Overseas aid for Dublin's Gridlock

strassenwolf

From the Irish Times:

Government seeks German advice on Dublin's gridlock
David Labanyi


The Government has approached German companies operating in Ireland for proposals on how to resolve Dublin's traffic congestion.

The initiative has seen the Minister of State at the Department of Transport, Ivor Callely, visit Munich on a fact-finding mission to see how the city changed from Dublin-style gridlock to become an example of excellent transport infrastructure in under 10 years.

Since his visit to Munich in April, officials from the Department and the Dublin Transport Office have met regularly with leading representatives of German firms based in Dublin, such as BMW and Siemens, through the German Irish Chamber of Industry and Commerce.

The meetings will culminate in a transport conference to be organised by Callely later this year. It's also expected that some of the infrastructure policies seen in Munich will be contained in the proposed 10-year strategic transport plan for Dublin.

Funding for the plan is currently being discussed by the Departments of Transport and Finance and it's expected to be brought before the Cabinet in the next Dáil term.

One of those involved in the discussions to resolve Dublin's gridlock is Conrad Schmidt, managing director of BMW Group Ireland. He says the Irish economy cannot develop efficiently if "employees spend two or three hours a day in traffic. You cannot efficiently commute, transfer goods, services and individuals to other parts of the city and country if there is poor infrastructure."

Schmidt is also concerned at the poor quality of the roads in many parts of the country. "At BMW we spend millions every year making safer cars," he says, "but even the safest cars get damaged if the roads are in a bad state. These contribute to damage to cars, damage to tyres and as a consequence eventually deaths."

Just over 10 years ago Munich was struggling to cope with a rapid growth in population and had imposed disincentives for motorists using the city centre. Schmidt says the result was a city centre bordering on decay as businesses left.

To counter this, BMW joined an initiative with industry, Munich's city council and its chamber of commerce to seek solutions to the infrastructure problems in the city.

These groups signed the Inzell initiative in 1995 which led to a change of mindset, says Schmidt. An immediate result was more focused public transport development. Control of public transport ticketing in Munich was given to one private firm.

"We also have very well conceived park-and-ride facilities on the outskirts of the city."

These are among the elements that Minister Callely intends to incorporate into the Dublin transport plan. He is also thought to be enthusiastic about council garages in the city centre, which stop car owners from having to park on city centre roads.

Munich now has a traffic system which allows a driver to "travel from the city's north side at lunchtime on a Friday into the city centre by car in exactly 20 minutes," says Schmidt.

"You can find parking very easily and make use of the car's navigation system to find the best route around any congestion".

He is cautious about applying the same remedy for Dublin, but notes similarities in population and what can be achieved by fixing the basics.

Schmidt feels the contribution from the German companies has been well received by the Government. "It's a very good initiative but much now depends on the lead from the public sector and the Government. I would caution against believing there are quick fixes."




© The Irish Times

murphaph

Lazy lazy journalist, spoon fed a diet of car-centric sh!te and swallows it all. Munich began developing their underground system & Interconnector in the mid 60's. They already had an almost complete underground in 1995 (ignorin their comprehensive tram network that existed before and underground was even conceived for the city) so reducing gridlock was actually a realistic target for them. Munich is mostly medium-high density housing (talking 5~6 storey apartment blocks with a lot of what we would consider very small flats with most of the buildings having no underground carpark) from it's centre to a radius of about 10km, before you see any houses with gardens appearing, and even then a lot of those are actually subdivided into flats with a common garden. They have much higher population densities. We are gradually getting there but a grand plan on transport has to come hand in hand with a grand plan on increasing population density in the city.

Munich can teach us a lot, especially with respect to an overall body in charge of timetabling and ticketing for the various transport companies, but we have to be realistic and realise that the cities aren't sisters of one another.

strassenwolf

OK, maybe they won't hear this from the BMW guy, but one of the pieces of advice that Deputy Callely is likely to hear at his transport conference is this:

Spend some money on public transport!

I confidently expect that we will get through to the next election without any further progress towards development of Dublin's rail or LUAS. Announcements, yes, progress, no.

In other words, 10 years of this coalition government and all we will have to show for it will be a reopened Harcourt Street line and a new line to Tallaght which takes about 10 minutes longer to make the journey than it was originally supposed to. At a time when we are richer than we've ever been.

If it is true that this 10 year investment plan is being held up because of the Department of Finances fears over the Eastern by-pass (who has suggested that there is a need for this?), then it is a shocking indictment of this government.

But understandable why they might have this poor record on public transport. After all, how many people over in the FF tent at the Galway races are regular users of public transport?

Much more likely that they are customers of that BMW bloke.

strassenwolf

The meetings will culminate in a transport conference to be organised by Callely later this year. It's also expected that some of the infrastructure policies seen in Munich will be contained in the proposed 10-year strategic transport plan for Dublin.

I presume they won't make any decision on what to do with the city until after this conference. So we won't be hearing about the 10 year investment plan, if there is one, until after that.

At least this spares us from any further announcements of the latest false dawn "within weeks" until after the conference.

so it's not all bad news.

John R

Ask a car manufacturer executive how to solve transport problems. These f-wits MUST be the most stupid leaders anywhere on the planet. Our "journalists" are also vying for the lead in their category.

cyclopath2001

Given that the city council was building the usual sub-standard cycle tracks in Calally's own consituency on the same day as he was swanning around the 'VeloCity' conference, I would not expect anything actually useful from him.

Metrobest

Callelly's new 10-year transport plan:

* Commission a consulatant's report on the viability of a conference
* Wait until 2007 election before announcing date of conference
* Spend six years analysing the findings of the conference.
* Loads more vote-winning PR drivel

BrianD

I am thinking of setting up a consultancy cum travel agency for the government sector. One half of the company will provide consultants reports for any government minister when he hasn't the balls to make a decision (not to sure who this phrae applies to the female version) and the other unit will cater for foreign trips to see how its done in other countries. This will keep the relevant minister out of the way while I concoct some report that will be soon forgotten about. i think I am on a winner!

SeanW

On the P11 forums I recently said "time to get the bloody Germans in here"

Car manufacturers are not exactly what I had in mind though

mackerski

It so happens that you can usually cross Munich in a car, even at peak times, in times that would make a Dubliner envious. One of the main reasons you can do it is that you can cross it even quicker using public transport. If I had to pick a very few lessons Munich could teach Dublin in the area of transport it is these:

1. Don't make it your goal for every public transport journey to involve only one route. That kind of crap stops working once jobs exist outside the city centre.

2. In recognition of (1), design your transit routes as a network to acheive extra reach due to easy interconnections between routes.

3. In recognition of (1) and (2), use a unified ticketing system for all public transport modes, so that people can interchange without penalty. That doesn't mean letting the train, tram and bus companies all charge you separately from the same smart card. It means a zonal system where you pay for the zones travelled without regard to the vehicles that got you there or the companies that operate them.

Dermot

strassenwolf

BrianD wrote:

I am thinking of setting up a consultancy cum travel agency for the government sector. One half of the company will provide consultants reports for any government minister when he hasn't the balls to make a decision (not to sure who this phrae applies to the female version) and the other unit will cater for foreign trips to see how its done in other countries. This will keep the relevant minister out of the way while I concoct some report that will be soon forgotten about. i think I am on a winner!

Please count me in as a trainee consultant-cum-travel agent. I want a slice of this pie.


But it raises another question.

Up until quite recently we didn't have any money to build any more public transport infrastructure. Even electrification of the DART was a big project in money terms, at the time it happened. But for the last few years we have had a bit of spare cash.

It hasn't been a closely guarded secret that German cities, in many cases, have excellent public transport systems. They had plenty of cash and a willingness to invest some of it in public transport.

So why is it only now, after several years of prosperity, that we decide to speak to the Germans? (or anyone else who runs good public transport systems). Their cities may be higher density, etc., as was pointed out earlier in the thread, but there's surely no harm in speaking to them and studying how others do it? It's not necessary for all our planners to act like they work for the National Roads Authority.

I mean, did the DTO Platform for Change thing come out about five years ago, without anyone in there having a look at how things were done in other cities? e.g Swedish cities, German cities, American cities, whatever.

Lennoxschips

There are people here in Ireland telling them what to do, but they won't listen. So now they are going to not listen to Germans. What difference does it make...

strassenwolf

Ah yes, when you put it like that..

murphaph

Lennoxschips wrote:

There are people here in Ireland telling them what to do, but they won't listen. So now they are going to not listen to Germans. What difference does it make...

Sadly you are correct.

Danno

Level Dublin and start again - most of the City does not have planning permission anyways...

daz42C

Danno wrote:

Level Dublin and start again - most of the City does not have planning permission anyways...

That would be so cool they could do it sections, like ballymun but keep working from there!

dermo88

Sorry

It does not quite work like that.

We've got too many pigs at the trough. Lets start.

1. CIE Unions, who screw their employer for every cent possible. Open up a new service, they want bonuses, or benchmarking deals. Are they accountable to the customer, NO. NO. NO.

2. Integrated ticketing.....see above. Its not my job to organise that. The Union did not agree to that. Its not in my contract. Again, customer service does NOT exist

3. RPA. Have you noticed there are no signs at Connolly directing passengers to the Luas. Oh yes, probably because its not part of CIE.

4. Fianna Fail.

Has it occured to anyone that setting up CIE for privatisation and breaking it up into several different companies might be their way of making a few quid on the side by awarding Franchises and Construction Contracts to their buddies. That Beer tent at the Galway races does not exist for fun guys.

5. The Construction Industry Federation of Ireland

Do I need to go on..............theres 20 others left to go. Plus an archaic and obscure planning system that would make a Vogon proud.