The decision not to delay the implementation of the Dublin City Centre Transport Plan was, in the end, an easy one for Dublin City Council chief executive Richard Shakespeare.
He had the firm backing of Minister for Transport Eamon Ryan, every political party the council, numerous environmental and health organisations, and the city’s main transport provider Dublin Bus.
On the other side, seeking to delay the plan’s implementation until March or April next year, he had the Dublin City Centre Traders Alliance, a group that includes retailers Brown Thomas Arnotts, a number of car park owners and other businesses, and Minister of Minister of State for Enterprise Emer Higgins.
Higgins had last month asked Shakespeare to consider an economic analysis commissioned by the alliance, which warned of dire consequences if the plan was implemented.
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Shakespeare agreed to review this analysis, and it was submitted to him on July 11th. However, he had already on July 1st told city councillors he intended to reduce the scope of the traffic restrictions in the plan, following consultation with disabled persons’ organisations who had concerns about their ability to access the quays by private car.
The original Dublin City Centre Transport Plan, published last year, included 24-hour “bus gates” on Bachelors Walk and Aston Quay restricting passage to public transport only.
The restrictions on the quays, which will come into effect on August 25th, now only apply at 7am-7pm and will allow motorists to continue to drive up the quays and along Bachelors Walk, from where they must turn left on to O’Connell Street, instead of continuing straight on to Eden Quay.
On the southside motorists will not be permitted to drive from Burgh Quay or Westmoreland Street to Aston Quay, but in a new concession will be able to reach Aston Quay from Fleet Street. Drivers will also be permitted to cross O’Connell Bridge to O’Connell Street, and Eden Quay.
The changes mean no section of the north quays will be off-limits to private traffic, and just a very short section of the south quays, about 50m, will be car free.
The effect, while ostensibly done to address the concerns of people with disabilities, is that no city centre car park will be inaccessible, and as Mr Shakespeare said in a memo to councillors on Thursday, in the majority of cases the routes motorists use to access these car parks would remain entirely unchanged.
Proponents of the plan may be disappointed by the watering down of the traffic restrictions and in particular their application to 7am-7pm only.
Alternatively, they could see Shakespeare’s decision a positive first step; the College Green “bus gate” was also designed in 2009 as a 24-hour scheme, before being scaled back to daytime only. Eventually last year it was reinstated to 24/7. It may have taken more than a decade, but eventually public transport won out over the private car.
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