How do you get to work?

faceman

There is definitely a trend here with public transport. What would make it more attractive to use? Is it solely the routes that are an issue or are there other factors?

What puts people off cycling?

Heroditas

faceman wrote: »

There is definitely a trend here with public transport. What would make it more attractive to use? Is it solely the routes that are an issue or are there other factors?

It takes too long. To solely use public transport I'd have to get a bus to the train, then the train. Costs too much and takes far too long. If there was a bus service that went from Lucan to the N3 then I would consider using it. Whenever I have meetings in town, I get the bus in and I love to unwind and listen to the radio on the way in.

faceman wrote: »

What puts people off cycling?

a) careless drivers
b) potholes
c) weather
d) lack of shower facilities in the office to freshen up after cycling in
e) I need the car to visit far flung areas of the city from time to time
f) laziness :P

BendiBus

Heroditas wrote: »

e) I need the car to visit far flung areas of the city from time to time

I understand your other arguments (I have a particular understanding of laziness ), but this one always gets me! Why not use taxis for these occasional trips?

aquascrotum

I drive Bettystown - Ashtown nr Castleknock - approx 45mins in the car for a 28km journey.

Alternative would be walk/cycle/drive to Laytown, train to Connolly, another train to Ashtown station, then 2min. walk to work. The train journey would take 90mins, primarily due to the 25min stopover in Connolly - if this timetabling issue was addressed I'd consider using the train but suspect that it would cost a lot more than running the car.

And re a previous posters comments about providing decent alternatives for long distance commutes - the govt has endorsed in their planning "policies" the building of what are effectively entirely dormitory towns with no employment availabe, Bettystown, Laytown etc being good examples, but the issue of how they get to work seems to have been left by the wayside....

Heroditas

BendiBus wrote: »

I understand your other arguments (I have a particular understanding of laziness ), but this one always gets me! Why not use taxis for these occasional trips?

It's for work meetings. I get mileage for driving to those meetings.

djpbarry

MOH wrote: »

I live <10 mins walk from a DART station, have a (theoretical) 27 minute or so DART journey and work <5 mins from the other end.

MOH wrote: »

Even allowing for fuel and parking costs, I'm going to be saving time and money and not at the mercy of an unreliable, unregulated transport provider.

A 27-minute DART journey works out more expensive than petrol plus parking? Really? For the sake of argument, we’ll overlook the cost of buying, maintaining, insuring and taxing the car, considering that it’s likely that you’ll be using it for other purposes, although some of the mentioned costs will obviously increase with usage.

I used the DART on a daily basis for about 18-months and I found it pretty reliable; trains usually arrived in the station when they were timetabled to do so, although admittedly, the timetable itself left a lot to be desired.

aquascrotum wrote: »

And re a previous posters comments about providing decent alternatives for long distance commutes - the govt has endorsed in their planning "policies" the building of what are effectively entirely dormitory towns with no employment availabe, Bettystown, Laytown etc being good examples, but the issue of how they get to work seems to have been left by the wayside....

You certainly do have a point about the timetabling of trains, but hopefully this will change in the not-too-distant future. While your commute is fair distance, I was really referring to people who are coming into Dublin from the likes of Carlow, Athlone and other far-flung places; I think it’s somewhat unreasonable to expect a commuter bus or rail service from, say, Athlone to Dublin (I’m not saying people do expect this, I was just curious to know).

astrofool

I use the car, no public transport goes direct at a reasonable speed (Shankill to Sandyford), other half uses the Dart (very handy in Shankill), occasionally bus.

I used to use the bus for college (46a), but would go insane if I still had to use the transport system we have here, with it's stupid ticketing systems, and resistance to any change for the better.

Alun

astrofool wrote: »

I use the car, no public transport goes direct at a reasonable speed (Shankill to Sandyford), other half uses the Dart (very handy in Shankill), occasionally bus.

You could always get the 145 to the top of Leopardstown road and walk the rest, shouldn't be more than about 2 -2.5 km, i.e. 30 mins at a brisk walk.

However, I've always wondered why there isn't some kind of shuttle bus service serving the Sandyford industrial estate, like there is for some other big business parks (many run by the owners of said parks themselves). It could start at a convenient Dart station, say Salthill or Blackrock, up to the N11/Leopardstown Road junction for the N11 bus corridor users, and then do a circular tour round Sandyford, before returning.

There is a DB bus, the 114, that goes from Blackrock Dart to Sandyford, but it only goes at 30 min intervals, and on the couple of occasions my wife has tried to use it (we live on the 145 bus route, and she works in Leopardstown Business Park) she gave up waiting and walked instead.

seamus

Alun wrote: »

You could always get the 145 to the top of Leopardstown road and walk the rest, shouldn't be more than about 2 -2.5 km, i.e. 30 mins at a brisk walk.

You see, this is half of the problem with public transport (which I think I've said here before).

A bus is no use to someone if it's more than a 15 minute walk at either end. From their POV, the car may take 50 minutes, the bus might take 30, but by the time you've factored in getting to and from the bus stop, as well as waiting for the bus, all benefit is eliminated. Your car takes you door to door - you can't expect the bus to do this, but it shouldn't be more than a 1km walk to/from your bus stop, otherwise people simply won't do it.

A public transport system has to be sufficiently more efficient that it will convince people to leave behind their personal space and comfort for the sake of a faster journey.

People won't ditch their cars for a 5 or 10 minute saving, but they will ditch it for 20 or 30 minute savings. Getting exercise, saving money and, hah!, saving the environment are secondary concerns. People are primarily concerned with how long the journey takes and how comfortable they are doing it.

A bus or train cannot compete with a car on the latter, but if they can sufficiently beat the car on time, then they're useful.

MOH

djpbarry wrote: »

A 27-minute DART journey works out more expensive than petrol plus parking? Really? For the sake of argument, we’ll overlook the cost of buying, maintaining, insuring and taxing the car, considering that it’s likely that you’ll be using it for other purposes, although some of the mentioned costs will obviously increase with usage.

We already have the car, it's only really used on weekends and shopping trips, so that's already being paid for. The cost of my annual ticket might not cover fuel and parking on its own, but I'm also factoring my time in.
The amount of time I'll lose this year would have enabled me to take at least 4 extra flexi-days off work, or get paid for that time otherwise, so I'm losing 4 days pay.

I used the DART on a daily basis for about 18-months and I found it pretty reliable; trains usually arrived in the station when they were timetabled to do so, although admittedly, the timetable itself left a lot to be desired.

When I started using the DART I thought it was great. It was about a year before I started wondering why my flexitime was never as high as it should be. And a while after that before I started regularly keeping track of my DART trips. I lost all confidence in the system shortly after that.

djpbarry

MOH wrote: »

The cost of my annual ticket might not cover fuel and parking on its own, but I'm also factoring my time in.

Ah, so you're losing time, not time AND money.

I find it hard to believe that a car journey could be all that much quicker than the DART equivalent when you have a relatively short walk at either end, especially at rush-hour. Is it possible you are over-estimating the efficiency of Dublin's road network?

MOH wrote: »

When I started using the DART I thought it was great. It was about a year before I started wondering why my flexitime was never as high as it should be. And a while after that before I started regularly keeping track of my DART trips. I lost all confidence in the system shortly after that.

Sorry, you've lost me here.

MOH

djpbarry wrote: »

Ah, so you're losing time, not time AND money.

I'm losing time sitting on or waiting for trains when I'd otherwise be either sitting at my desk getting paid, or off on paid leave for the time worked up, thus the wasted time is costing me money.

I find it hard to believe that a car journey could be all that much quicker than the DART equivalent when you have a relatively short walk at either end, especially at rush-hour. Is it possible you are over-estimating the efficiency of Dublin's road network?

Having spoken to a number of people who drive almost the same journey on a daily basis (and actually there might be a car-pooling option I hadn't considered, save even more that way), it's not going to take me any longer than the DART - and that's going by the scheduled time, not counting delays, train failures, trains leaving early.

Sorry, you've lost me here.

My point was just that before I started looking closely at the DART performance and adding up what it was costing me, I actually thought it ws a fairly reliable service, that's all.


Think we're derailing the thread slightly - my point was that I commute by DART at the moment, but after weighing up the options I firmly believe it would be more beneficial for me to drive instead.

_Kaiser_

I drive as my current job requires me to. But even if I didn't have to, I'd still drive and here's why:

In my last job, I had to take the train from Coolmine, a DART to Shankhill, and a shuttle bus to the industrial estate (no prizes for guessing where i worked!).
This required me to be standing on the Coolmine platform before half 7 and would arrive (finally) at my destination by/just after 9am.
This doesn't include (frequent) delays caused by trains not arriving/late (my favorite excuse being "leaves on the line!" :rolleyes:)

The return trip was similarly often delayed resulting in my missing the 6:50 Maynooth train and having to sit around in Pearse St station on a cold, open-ended platform for over an hour, not getting home till approx 8:30pm.

After a few months of this I'd had enough and bought a car.
Journey time (leaving at the same 7:15-ish and via the Phoenix Park, Quays, Pearse St and onto the N11: 1 hour - leaving me plenty of time for breakfast!) On the return journey I'd leave at 5pm and be home (most evenings) before 7.

Now I'm sure you can argue that running a car works out more expensive per journey, but you can't put a price on the time saved, the convenience of being able to leave when you're ready/need to (not when a timetable that in most cases is wildly inaccurate anyway), being dry, comfortable and of course, guaranteed a seat.

Then there's the ability to alter your route mid-journey to allow for traffic conditions (rather than being stuck to the same, often wandering, fixed routes of buses), and the fact that you're not surrounded by scumbags smoking, roaring and shouting, or worse!

For all these reasons then (and there's still others I could list!) I'll keep my (nice enviornmentally-unfriendly 2.0L TDI) car thanks!


Oh as an addition: My wife recently met me for lunch and decided to take the Bus Eireann coach with our young daughter.
For the 21 mile trip this involved, they wanted €5.10 (one-way) for our child, never mind the full adult fare - compare this with the child fare even on Dublin Bus for example.

If this is meant to encourage people to take the bus then they've badly miscalculated as my wife has sworn never again when she can take her car and be there in 30 minutes, without having to stand around for half an hour first!

dowlingm

Dublin's network is so radial focused I don't think it's fair to say "you don't need to tax and insure a car". Until DB is forced out of An Lar and into DART/LUAS stops that's how it will stay.

In Toronto I walk to the subway (600m) or get the bus if it passes, then the subway with one change (8km) to downtown and walk the last 300m or so to my office. All bus/subway connections paid for with metropass (C$100/month, 64 Euro) which is transferable so my wife is using it today rather than tokens. Takes 25-40mins depending on connections and luck

vektarman

Although I usually work shifts I had to do three 9-5 days recently, I travelled by a different mode of transport each day from Celbridge. Commuting times were: Day 1: car 70 minutes, day 2 bus 60minutes, day 3 cycle 50 minutes.

Poxyshamrock

I usually walk from a suburb to Limerick city centre.
It takes 15 mins and if it's wet I take the bus.

Cionád

I drive because
* It's cheaper
* It's quicker
* There's no direct public transport route
* I like driving
* Don't cycle cause it's 40 miles round trip

HJ Simpson

I cycle most of the time because its quicker and cheaper. Have showers in work. If I dont cycle I take the car or bus from Tallaght to town. Will be moving office soon so I have the choice then of Luas or Cycle no parking in new building. So it will be cycling everyday or walking 20 minutes to the luas and then 19 minutes at the other end to work.

HJS

astrofool

Alun wrote: »

You could always get the 145 to the top of Leopardstown road and walk the rest, shouldn't be more than about 2 -2.5 km, i.e. 30 mins at a brisk walk.

However, I've always wondered why there isn't some kind of shuttle bus service serving the Sandyford industrial estate, like there is for some other big business parks (many run by the owners of said parks themselves). It could start at a convenient Dart station, say Salthill or Blackrock, up to the N11/Leopardstown Road junction for the N11 bus corridor users, and then do a circular tour round Sandyford, before returning.

There is a DB bus, the 114, that goes from Blackrock Dart to Sandyford, but it only goes at 30 min intervals, and on the couple of occasions my wife has tried to use it (we live on the 145 bus route, and she works in Leopardstown Business Park) she gave up waiting and walked instead.

It takes me 10 minutes to get to work (flexi time is great ), having a family means I have to have a car, but even if I didn't, the cr*pness of public transport would lead me to buying a car anyway (might change when the LUAS gets here).

I used to live slightly closer, so would often walk to work, but I didn't have the car at the time. I also get to get to work earlier, leave earlier, my time is worth much much more to me than the relative pittance it costs me to get the car to work.

steviec

I'm working in Portsmouth in the UK at the moment and I get a ferry to work, it's only a 5 minute journey that could be made on foot if not for that pesky water in the way (and I do spend a lot more time walking to the ferry) but it's also very pleasant and relaxing, much more spacious than a bus or train and it's a great way to start the day sitting out on deck if it's a sunny morning.

dmeehan

i would love to be able to take the train but the times and distance from endpoints to stations doesnt make it feasible. instead i have a 30km drive, which takes approx 30 mins

irlirishkev

I cycle the 3 miles to work.

If it's lashing rain when I wake up, then I get the bus (begrudgingly)..

Cycling is best for me as it's a round trip to work, gym then home. I have showers and a locker in work.

I live north inner city, and work in Ballsbridge, so driving would be a joke! Also to get parking where I work, I'd need to be in for 7am!