The latest proposals for Dublin from the National Transport Authority and Dublin City Council envisage further restrictions for motorists in the city and more space on the road for buses, cyclists and walkers. The most eye-catching parts of the Draft Dublin City Centre Transport Plan involve private cars being banned from parts of the north and south quays, close to O’Connell Bridge, with Parliament Street also made traffic free.
A key goal is to reduce sharply the number of private cars using the city centre as a “through route” rather than a destination. Some 60 per cent of cars using the road do not have the city centre as their destination and the goal is to reduce this type of usage by two-thirds.
It follows the removal of cars from College Green last May, when the “bus gate” became a permanent feature. New restrictions will also be placed on traffic using Pearse Street.
The plans are now out for public consultation until December 1st and no doubt a variety of views will be put on the table. But there can be no doubt that they are moving in the right direction. So are proposals for new public spaces in the city centre, though much work is needed to improve the general public realm of Dublin’s city centre and the surrounding urban “towns”.
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Both for the future “liveability” of the city centre, including its air quality, and from the point of view of reducing transport emissions, policy needs to continue to shift the balance away from using the car as the default mode of transport. That this will prove inconvenient for some is inevitable, but they cannot claim to be surprised by these kinds of policies, now common in cities across the world.
As well as the stick, of course, the carrot of improving other options for commuters needs to be pursued with more urgency. Removing cars from the road leaves more space for buses – but development of the BusConnects project has been slow, hamstrung in many places by planning objections. Meanwhile, the plan for a metro remains years behind schedule.