On your bike!

Bee

I think he should go, 6 years in power and a total failure...Akin to the Church/Banks/Politicians blaming the media for highlighting the child abuse,financial scandals/political scandals we now have the Dictator of Traffic blaming the media for his failure to deal with traffic!

Bee


From the Sunday Independent Motoring Column

"Traffic chaos: there is no end in sight

DUBLIN'S Director of Traffic, Owen Keegan, thinks the gridlock in the capital, recently described by an international expert as among the worst worldwide, is all the fault of the Sunday Independent .

Mr Keegan defiantly told a major economics conference that it was the media and politicians who are promoting a "blame culture" around the capital's transport and traffic problems. In the same address he said people should not dismiss buses as a low cost solution to transport problems.

Mr Keegan was substantially wrong on both counts. However, it was additional comments in which he hit back at criticism of him, his office and other transport agencies that will raise eyebrows.

He said that media commentators expected congestion-free urban roads and public transport that was not overcrowded.

But according to Mr Keegan this would not be possible "at any reasonable cost" given the high peak levels of travel.

Mr Keegan was correct in assuming that most right-thinking people expect that if they travel on a Dart, a suburban train or a Dublin Bus for up to two hours each day, they should at least be able to sit down. What's wrong with that?

And is it too much to expect that those who bring their cars into town for business, shopping or pleasure should not have to spend two hours sitting in a traffic jam?

Mr Keegan's assertion that our "expectations" are too high sounds suspiciously like a declaration of surrender by the director of traffic. Was he seriously saying that Dublin will always have, not just full, but overcrowded buses, trams and trains?

If he was, then he should consider his position.

His primary argument to the Kenmare Economists Conference in Kerry on October 11 that the bus is best is fundamentally undermined by his own jaundiced assessment of our sky-high expectations.

Tens of thousands of workers with access to a car parking space and mums with buggies going to the shops will never abandon their private cars to get on an overcrowded double decker.

Car numbers have doubled in the last five years and people are simply not going to park them up at Owen Keegan's say so.

Yes, Dublin Bus have got their act together. The new fleet is more comfortable. Frequency and punctuality at peak times is significantly improved; Nitelink and express services are useful additions; and tax breaks for annual commuter tickets are attractive.

But there are still major problems. For the bus to replace the car they have to be quicker, more convenient and have comparable levels of comfort - ie a seat for every customer on every bus.

A survey carried out by the Dublin Transportation Office showed that one in three Quality Bus Corridors are behind or neck-and-neck with car journeys when it comes to time. So 33 per cent of the time it is not quicker by bus.

It found that the least effective QBC routes were out to Blanchardstown, Lucan and Rathfarnham.

Mr Keegan apparently finds some comfort from the finding that, overall, it is quicker to travel by bus, especially in the peak hour morning rush. On some QBC routes the bus can take just half the time than a car on the same journey.

Is that because buses are getting faster or because cars are getting slower? Car drivers believe that slower journey times are a direct result of being squeezed into two lanes because the third lane has been hijacked for the exclusive use of buses, taxis and Michael O'Leary.

And has any study ever been carried out to establish what percentage of buses during the rush hours have standing room only.

It has cost €72m to construct nine quality bus corridors. The benefit has been a 40 per cent increase in the number of peak time passengers using the bus.

Yet another survey is being conducted next month with the express aim of finding ways of luring the highly-paid executives out of their cars and onto the buses. Some hope.

Mr Keegan's response to criticisms of the state of Dublin traffic is to blame public attitudes.

He believes that rather than undertake serious analysis of the problem, journalists find it hard to resist "scapegoating soft targets". He added that the political system had also been keen to attribute blame to the agencies responsible for delivering transport services and avoid its share of the responsiblity.

But Mr Keegan has been the man in charge of managing traffic in Dublin for the last six years. How many can say that it is now easier to get to work or to the shops in the centre of Dublin than it was in 1997?

Recently, Derek Turner, managing director of transport for London, described traffic congestion in Dublin as among the worst in the world and it's hard to disagree.

Between morning and evening there are now some six 'rush' hours each day, coupled with massive tailbacks each morning, and an epidemic of clamping and on-the-spot fines as well as the constant nightmare of Luas roadworks to contend with.

Mr Keegan says we should all use the bus. Maybe he should get on his bike"

[Broken paragraphs fixed and quotes added - Victor]

Victor

Oooh, I wonder if their motoring correspondant / editor is coming under pressure from the advertising side for more car ad.s :rolleyes:

The media's job is to inform, even with an opinion, however, several papers in particular have gone out of their way of the last few years to slate any and every change, especially if it was "anti-car". Remember the ruckus about the Stillorgan QBC that took up 3 pages of the Irish Times - it is now the most successful of the QBCs.

However, did they offer congratualations when roadside variable message displays were put up to advise people of city centre parking conditions or diversions. Or that parking meter compliance (brought on by clamping) is bringing in millions of euros (ringfenced for tranport measures) for the city. Or that it is public tranport that is delivering increased pasenger number into the city centre, not cars.

I think the correspondant should look up "ethics" and "balance".

And by the way both Owen Keegan and Conor Faughnan both cycle and do not need to "get on their bikes".

Victor

And did I mention the substantial drop in the number of road traffic accident deaths in the city? From 53 to 14 in the five years to 2001 (2002 figure dues for publication).

Bee

Originally posted by Victor
And did I mention the substantial drop in the number of road traffic accident deaths in the city? From 53 to 14 in the five years to 2001 (2002 figure dues for publication).

Nope you didn't mention the fictional reason for the drop i.e. the good works of DCC. In fact the drop was caused by the increased congestion created by DCC's inept road management.

Oh did I mention the increase in deaths due to ambulances being slowed down by the increased traffic congestion delivering heart attack victims etc to hospital?

Opps! did I fail to mention the increase in cycle deaths due to inept changes to road design Remeber the coroners report on Aston Quay/ O'Connell bridge?

Oh Dear! I forget to mention the staggering damage to Dublin's economy created by the Traffic Dept.

But of course the ringfencing has to pay for bench marking for the Traffic Dept's "engineers" etc.

Bee

Victor

Originally posted by Bee
Oh did I mention the increase in deaths due to ambulances being slowed down by the increased traffic congestion delivering heart attack victims etc to hospital?

Any evidence of this? Dublin drivers have always been less considerate of ambulances than people elsewhere in the state. And seeing as ambulances can use the newly implemented bus lances, in palces there get there quicker.

I have to admit that cylist deaths had initially dropped, but rose again, but motorist and pedestrian fatalities have dropped substantially.