[Article] Forget the Metro says traffic boss

Victor

I met Owen Keegan recently and he does come across as pro-road (as opposed to pro-car). I do think that a balance does need to be found between the, in places, excessive Luas / Metro plans and the existing style of the city.

Forget the Metro says traffic boss
From:The Irish Independent
Wednesday, 2nd April, 2003
Treacy Hogan Environment Correspondent

DUBLIN'S traffic supremo last night called on the Government to scrap its long-term Metro strategy and bring in London-style charges for motorists to enter the city.

Dublin Director of Traffic, Owen Keegan said he believed there had been a tendency to overestimate the extent of congestion in the city - after revealing that car commuters have been hit with a 44pc increase in morning journey times and a 31pc fall in average speeds.

The "grand strategy" for Dublin should be put "on hold" but infrastructure projects under construction, such as Luas, should be completed, Mr Keegan said in a remarkable address to a seminar last night.

After that, the full potential of the bus and DART/suburban rail should be exploited along with measures including road pricing, he said.

Congestion charges similar to those successfully introduced in London where motorists pay £5 to enter the city "should be considered."

In a blistering attack on official transportation strategy policy, Mr Keegan said there was a mismatch between the needs for extra public transport capacity and the likely supply because of the emphasis on major capital projects such as the heavy Metro rail link.

The role of the bus would change from being a main public transport system to a feeder services for rail/metro systems.

"It is not clear to me that passengers enjoying a good level of service on the bus will want to change to rail based systems. It is hard to justify significant public expenditure designed to achieve a switch between different public transport modes."

There was a danger that "road reservations of previous eras will be replaced with indicative metro lines," the Director of Traffic and Asst Dublin City Manager told a Statistical and Social Inquiry Society of Ireland seminar in the Royal Irish Academy.

"The latest forecasts show there is an urgent need for additional public transport capacity in the short term. Major capital projects can only deliver this capacity in the long term and hence the mismatch.

"While I do not wish to deny the scale of the congestion problem or to suggest private car commuters have not suffered a significant reduction in the level of service they enjoy, I believe there had been a tendency to overestimate."