Coronavirus and the effect on Public transport

bk

AlekSmart wrote: »

I actually believe the facecovering issue is leading to a reduction in compliance with the more important protective elements such as hand-washing,as people are now endlessly fiddling with masks and reusing very obviously soiled items,in a misplaced belief of some added protection.

If using a Bus....take a seat ...then..OPEN A WINDOW !....that will afford some actual beneficial protection,at no added cost.....and after your journey...WASH YER HANDS ...OK ?

Unfortunately "Washing your hands" will do little to help *. This is primarily spread by airborne particles. Washing your hands will do nothing if you breath it in.

The advice really is:
- Stay at home if you can
- If you can't stay at home, then social distance.
- If you can't social distance, wear a mask.

* Washing your hands of course is something you should do anyway to stop you getting a variety of diseases. But it won't stop you from getting Covid19.

GT89

Seriously if the government try to bring riddiculous measures like shutting down public transport. I will seriously consider moving country go somewhere like Sweden or even England.

GT89

NPHETs idea of shutting down pt is complete insanity. The thought of these types making supposedly advising the government makes me uneasy.

john boye

GT89 wrote: »

NPHETs idea of shutting down pt is complete insanity. The thought of these types making supposedly advising the government makes me uneasy.

The last two posts in this thread are out of context rants from you about the same thing from late at night two nights in a row.

GT89

john boye wrote: »

The last two posts in this thread are out of context rants from you about the same thing from late at night two nights in a row.

Still a riddiculous idea. NPHET need their heads checked if their coming up with crazy ideas like it actually worries me that a supposedly credible organisation would think along those lines.

Amirani

GT89 wrote: »

Still a riddiculous idea. NPHET need their heads checked if their coming up with crazy ideas like it actually worries me that a supposedly credible organisation would think along those lines.

They're not an organisation.

Their remit isn't on effective public transport strategy, it's public health.

It's up to the Government to decide what to do with public health advice and to balance it against other considerations.

Ignacius

I don’t understand why the doors on the Luas don’t open automatically like they did at the start of Covid 19. Who made the decision that everybody should be touching the button every time like before.
One small thing that might make a big difference. I”lol send an e-mail to the operator if other people agree.

Jamie2k9

Ignacius wrote: »

I don’t understand why the doors on the Luas don’t open automatically like they did at the start of Covid 19. Who made the decision that everybody should be touching the button every time like before.
One small thing that might make a big difference. I”lol send an e-mail to the operator if other people agree.

The decision was made due to increased numbers traveling, people tend to lean against the doors.

I don't agree with the decision but financially I suspect it makes sense...

GT89

Jamie2k9 wrote: »

The decision was made due to increased numbers traveling, people tend to lean against the doors.

I don't agree with the decision but financially I suspect it makes sense...

Also does the driver not have to be more careful and give more observation to CCTV when opening and closing the doors so as not to trap anyone leading to increased dwell times

cython

bk wrote: »

I wonder could they think about extending the Covid19 app to allow people to "check-in" to a supermarket, restaurant, etc. and show the staff at the door that they have done so before being left in. Could also possibly work for public transport. It could be done in a way that guarantees privacy.

Could help with this track and trace issue they are having.

That would likely require a massive overhaul of the approach taken in building the app, whereby data is held locally only by default, and only uploaded by confirmed cases at their choosing.

Check-ins like that I suppose could theoretically be held locally also, but then check-out probably also required to fully evaluate the length of time spent, and distributing that out to be cross referenced on phones locally would also be a lot more computationally intensive (and prone to privacy issues) than simply looking up a list of codes as is done today.

The passive nature of the current implementation is also a big part of its advantage and effectiveness from what I can see. Also, enforcement of check-ins on public transport like Luas and train would be virtually impossible given the self-service nature.

AlekSmart

bk wrote: »

Unfortunately "Washing your hands" will do little to help *. This is primarily spread by airborne particles. Washing your hands will do nothing if you breath it in.

The advice really is:
- Stay at home if you can
- If you can't stay at home, then social distance.
- If you can't social distance, wear a mask.

* Washing your hands of course is something you should do anyway to stop you getting a variety of diseases. But it won't stop you from getting Covid19.

Indeed,however I differ from your interpretation of the usefullness of handwashing in the Covid19 scenario.

https://www.hpsc.ie/news/newsarchive/2020newsarchive/title-19837-en.html

Hand hygiene is one of the most important things that we can do to stop the spread of COVID-19 infection, as well as preventing all the other infections that are still out there. This is true for people who work as healthcare workers and also for everyone in the home or in the workplace.

Doubtless,as you say,universal facecovering usage may also contribute to a degree of protection,however,from my own daily observations,a significant number of Facemask wearers on PT are fixating on 'The Mask' itself,to the detriment of other more basic elements.

The HSE itself has also recognised this issue from a while back...

https://www2.hse.ie/conditions/coronavirus/how-coronavirus-is-spread.html

You can also get the virus from surfaces, for example, when someone who has the virus sneezes. Droplets containing the virus can fall onto surfaces around them. If you touch that surface and then touch your eyes, nose or mouth, you could become infected too.

Wearing a face covering can protect you. But you should still do the important things necessary to prevent the spread of the virus.

These include:
social distancing
covering coughs and sneezes
washing your hands properly
not touching your eyes, nose or mouth if your hands are not clean

Meanwhile,the CSO figures indicate a significant general Road Traffic issue about to burst over us upon the return of Schools & Colleges (Unless some more realistic guidelines are put in place for Public Transport usage)

https://www.cso.ie/en/releasesandpublications/br/b-tb/transportbulletin01march2020to08august2020/

The pace of recovery of road traffic volumes for cars and HGVs to pre COVID-19 levels continues to outstrip that of public transport passenger numbers

General traffic volumes in Dublin are now back to c.85% of BC (Before Covid) levels.

2nd August 2019 weekly volume 558,014.
2nd August 2020 weekly volume 466,785.

With combined Public Transport usage now remaining at c.60% and no clear indication that the current official push to encourage long-term mass cycling as the way forward,will actually bear fruit,there is a developing weather front just over the horizon.

Fasten your seat-belts or batten down your hatches

engleburt

Driving around Dublin its clear to see the public are starting to ignore the government pushed panic and are getting on with their lives.
See groups of women back out walking together, large groups of teenagers out socialising, look in the windows of pubs and decent crowds inside.
We are getting more infected daily now than when the government first shut the country down, i believe when it first started the lock down was correct but now months later, it is obvious Covid19 is not that lethal to 99.99% of the population, but the government dont want to admit this as it would mean the lock down and subsequent economic damage where unnecessary, they are doubling down on their dire predictions to try save face, but Sweden shows the world the facts of the matter.

bobbyss

I have not read all the posts in this thread and this may have been asked before.So apologies in advance.
When I caught a DB (before Covid) at about 7:30 or earlier in the morning when I got on at my stop the bus was already about 75% or more full.


I believe now DB is only taking 50% of its passengers. I am from outside Dublin. Surely this has affected the workforce ability to get to work? How are people managing? Are there big queues at all bus stops now? How are people getting to work.

GT89

bobbyss wrote: »

I have not read all the posts in this thread and this may have been asked before.So apologies in advance.
When I caught a DB (before Covid) at about 7:30 or earlier in the morning when I got on at my stop the bus was already about 75% or more full.


I believe now DB is only taking 50% of its passengers. I am from outside Dublin. Surely this has affected the workforce ability to get to work? How are people managing? Are there big queues at all bus stops now? How are people getting to work.

Places are staggering their working hours and public transport usage is down big time. Some buses are leaving people behind but it's not that often anytime I've travelled on a bus I've had no problems only one journey it was busy and even at that the driver only skipped one stop with people waiting at it.

road_high

Any sign of the major private Coach operations coming back? This is a major failure of governance- they provide essential links

devnull

Aircoach and Citylink are still running limited timetables on some of their routes, but the prices of online tickets start from a higher tier than normal in some cases, but still appear to be cheaper than the unchanged walk-up prices. No sign of JJ Kavanagh, Dublin Coach or GoBus starting their commercial services again,

However there is some news that will hopefully help commercial operators, whether they be public owned or privately owned who operated licensed scheduled commercial routes fully within the Republic of Ireland.

https://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2058107504

Gael23

Have heard JJ Kavanagh is coming back within the next week

Cyrus

I’ve been getting the dart at peak times in and out of work and it’s max 10 percent full. As long as it’s like that I’m happy to take it

JeffK88

Was scrolling through job listings of bus drivers and spotted that Dublin Coach are looking for drivers. Which to me is a good sign especially for somebody like me who depends on their service for work

punisher5112

With all the covid changes to infrastructure across the city and further out I can see when life returns to normal commuting is going to be an absolute nightmare.

Buses no longer fit in bus lanes and must leave to get past new cycle paths and poles and normal traffic lanes now not wide enough to safely take a bus....

Do these engineers actually know how the measure and do they actually know the width of a bus....

Driving a bus in Dublin is becoming unbearable.

GT89

JeffK88 wrote: »

Was scrolling through job listings of bus drivers and spotted that Dublin Coach are looking for drivers. Which to me is a good sign especially for somebody like me who depends on their service for work

I've heard they treat their drivers like sh1t

GT89

punisher5112 wrote: »

With all the covid changes to infrastructure across the city and further out I can see when life returns to normal commuting is going to be an absolute nightmare.

Buses no longer fit in bus lanes and must leave to get past new cycle paths and poles and normal traffic lanes now not wide enough to safely take a bus....

Do these engineers actually know how the measure and do they actually know the width of a bus....

Driving a bus in Dublin is becoming unbearable.

All these new cycle lanes have been pushed through with no consultation. I'm all in cycling and sustainable transport but not when it has not been planned properly. I'm glad though they've made the stops wider on Parnell Square West though as those stops were awful for passengers.

Midnight_EG

GT89 wrote: »

All these new cycle lanes have been pushed through with no consultation. I'm all in cycling and sustainable transport but not when it has not been planned properly. I'm glad though they've made the stops wider on Parnell Square West though as those stops were awful for passengers.

They're great on Parnell Square... They're utter sh*te on Dame Street though navigation wise, with the exception of the first one across from Trinity as that's now much easier to get onto.

road_high

JeffK88 wrote: »

Was scrolling through job listings of bus drivers and spotted that Dublin Coach are looking for drivers. Which to me is a good sign especially for somebody like me who depends on their service for work

I'd say their drivers deserted them in droves as they had a huge turnover already. And probably not a whole lot worse off on the PUP payments considering how much pressure they work under...

punisher5112

Dame Street the bus stop take up one lane but then also encroach on the 2nd.....

Absolutely ridiculous what they done.

I have to navigate through all of these new measures and it's pure madness.

The bus doesn't fit in the lanes and must wait to be let out and accidents are going to be through the roof.,..

What's the point of putting down poles for 30 feet or less and they end. Vehicles parked at either end, it's a pure sh1t show.

devnull

Aircoach 700 is back from 6th September.

Only operating as far as UCD and frequency is roughly every hour for most of the day.

Tickets bookable up to 2 hours before departure on their website.

24 passengers per service.

p_haugh

devnull wrote: »

Aircoach 700 is back from 6th September.

Only operating as far as UCD and frequency is roughly every hour for most of the day.

Tickets bookable up to 2 hours before departure on their website.

24 passengers per service.

Seems they've upgraded their website too over the past few months

bk

Updated website and can book up to 2 hours in advance. A nice improvement over the past. Not quiet up there with GoBus (1 hour) or Citylink (15 minutes), but much more reasonable then in the past.

GT89

I see Donnybrook's VTs are back operating on the 145 after being off since March

p_haugh

GT89 wrote: »

I see Donnybrook's VTs are back operating on the 145 after being off since March

Still see a few parked up like they are at the weekends usually so I'd say it's only a few of them back running for now

road_high

Is the JJ Kavanagh Express bus service back now?

Gael23

Bus Éireann look to be going back to a pre Covid timetable from next week

patrickc

road_high wrote: »

Is the JJ Kavanagh Express bus service back now?

yes JJ is back this week.

GT89

I see some bus drivers now are going back to driving with the assault screen either fully or partially down. Saw one driver the other day who was wearing a mask and had the screen the full way down saw another driver today with no mask and the screen halfway down.

For the last 6 months virtually every driver had the full way up. I wonder will future orders for new buses come with an assault screen that cannot be opened and closed like in London

AlekSmart

GT89 wrote: »

I see some bus drivers now are going back to driving with the assault screen either fully or partially down. Saw one driver the other day who was wearing a mask and had the screen the full way down saw another driver today with no mask and the screen halfway down.

For the last 6 months virtually every driver had the full way up. I wonder will future orders for new buses come with an assault screen that cannot be opened and closed like in London

Perhaps you should wonder a bit less ?

The permanent non adjustable TfL standard screen,cashless operation and multi-door usage did little to protect the 29 (out of 25,000) London Busdrivers who's deaths were attributed to Covid-19.

Initial studies there,appear to point to far more complex,and perhaps less palatable causitive factors than a sheet of polycarbonate.

Busdriving has long been acknowledged as an unhealthy occupation,with Hypertension and other stress related factors featuring across the world.

Thankfully,so far we in Dublin appear to have avoided any Busdriver Covid fatalities,which may be down to a number of issues such as an earlier reaction on all fronts.

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2020-07-deaths-london-bus-drivers-earlier.html

It is also noteworthy,that Covid infection models worldwide have NOT featured Public Transport to any great degree as a factor in the spread of the virus,even allowing for multi-Governmental recommendations to avoid using Public Transport or restricting it's use to 'essential' travel,whatever that means ?

https://blogs.worldbank.org/transport/fight-against-covid-19-public-transport-should-be-hero-not-villain

There is little to be gained from debating the merits/demerits of fixed vs adjustable assault screens,unless those doing the debating have some experience of operating from behind them.

Personally,I would far prefer to be in a situation whereby I did not require ANY screen,however since the required level of social behaviour and legal protection is not there,I must therefore tolerate what we have.

I am suggesting that there are a great many elements of the current Covid-19 situation which merit continuing vigilance and caution,however embarking on some form of "Bus Assault Screen Survey" with the apparent intention of imposing design changes across an industry,may well be something of an overreaction ?

GT89

AlekSmart wrote: »

Perhaps you should wonder a bit less ?

The permanent non adjustable TfL standard screen,cashless operation and multi-door usage did little to protect the 29 (out of 25,000) London Busdrivers who's deaths were attributed to Covid-19.

Initial studies there,appear to point to far more complex,and perhaps less palatable causitive factors than a sheet of polycarbonate.

Busdriving has long been acknowledged as an unhealthy occupation,with Hypertension and other stress related factors featuring across the world.

Thankfully,so far we in Dublin appear to have avoided any Busdriver Covid fatalities,which may be down to a number of issues such as an earlier reaction on all fronts.

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2020-07-deaths-london-bus-drivers-earlier.html

It is also noteworthy,that Covid infection models worldwide have NOT featured Public Transport to any great degree as a factor in the spread of the virus,even allowing for multi-Governmental recommendations to avoid using Public Transport or restricting it's use to 'essential' travel,whatever that means ?

https://blogs.worldbank.org/transport/fight-against-covid-19-public-transport-should-be-hero-not-villain

There is little to be gained from debating the merits/demerits of fixed vs adjustable assault screens,unless those doing the debating have some experience of operating from behind them.

Personally,I would far prefer to be in a situation whereby I did not require ANY screen,however since the required level of social behaviour and legal protection is not there,I must therefore tolerate what we have.

I am suggesting that there are a great many elements of the current Covid-19 situation which merit continuing vigilance and caution,however embarking on some form of "Bus Assault Screen Survey" with the apparent intention of imposing design changes across an industry,may well be something of an overreaction ?

The setup now on London buses as seen in this video creates an almost airtight seal between the drivers cab and the passenger compartment. The driver is this video also speaks about how buses the seat beside the driver which is something prevalent on buses outside Dublin could be done away with for once and for all.

https://youtu.be/NHvWe07GvOo

I see rear door boarding now is something becoming more permanent on the continent. Mask and lockdown free Sweden now have scrapped front door boarding on urban buses on what's looking to be a more permanent basis.

The face covering debate also seems to be continuing too this time in Galway.

https://youtu.be/-CP8ZdsFyMg

dashcamdanny

the only drivers I know who keep it down are people who have recovered from covid19. And most likely immune .

bk

dashcamdanny wrote: »

the only drivers I know who keep it down are people who have recovered from covid19. And most likely immune .

Unfortunately there has now been a number of confirmed cases of people getting reinfected with Covid19 over the past 2 weeks.

Particularly worrisome was one of the cases where the initial infection was very mild and the second infection was much more serious (required hospitalisation).

Might be worth folks keeping in mind just because you've gotten it, doesn't mean you can't get it again!

Vic_08

bk wrote: »

Unfortunately there has now been a number of confirmed cases of people getting reinfected with Covid19 over the past 2 weeks.

Particularly worrisome was one of the cases where the initial infection was very mild and the second infection was much more serious (required hospitalisation).

Might be worth folks keeping in mind just because you've gotten it, doesn't mean you can't get it again!

This seems to ba a particularly prevalent fallacy, even though it was flagged very early on by virologists that covid19 was unlikely to be a virus that infection would provide immunity from.

Of course now it is increasingly popular to ignore expert and reasoned advice espcially when it is not what people want to hear so the inevitability of the current ramping up of infections was pretty much guaranteed.

AlekSmart

dashcamdanny wrote: »

the only drivers I know who keep it down are people who have recovered from covid19. And most likely immune .

At this stage of proceedings,everybody is aware of the Corona situation.
Ireland as a country has adopted a certain response strategy,which on reflection appears to have worked far better than other countries.

The issue of Immunity remains a live one and currently being debated widely within the medical communities.

Yet,in the midst of it all,we can take some satisfaction from the HSE's statistics...

https://covid19ireland-geohive.hub.arcgis.com/

Total Population - 4.930,000

Total Tests Completed - 961,579.

Total CV-19 Infections - 30,730.

7 Day testing - 71,685.

Positivity Rate - 1.8%

Total CV-19 Related Deaths - 1,783.

A significant number of people have NOT died from Covid-19.

A significant number of people do not appear to have been infected with Covid- 19.

So are we to assume we are ALL going to be infected with Covid - 19 or do we tread warily and make informed decisions based upon a reasonable chance of remaining Covid - 19 free ?

From my daily observations,Most people are attempting to live their lives in as reasonable a manner as possible,it's not back to normal,but a compromise.

The alternative,as is becoming evident in other juristictions,appears to be increased Policing and the Suspension of Civil-Rights across a wide scope of Society.

Thankfully,Most Irish people appear to be capable of proceeding calmly and without widespread thickery,but in any free and open society,these outlying folks HAVE to be accomodated and given their moment of fame,that's the price of democracy,innit ?

I'm sure some on here and elsewhere,will already be pointing a quivering finger in the direction of winter and 'Flu Season' accompanied by dire predictions of mass fatalities and overflowing hospitals,whilst others will be wondering when Santy is coming to Switzers ( )

punisher5112

The amount out now is huge, numbers on buses increasing by the day and people left behind all over the place....

City centre last night was an absolute sh1t show of messy drunks everywhere, I actually couldn't believe what I was seeing it was like 3 in the morning at around 2345.

Aron722

Hi so how does the tax work on the covid-19 payment of 350 a week , when you go back to work how much will you actually have to pay back .

punisher5112

Aron722 wrote: »

Hi so how does the tax work on the covid-19 payment of 350 a week , when you go back to work how much will you actually have to pay back .

I believe you will be left with around 190 and the rest on tax.... They'll be getting it back most likely in tax credits next year.

road_high

Jesus, they've really used this Pandemic to do a job on private transport and road space haven't they? Was in Dublin recently and the North Quays and Dundrum village in particulr stand out. Huge slabs of concrete with nobody or anything on them have eaten up road space.

.anon.

road_high wrote: »

Jesus, they've really used this Pandemic to do a job on private transport and road space haven't they? Was in Dublin recently and the North Quays and Dundrum village in particulr stand out. Huge slabs of concrete with nobody or anything on them have eaten up road space.

Not before time, but a lot more needs to be done. Private cars have become a scourge on public space.

Cyrus

road_high wrote: »

Jesus, they've really used this Pandemic to do a job on private transport and road space haven't they? Was in Dublin recently and the North Quays and Dundrum village in particulr stand out. Huge slabs of concrete with nobody or anything on them have eaten up road space.

Prepare to be flogged

dublinman1990

For those of you in Dublin. I heard on the news that DCC have postponed the trial of the new 2-way cycle lanes for Strand Road in Sandymount until the new year.

.anon.

Cyrus wrote: »

Prepare to be flogged

Not flogged; just massively outnumbered because most people now recognise that there are too many cars taking up too much public space.

road_high

.anon. wrote: »

Not flogged; just massively outnumbered because most people now recognise that there are too many cars taking up too much public space.

No problem where there’s viable efficient and extensive alternatives provided...sticking down ridiculous slabs of concrete and plastic road divisions isn’t unfortunately. Just like the non existent metro

.anon.

road_high wrote: »

No problem where there’s viable efficient and extensive alternatives provided...sticking down ridiculous slabs of concrete and plastic road divisions isn’t unfortunately. Just like the non existent metro

In Dundrum, there are plenty of viable alternatives to single-occupant car journeys. The Luas, the 14, 44, 75, 175, improved cycling infrastructure. The only way to get people out of their cars is to make it the least attractive form of transport.