Jan and Klodi's Party Bus - part II **off topic discussion**

CramCycle

traprunner wrote: »

I drove through the Pheonix Park yesterday. Ice cream van parked in bike track (section near Parkgate St. with no car parking). Another ice cream van parked up further amongst the cars. Queue was on the bike track and about 40 people long. Dozens and dozens of dawdlers (couldn't even call them walkers) on the bike tracks. It's just wrong! Something needs to be done soon.

You could cycle on the road or slowly on the bike track. Not ideal for some but I never have found an issue with people on the tracks so long as I slowed and politely said excuse me, this said I normally go for the road.

Wishbone Ash

CramCycle wrote: »

.. but I never have found an issue with people on the tracks so long as I slowed and politely said excuse me..

Try that in Drumcondra around 5.30pm on the first and third Sunday in September!

traprunner

CramCycle wrote: »

You could cycle on the road or slowly on the bike track. Not ideal for some but I never have found an issue with people on the tracks so long as I slowed and politely said excuse me, this said I normally go for the road.

I was just driving through but it's a mess as a whole. There needs to be a rethink the number of cars that have access. Maybe build a multi-storey car park near one of the gates and only allow blue badge disabled cars into the park itself. Allow the tour buses (city sightseeing, Dublin bus) through with their drop off at a properly designed bus stop (if there is such a thing).

CramCycle

Wishbone Ash wrote: »

Try that in Drumcondra around 5.30pm on the first and third Sunday in September!

Don't worry, it will all be well mannered people from the country, there won't be a Dub in sight so it should be fine :pac:

traprunner wrote: »

I was just driving through but it's a mess as a whole. There needs to be a rethink the number of cars that have access. Maybe build a multi-storey car park near one of the gates and only allow blue badge disabled cars into the park itself. Allow the tour buses (city sightseeing, Dublin bus) through with their drop off at a properly designed bus stop (if there is such a thing).

I agree with the restricted access, not sure a multi storey car park nearby is the way to go from a visual perspective. A paid entry system, even for driving through with the option of a car park and a free public transport link from said car park. It is a fine line for the OPW, to balance the needs and the wants, they can't put people off coming to an amenity. Even something as simple as a no drive through, except buses and parking for events and blue badges only. Not my area of expertise though.

tomasrojo

CramCycle wrote: »

Even something as simple as a no drive through, except buses and parking for events and blue badges only. Not my area of expertise though.

I vaguely remember that someone else (the NRA? NTA?) is in charge of the roads in the Phoenix Park. Whoever's in charge, the roads, especially the main road (Chesterfield Avenue?), have become part of Dublin's everyday transport network, and it would require great resolve to undo that.

magicbastarder

AFAIK the OPW would love to close the main avenue because the majority of people who use the park use it as a thoroughfare rather than an amenity. the main issue is where all the traffic would go.
they can't even tunnel under the park i suspect because of the existing tunnels there.

CramCycle

tomasrojo wrote: »

I vaguely remember that someone else (the NRA? NTA?) is in charge of the roads in the Phoenix Park. Whoever's in charge, the roads, especially the main road (Chesterfield Avenue?), have become part of Dublin's everyday transport network, and it would require great resolve to undo that.

The OPW do close the road for events without a road closure order AFAIK, but their maybe a special agreement or a collaboration between the two.

magicbastarder wrote: »

AFAIK the OPW would love to close the main avenue because the majority of people who use the park use it as a thoroughfare rather than an amenity. the main issue is where all the traffic would go.
they can't even tunnel under the park i suspect because of the existing tunnels there.

The funny thing is that traffic adapts, quite quickly in fact. If you force traffic to find other routes. It will adapt. I wish I could remember the study name but the idea was that supplying extra lanes did not reduce traffic, but also that reducing lane done the same, it just takes a bit of tiem to reach an equilibrium. The problem with facilitating traffic is that at a certain point, you will over facilitate it and kill off an area.

magicbastarder

i wonder can it adapt if where it has to adapt to has no capacity; blackhorse avenue, the navan road, or chapelizod would be very busy already, i assume?
anyway, i don't know what the existing traffic volumes are like there.

ThisRegard

Chesterfield Avenue gets closed at weekends starting on Friday evenings during the summer between Mountjoy Roundabout and the Phoenix Monument, and apparently it's implemented at the moment since April 29th until September 25th. I haven't been in the park since that date to see if it's actually in place.
http://www.phoenixpark.ie/newsevents/title,33866,en.html

I've debated this before but cutting off all vehicular traffic to it at weekends is {edit: left out the following word which completely changes what I was trying to say} not the right thing to do. It's a minor inconvenience at the most down the zoo end and has to be expected in any public amenity.

magicbastarder

yep, it's great fun wheelieing down the middle of the road on a saturday.
actually, they started it after they finished resurfacing the main avenue. that was done during summertime, wasn't it?

still, it's proof you can close the main avenue.

traprunner

ThisRegard wrote: »

Chesterfield Avenue gets closed at weekends starting on Friday evenings during the summer between Mountjoy Roundabout and the Phoenix Monument, and apparently it's implemented at the moment since April 29th until September 25th. I haven't been in the park since that date to see if it's actually in place.
http://www.phoenixpark.ie/newsevents/title,33866,en.html

That section was closed on Saturday. I think a huge improvement would be closing it further at the roundabout at the Parkgate St end.

tomasrojo

Not allowing drive-through at the weekend would be a good start, I think. It was primarily commuters I was thinking of when I said that it would require great resolve to undo the pattern of use that's been established.

It does seem a terrible waste of a beautiful park to use it as a traffic sewer.

magicbastarder

traprunner wrote: »

That section was closed on Saturday. I think a huge improvement would be closing it further at the roundabout at the Parkgate St end.

would create havoc with people parking for the zoo though.

traprunner

magicbastarder wrote: »

would create havoc with people parking for the zoo though.

Only for a short while until many people who can use other means to get to the Zoo use those other means. An underground carpark could be built near the zoo so it does not impact the scenery of the park.

A shuttle bus could run from Heuston station to the zoo. This would encourage those who can to use the train to Heuston or the Luas.

tomasrojo

You could even allow people to continue to drive through the park to get to the zoo, but not continue on through the other side of the park. That would mean you would need parking both sides of a barrier at the zoo.

(My knowledge of this is very hazy; I've never driven to the zoo, and if I did I'd park on Infirmary Road, because public parking is free with GoCar and there's usually a few spaces there on a Saturday.)

magicbastarder

i'm kinda surprised there's no shuttle bus from the city centre directly to the zoo (or even one that runs up and down to heuston). one way they could promote that would be to sell the zoo ticket with the bus ticket, to spare queueing when you get to the zoo.

CramCycle

magicbastarder wrote: »

i wonder can it adapt if where it has to adapt to has no capacity; blackhorse avenue, the navan road, or chapelizod would be very busy already, i assume?
anyway, i don't know what the existing traffic volumes are like there.

Typically yes, it will, it will be slower and more frustrating for awhile but lights will adapt, people will adapt, some will move to other routes, park in other places, leave at different times but if you imagine they are still going to the same place, the roads on the far side do not loose capacity. It depends on the traffic flow but other roads would move a but quicker, some a bit slower and with in a few weeks its natural flow would be found.

buffalo

magicbastarder wrote: »

i'm kinda surprised there's no shuttle bus from the city centre directly to the zoo (or even one that runs up and down to heuston). one way they could promote that would be to sell the zoo ticket with the bus ticket, to spare queueing when you get to the zoo.

A 'green' electric bus sponsored by someone like the ESB that did Heuston, Zoo, Farmleigh and maybe Collins Barracks would be quite handy.

magicbastarder

my main concern with shunting traffic onto the likes of the navan road would be the knock-on effect on the bus services rather than the cars.

ThisRegard

magicbastarder wrote: »

i'm kinda surprised there's no shuttle bus from the city centre directly to the zoo (or even one that runs up and down to heuston). one way they could promote that would be to sell the zoo ticket with the bus ticket, to spare queueing when you get to the zoo.

buffalo wrote: »

A 'green' electric bus sponsored by someone like the ESB that did Heuston, Zoo, Farmleigh and maybe Collins Barracks would be quite handy.

It was only discussed in a thread here a few weeks ago, there used to be a bus from near Heuston, probably just down from Collins Barracks, that went around the park but it didn't last too long.

traprunner

ThisRegard wrote: »

It was only discussed in a thread here a few weeks ago, there used to be a bus from near Heuston, probably just down from Collins Barracks, that went around the park but it didn't last too long.

I wonder if the failure have something to do with the abundance of car parking within the park.

NamelessPhil

Probably more suited to a Giro thread ...

Lurch


Tom Dumoulin

Weepsie

Weren't the busses for Bloom or something? Some concerts had shuttle busses too.

Imagine a good shuttle service would get good use in summer months but not all the time. Something like that howth "train" going around the park would be a hit with young uns

ThisRegard

Nah, they were proper shuttle buses, there's details and photos in the Phoenix Park accident thread.

Lavinia

Just saw a cyclist been blown down by a taxi on Fairview Road in Dublin 'bout an hour ago. Jeez, luckily the guy has been unharmed even he fell really badly and a bike looked a bit torn. Taxi driver stopped and as far a s I saw started arguing with cyclist lol

Unfortunately I was driving pass by and could not stop due to traffic but this made me really angry....

Rogue-Trooper

Lavinia wrote: »

Just saw a cyclist been blown down by a taxi on Fairview Road in Dublin 'bout an hour ago. Jeez, luckily the guy has been unharmed even he fell really badly and a bike looked a bit torn. Taxi driver stopped and as far a s I saw started arguing with cyclist lol

Unfortunately I was driving pass by and could not stop due to traffic but this made me really angry....

How do you mean blown down? Did the taxi do a close pass at speed?

That run through Fairview can have it's moments alright. Hope he's ok.

Lavinia

Yes i think that's what happened, so the cyclist really fell "flying a bit through the air" not just down from the bike..
Luckily he got up immediately and looked like nothing's wrong, was really lucky, bike not so much...

Eamonnator

I see Procycling tips are having a bit of bother, maybe boards.ie could give them a dig out

http://procyclingstats.com/

ThisRegard

The Irish Times looking to muscle in on the Indos craptastic territory when it comes to cycling
http://www.irishtimes.com/life-and-style/people/patrick-logue-cyclists-need-to-stop-peddling-excuses-for-rule-breaking-1.2642664

The obligatory dumb ass comments from de readers are also included at the end.

magicbastarder

thank god i don't have a sign in to comment on the IT website.