan efficiently and without any undue delay”.
Dublin Bus chief executive Billy Hann had also urged Mr Shakespeare to go ahead with the plan.
“One of the biggest obstacles we have to a reliable and punctual bus services is congestion in the city,” he said. “If we keep with the status quo, it’s never going to change and we’re going to continuously end up with buses and cars in gridlock,”
Environmental, commuter and health organisations also sought the “on-time and in full” implementation of the plan
The plan, when it was published last year, included 24-hour “bus gates” on Bachelors Walk and Aston Quay restricting passage to public transport only.
Dublin City Councillors were earlier this month told the restrictions were being reduced, and would only apply 7am-7pm daily. Although private motorists would not be permitted to drive directly east and west along the Liffey Quays at O’Connell Bridge, only a 50m section of Aston Quay would be inaccessible to cars.
The plan, aimed to discourage “traffic that has no destination in the city”, with 60 per cent of motorists passing through rather than stopping.
Its measures do not ban motorists from crossing any Liffey bridge currently open to cars, and the council said access to city car parks would be maintained, but certain routes would be for public transport and cyclists only. The plan also envisages the eventual creation of a number of new civic plazas.
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