Dun Laoghaire Traffic & Commuting Chat

patrickbrophy18

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118089914#Comment_118089914

How exactly am I a spoofer?

As usual, your condescending remarks know no bounds. I recall a few years ago that you were advocating for the inconveniencing of motorists and quickly reneging on it when it was you who was being inconvenienced. Hypocrisy much?

You also strike me as a Pat Kenny type given your attitude towards the retention of high property prices. The quoted post appears to back this up. You and a couple of other posters seem to have this romantic notion that curtailing accessibility to places like Dalkey is somehow respective of its heritage.

I would like to remind you that the following photo shows that Dalkey Village itself was accessible by public transport in the early 1900s:

In the latter half of the 1900s, the function of places like Blackrock was enhanced and/or progressed while Dalkey became more private with the closure of many of its hotels among others and thus, regressed. While I do appreciate Dalkey's heritage, I don't think scrutinising it's function or accessibility from a commuting and traffic perspective is anything to do with its heritage. Doing so is a thinly veiled attempt at keeping certain archetypes propped up which is why I referred to this practice as insidious. This idea of a suburb with the perks of countryside living is absolutely daft. It encourages car dependence and deprives those who wish to avail of other modes from doing so. A myopic narrative devoid of any common sense.

patrickbrophy18

Before anyone throws the smart-assed comment of "you now have the DART", the DART goes into town and travels along a limited path. There are many other paths which generate high car usage.

Burt Renaults

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118088473#Comment_118088473

Most of York Rd (from Vesey Place to Lwr Mounttown Rd) is actually fine. Double-yellow lines on both sides. You still get the odd illegally-parked car, but it's nothing that a bit of proper policing wouldn't solve. The real problem area is at the bottom of the road, with on-street parking spaces that result in the road being too narrow for buses to pass without waiting until it's safe to cross onto the wrong side of the road. There's no way of realigning the road, and taking people's gardens away isn't an option either. The only solutions are to (a) continue sticking two fingers up at public transport users, or (b) force people to find alternative storage for their cars.

One solution might be to remove the useless stretch of bus lane on Clarence Street and allow some residents of York Rd to park their cars there instead. Buses generally don't use it anyway, unless they're serving the bus stop, because cars tend to block buses from safely emerging. Someone might as well get a bit of use out of it. The bus stop could easily be moved onto the road (like on Dundrum Main St), which would mean that buses wouldn't have to wait for 'permission' to merge back into traffic.

The extent to which DLRCC ignores the needs of bus users is quite amazing. On almost every street, they're forced to either queue behind private cars or slowly squeeze past them. A lot has been done to improve cycling infrastructure in recent years, and that's great. But nothing whatsoever has been done for bus infrastructure. It's clear that they're seen as little more than a dirty inconvenience.

Gareth Keenan

hearing a rumour that arch-nemesis/poster boy of the forum Robert Burns is moving from the DLRCC to Fingal.

There's a new county manager coming in as well. Frank Curran from Wickla

Mav11

An early Christmas present for Fingal?

AndrewJRenko

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118302713#Comment_118302713

I foresee a Die Hard siege scenario to hold him in DLR and fight off the attackers from Fingal.

Larbre34

Yeah Burns dirtied the bib a huge amount locally. Caused way more upset and made himself the story way more than any unelected official has a right to. As soon as he didn't get the CEO gig he upped sticks.

He can busy himself with greenways and blueways out in the wilds of the north County and stop bothering hard working taxpayers living their actual lives.

markpb

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118305384#Comment_118305384

You’re gas. Did he wee in your corn flakes last Christmas or something?

AndrewJRenko

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118305384#Comment_118305384

That's some dirty bib all right, with tens of thousands of people cycling the CMR, including lots of older people who wouldn't have been cycling previously, and bringing life back to Dundrum and Blackrock villages with lots more people spending lots more time there.

Cyrus

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118319336#Comment_118319336

id argue the completion of the ongoing construction works has played a big part in getting people back to blackrock. it was always busy before all that started.

Larbre34

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118319336#Comment_118319336

Thats all incidental to his personal conduct and straying into the realms of politics and local agitation which are decidedly not where he should be.

Besides, I'm not trying to convince you of it, I've heard the anger about his conduct from the horses mouth. He has made the job of many local politicians far more difficult than it need be, not to mention successive CEOs, who are responsible for him.

He is inflammatory and divisive and somebody more capable and with better judgement and discretion is needed in the job, if for no other reason than to repair some broken relationships.

ted1

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118321418#Comment_118321418

So what you are sayjng is that he is as effective and made a difference.

poor local politicians, thought they would have an easy one. But the bad man came and forced to do to work..

Mav11

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118321740#Comment_118321740

And who elected him to do that?

AndrewJRenko

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118321807#Comment_118321807

Local authority staff aren't elected. They're appointed.

And showing a little bit of leadership isn't quite such an awful thing for a local authority Director. Setting out a vision, and working towards that vision isn't necessarily a bad thing for a director of transportation.

Let's be honest, if Burns had been as innovative and passionate advocate for SUVs, he's be half-way to being canonised by now.

ted1

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118321807#Comment_118321807

His employer did, when they wrote his job description and offered him the job.

Mav11

Don’t get me wrong Andrew, I’m a big fan of Burns and the cycling infrastructure changes that he has pushed to implementation. But I’m also a big fan of democracy and while our elected representatives may be hapless, we need to sort that out ourselves at the ballot box.

I’m not in favour of unelected officials as Labre says making: himself the story way more than any unelected official has a right to.

AndrewJRenko

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118322105#Comment_118322105

I really don't think he has made himself the story. He's certainly open and direct on social media, pushing hard on the sustainable travel agenda. While this is a fairly novel approach, it isn't personal - it is just using a communication channel that hasn't been traditionally used.

Larbre34

Its more than that. He has stuck his oar into public debates on projects outside his own County, in a thinly veiled attempt to comment by the back door on those inside his County, where parallels could be drawn. Again, that is quite serious bad form for someone appointed to a very specific role in officialdom, where being politically active is banned.

He has shown no compunction about bending and disregarding regulations and due process for the types of schemes he is there to deliver and that has resulted, albeit late in the day, in his wings being clipped and the Acting Chief Exec in DLR taking personal charge of the latest phase of the schools active travel, including addressing the Deansgrange difficulties. That doesn't say much for Burns.

ted1

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118322844#Comment_118322844

Sounds like he is effective. What has the acting chief being doing till now? Good to see them realise they are being shown up for doing nothing.

many people stick their oar on in on topics they actively work with.

care to show us where politically active is banned. Or where he is being political

Larbre34

Go ask the PAS for their standard conditions of contract for local authority officers above Grade 8.

If you're such a superfan Ted, maybe you'd make the move northside to keep up with your idol. Otherwise I can assure you you're very much in the minority.

ted1

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118323216#Comment_118323216

Not a super fan just feed up of your flawed superior complex.

you’ve come out with some gems, from your inside Cllr sources which have never materialised.

AndrewJRenko

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118322844#Comment_118322844

What specifically has he done that constitutes political activity?

markpb

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118323216#Comment_118323216

In the minority of who? You can’t speak authoritatively for the people or voters in the county, despite what you might think.

Burt Renaults

He has done absolutely nothing positive for public transport. The cycling infrastructure along Kill Lane slowed buses down even further, with the (already useless) stretch of bus lane coming to an even more abrupt halt before the business park, with no priority given to buses attempting to change lanes (not even a simple yellow box). In the evenings, it can take up to half an hour for a 46a to get from the Dart Station to Foxrock Church.

In the mornings, heading towards Dún Laoghaire, the short bus lane on Kill Lane is always clogged with private cars, with buses left with no choice but to either queue behind the cars or bizarrely drive down the outside, as shown in this tweet:

https://twitter.com/deNudge/status/1463431750063902723

Good riddance to him. I hope his successor doesn't share his hatred of public transport.

Mav11

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118322413#Comment_118322413

I'd have to disagree, its not novel, particularly in DLRCC. Owen Keegan was and still is the same.

To me it smacks of arrogance and attempts to sidestep the democratic process. They seem to think that they know best what's needed e.g. the Lexicon or the white water rafting proposal (until the elected officials found some backbone) in DCC.

While it can be argued that this leads to progress while the hapless councilors flounder and draw their expenses, I'm uncomfortable that unelected employees carry so much influence in a democratically representative organisation.

p15574

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118323568#Comment_118323568

Re that tweet, how is it his fault that motorists are breaking the law? Surely it's more the responsibility of the Gardaí to be enforcing it?

bodgerfederer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118323774#Comment_118323774

well, it is a poorly designed layout. if motorists didn't take the bus lane the queue of traffic would be just displaced further up the road - say from the start of the bus lane up to foxrock church.

i watched two guys in cars get out and nearly come to blows the other week over who was in the right/wrong lane.

having no right turn from kill lane onto clonkeen ave. might help? getting rid of the supervalu car park would also help but seems unlikely.

the whole area from IADT to foxrock church is a disaster for buses, more so since since the cycle lanes went in unfortunately.

Seaswimmer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118324017#Comment_118324017

When they made one of the lanes from Kill Lane to Clonkeen Road right turn only there was nowhere else for the cars to go except into the bus lane. The alternative is to go down the right turning lane and stop at the end of the bus lane and indicate to merge into the left lane. This is the legal and correct way to do it but the fear is that you won't be let in by the cars illegally in the bus lane. It really is a mess. The right turn lane was created without any thought of what may happen to the bus lane and straight ahead traffic.

The other main problem is the right turn into Supervalu car park. Once anything is trying to turn right there it causes a build up of traffic behind across the junction and towards Foxrock church. The whole junction is really a disaster but I am not sure what the solution is..

Larbre34

Personally I'd ban all right turns between Bakers Corner and Foxrock Avenue, both directions, in favour of left in-left out for all side roads and business accesses, then I'd bring the bus lanes right up to the junctions in each case and provide jump signals for buses and bikes on their dedicated lanes, before giving a green a few moments later to general traffic.

If for no other reason, the Bus Connects objectives can't be met unless something radical is done.

TheW1zard

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118325037#Comment_118325037

Saw absolute murder there this morning, a guy tried to drive into the back of someone cutting in. Ended with lots of shouting a car horns!

I was on my bike thank god