Dun Laoghaire Traffic & Commuting Chat

Crudely put, but not inaccurate. S2

The inertia of property ownership is a big - maybe the biggest - factor in Dun Laoghaire's fortunes.

However, I'm optimistic that the arrival of the big primary care centre in the old shopping centre and the co-working / incubator space in the old ferry terminal and the new school in the old Fire Station (and a few other initiatives I've heard well sourced rumours about), will now prompt some of these sandbagging property owners thats its time to invest or go to the market.

Momentum will be key.

If you don’t want to join keep up with current times by using an app, you can also tap your card on most of the meters

I dont like any money/bank details on my phone. Parking app requires link to bank ac.

The central areas of Dun Laoghaire, as well as central Blackrock, Dundrum etc, have all been 'pay and display' parking from Monday - Saturday since the Bye Laws first came into force 20 years ago.

You could simply link the app to a Revolut or Credit Card account, one step removed from your personal current account, but frankly I don't see how your paranoia of modern technology is the problem of local businesses or the County Council.

You could just save up your spare change in your car.

My main point is that the metered parking areas are now extended to 6 days a week. It might be a couple of months since my last trip to Dun L but for years I have been able to park for free on Cumberland Street of a Saturday morning and the Salthill Dart carpark was also free. But for the parking fee today, I would have shopped about the town and had a coffee or lunch after I had finished my main reason for going to Dun Laoire.

The new one way system at sea front makes getting to and from the pier parking areas a bit tortuous?

It has been well discussed here that there are alternative shopping areas with free parking on site. And from where I come from, buses are not convenient.

I have the app, but I would say in general in Dublin-its rare I find a parking meter that accepts card. I havent kept change on me for years.

I use the app now but you would think coin only machines should be done away with

Only some of your card details are visible within the app. Six of the card serial number digits and all of the CVC are masked with asterisks. If you mislaid your phone, your exposure is no worse than if you toss the receipt from a debit or credit purchase into a public bin.

I was recently parked on the Carrickbrennan road and none of the pox-ridden meters there would accept a card and I had insufficient coins. For the once in a blue-moon that I need to pay for parking it's not worth having the app installed either.

You don’t need the app or an account - you can park using the website (www.parkingtag.ie) and pay by card.

The proposed cycle lanes along Kill Ave look great. Double-track cycle lanes, done properly, are transformational. They’re a cheap, efficient mode of transport, they’re great for less confident cyclists and they have the added advantage of making cycling even more sociable.

More nonsense from the Council that brought you the illegal Coastal Mobility Route and the impractical Kill Lane.

The fact is, Kill Avenue and Glengeary Road have both been reprofiled in the last 8 to 10 years, with what we are told were the state-of-the-art designs. And yet, here they are, looking to excavate the whole show again, at great expense and disruption, to provide what will amount to zero improvement in cycle priority and only further loss of amenity for people who just happen to live on a main road.

All while other main routes in the County havent even got a decent surface, let alone any sort of cycle facilities.

The folk on Mounttown Lower, in particular, will not stand for it judging by early complaints I've already seen and heard.

Its worth remembering the local elections are now less than two years away and by the time consultation is done with on this proposal, will be less than one year away. The local reaction to this will be ringing loudly in the ears of the incumbents intending to run again, when they make a decision on this scheme....

I believe it was more about the success or not of pedestrianisation generally, as an ethos.

But obviously prompted by upcoming (again) debates.

I know I'm against it, well against public transport removal anyway, but in relation to this meeting I would point out that the organisers are the usual 'against everything' in Dun Laoghaire brigade and would have much preferred to see the town paused at its 1968 existence forever more, even as the World changes around them.

As someone who cycles all the time around the area, there's a lot here that doesn't quite make sense.

• Bakers corner - how do I turn right in most of these systems without waiting 5 minutes for two sets of lights to go? I'd likely just stay mixed with traffic in that scenario.
• 2 lane bike down Kill Ave - its great, though i'm wary of the yield / bus stop model they've got there. I've seen a few different iterations through the DLR area and this one seems destined for bad behavior by cyclists.
• Glenageary road upper / Kill Ave junction - again, how do I turn? I'd most likely be turning up Oliver Plunkett, so I get there by crossing...3 lights at a busy junction?
• Glenageary road upper - 2 lane bike lane, fantastic. Why the single direction lane on the opposite side of the road? why the bait and switch on side of the road? further up, is it just because they don't know what the hell to do with cycling and Sallynoggin roundabout?
• Mounttown road upper/lower - people just get teleporters through the junction?
• Mounttown road Upper - and a nice few kamikaze bike lanes to finish - ones that just truncate and dump you into the flow of traffic.

I really appreciate getting cycling infrastructure thats effective, but there's this weird continued mismash of separated to merged, and different models in between, and tbh it serves no one well - inexperienced cyclists get freaked out, experienced cyclists just end up staying in traffic lanes because tbh it's faster, easier, and you're less likely to get run over at merges, and drivers have to be on high lookout for strange merges, and unexpected actions due to inconsistent cycling experience. You shouldn't have to know the road intimately ahead of time to be able to use the infrastructure appropriately.

Its a cycle lane under a waterworks budget in fact.

No more than 20% of BoQ anyway, maybe 15% overall.

I see that the proposed Deansgrange cycle path through the cemetery has been dropped. Instead it is to go on the road with a consequential removal of on-street parking.

I sense another row about to erupt!

https://www.irishtimes.com/ireland/dublin/2023/03/13/controversial-deansgrange-cemetery-cycle-plan-formally-dropped/