Phoenix Park - Prepare for 3 months of gridlock!

starmcmahon

Ok with all the chopping and changing of the traffic flows in tbe park lately, could anyone please tell me the best way to get from the ashtown gate to the magazine fort! Looked up Phoenix Park web page and it not very clear! Cheers in advance

HeidiHeidi

starmcmahon wrote: »

Ok with all the chopping and changing of the traffic flows in tbe park lately, could anyone please tell me the best way to get from the ashtown gate to the magazine fort! Looked up Phoenix Park web page and it not very clear! Cheers in advance

In the gate, left and down the north road past Garda HQ, straight across the roundabout on the main road and there you are

When are you coming out running

starmcmahon

HeidiHeidi wrote: »

In the gate, left and down the north road past Garda HQ, straight across the roundabout on the main road and there you are

When are you coming out running

thank you running is on hold for the moment as the 6.30pm start does not suit with my current work commitments
so statring outdoor bootcampwith Urbanfitcrew tonight at 7.30 instead!

ThisRegard

So did Dublin 15 come to a crashing halt on the first weekend of closures ?

nudger

ThisRegard wrote: »

So did Dublin 15 come to a crashing halt on the first weekend of closures ?

Traffic on the Navan road between Cabra cross and the Halfway house Saturday afternoon was like Christmas week, this was when they were having the kiddies tea party.
Anyone go to the party, any good?

jack presley

nudger wrote: »

ThisRegard wrote: »

So did Dublin 15 come to a crashing halt on the first weekend of closures ?

Traffic on the Navan road between Cabra cross and the Halfway house Saturday afternoon was like Christmas week, this was when they were having the kiddies tea party.
Anyone go to the party, any good?

What was it like to get parking on Saturday. I usually drive down to do a run (coming in Castleknock gate) and park along the main road. But if it's shut from the 1st roundabout on, I presume parking along the avenue was tough to get. That put me off heading down anyway

ThisRegard

It's not shut from the first roundabout on, only from the first roundabout coming in from Castleknock as far at the one at the visitors centre/Aras/Ambassadors residence. Still leaves plenty of parking.

Shane O' Malley

Was fine at the weekend.

Once people get used to it it will be even better.

Anyway, more closed on Sunday for the Great Ireland Run so no parking in the park then.

Shane

JupiterKid

The closure of Chesterfield Avenue to traffic at weekends IMO is the thin edge of the wedge. OPW's long-term objective is to completely close the Phoenix Park to traffic.

Where will the traffic that uses the Park on a daily basis go in that case?

monument

JupiterKid wrote: »

The closure of Chesterfield Avenue to traffic at weekends IMO is the thin edge of the wedge. OPW's long-term objective is to completely close the Phoenix Park to traffic.

Where will the traffic that uses the Park on a daily basis go in that case?

The current clear and published objective is to close the park off to through motorised traffic in the later evenings and at weekends, ie traffic in rush hours will be allowed to use the park.

The first step they have taken is very, very mild is compared to the large-scale road closures in parks and large cities even out of parks (Paris closes off its river-side motorway for summer months and some south American cities close of large stretches of their larger roads at weekends).

As for the "where will traffic go" question -- search Google for "highway removal".

thomasj

monument wrote: »

JupiterKid wrote: »

The closure of Chesterfield Avenue to traffic at weekends IMO is the thin edge of the wedge. OPW's long-term objective is to completely close the Phoenix Park to traffic.

Where will the traffic that uses the Park on a daily basis go in that case?

The current clear and published objective is to close the park off to through motorised traffic in the later evenings and at weekends, ie traffic in rush hours will be allowed to use the park.

The first step they have taken is very, very mild is compared to the large-scale road closures in parks and large cities even out of parks (Paris closes off its river-side motorway for summer months and some south American cities close of large stretches of their larger roads at weekends).

As for the "where will traffic go" question -- search Google for "highway removal".

The find of a suspicious device in the phoenix park this morning resulted in the closure of the park and the chaos on the n3 this morning.

Traffic on the n3 inbound this morning went all the way back over the bridge back to the blanchardstown hospital lights and back as far as far as the village.

People were stuck at auburn avenue for an eternity this morning because of bumper to bumper traffic. Needless to say the rain didn't help!

Shows how much we need the park!

JoePie

Knockmaroon Hill was an absolute 'mare as well. Wish I turned on the radio before I was sitting there.

jack presley

Where in the park is the Quarry Lake where the device was? I've never heard of it

cscook

It's a round patch of woodland quite near Castleknock Gate, on your right as you drive in to town. Just after the first turn off to the right...
35 minutes for the 37 to get from Carpenterstown to Castleknock Gate!

monument

thomasj wrote: »

The find of a suspicious device in the phoenix park this morning resulted in the closure of the park and the chaos on the n3 this morning.

Traffic on the n3 inbound this morning went all the way back over the bridge back to the blanchardstown hospital lights and back as far as far as the village.

People were stuck at auburn avenue for an eternity this morning because of bumper to bumper traffic. Needless to say the rain didn't help!

Shows how much we need the park!

A few important things here:

[1] There are no plans to close the park to peak commuting traffic.

[2] Traffic as a result of the responce to a finding a “viable improvised explosive device" (ie a bomb) can't be used as a mesure of anything... unless you're suggesting these events are going to become common?

[3] Unplanned disruption nearly always causes more disruption than when its planned.

OldNotWIse

No matter what happens in this god forsaken country we end up with massive disruptions. A leaf on the dart tracks, an inch of snow, a bus window that wont quite close fully, a luas tram with a plastic bottle preventing ALL the doors from closing. Not to mention an inch of rain - floods....a day without rain - drought and water restrictions.

BostonB

In fairness this was an unusual event.

However commuter access to the park has frequently been restricted for very little reason over the years. So its justified to suggest they are very anti access for through commuter traffic.

BostonB

I heard about this quite early so left early and detoured the long way around the park and N3. Thank you LiveDrive on Dublin City radio.

I think most of the other stations are abysmal in their traffic reporting. During the floods they were completely useless for information.

monument

OldNotWIse wrote: »

No matter what happens in this god forsaken country we end up with massive disruptions. A leaf on the dart tracks, an inch of snow, a bus window that wont quite close fully, a luas tram with a plastic bottle preventing ALL the doors from closing. Not to mention an inch of rain - floods....a day without rain - drought and water restrictions.

Looking beyond your exaggeration:

With the Dublin City road network, it's quite simple: Within and around the canals, and at points on other key routes the city road network has been hovering at or over capacity for private cars for some time.

In the last few years around the city it had looked like the traffic decreased in volume amounting to a 20% decrease or more, but according to what the city council's traffic department says the volume decrease is much lower -- it's just that a little more traffic puts the network on it's knees because it becomes overloaded.

The population of the city in general is growing and -- in the long run -- the city core is planned to be developed more and more. Even if the economy was to improve, there is less of an appetite now and more barriers to enlarge the city centre road network than there was in the 80s when such was halted.

JoePie

Solution: Get a wall up around The Pale. Keep those country folk out.

horse7

Is there any good reason the opw has closed part of the main road in the park at the weekends(certain times). Its not making it more accessable. I think we waited long enough for the road works to clear, now opw has decided to mess the main road up .

athtrasna

See this thread http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056395565

The park is primarily a park not a main road. The OPW are highlighting this at weekends.

Slydice

Yep, the navan road is the main road.

horse7

yes it is a park firstly,with a road going straight through it. It doesnt make any sense not allowing traffic through it(unless a large event is taking place). There should also be a bus service using it, there are over 100,000 people in d15 and they deserve to use the road and park as anyone else does. The opw should consult with the people who live in the area not the people who work for the opw. Im sure the park would be much nicer if there were no cars there and we all walked there. It was originally established as a Royal deer park in the 17th century, its 2012 now, lets move on.

BostonB

It makes much more sense to divert all the traffic down around the furry glen and back up to the main road via the papal cross at the weekend. Makes it much nicer for everyone. Rather than that traffic using the much wider main road. I'm sure the cyclists who use the Furry Glen circuit it appreciate it the most. Considering every other route has either heavy traffic or horrendous suspension destroying ramps, they must want traffic to do this way. In fairness the kids scooters glide very nicely it on the new main road surface. Though letting them play on a road gives them some mixed messages about road safety.

Joking aside it doesn't really effect us that much. Furze road is usually closed for the kids to use. Be interesting to see has it increased footfall in the park.

Surveyor11

It's safer for kids and pedestrains, plenty of alternative routes for cars. Means we can have a nice leisurely Sunday stroll, wonder back and across, without worrying about speeding cars. Makes for a more relaxed experience TBH. I live in Dublin 15, and see absolutley no issues with this. Good move by the OPW, and to be honest more of it should be closed to traffic

Tails142

People drive through the park like morons though, amount of times I have been overtaken while driving at 50-60 km/h through it is crazy, people treat it like it's a motorway. They should close off the whole park entirely as a through route, would make it far safer and enjoyable for pedestrians and cyclists

BostonB

The reason this problem exists is because they've over developed D.15 and Meath and have no road system in place to deal with that volume of traffic getting and an out of the city. In fact they've reduced the road capacity as they've increased the demand for it. There isn't enough decent quality alternative routes.

If they want to keep the park a park they need to put some plan in place to deal with the traffic. Not stick fingers in ears and ignore it. The Park needs decent a ring road, if you want to keep traffic out of the middle of it. Why not improve the North Road and make that the main road, all the way around, to down to Wellington Road feeding on to Chapelizod road. You could even make the Castleknock Road link to the North road at Ashton. You could free up the center of the park from all through traffic, and loose a neligible amount of the parkland in the process.

ThisRegard

I've been to the park 3 times this weekend, twice to do something there, once commuting through from the city, and I still don't understand why people have an issue on what's a fairly small restriction. Maybe it's a bit of motorists sense of entitlement to the roads creeping through?

Anyway, do we need another thread on this?

Gaspode

Threads merged