Clontarf to City Centre Cycle & Bus Priority Project discussion (renamed)

I can't claim to know everyone living on North Strand north of Newcomen Bridge, but one friend of mine lived in a property there with up to 15 others until recently. 2 bunk beds in her room so 4 people max per room. Apparently none were from Ireland, several from Brazil and others from all around the world. She wasn't personally aware that the bus stop wouldn't be replaced, and had accepted that walking from north Strand fire station would be the new norm.

Most people there apparently walked or took the bus, there being no space for bikes inside or space/safety for bikes outside.

Anecdotes aside, the H-spine of buses that serve most of the route will now not have a stop between 5 lamps and Store Street, making connections with Connolly Station very difficult instead of a trivial walk. It's an abject failure of planning and basic public transport concepts established for over 100 years by the likes of UERL (London Underground predecessor)

It’s the same outbound - the H Spine routes now don’t stop from outside Busaras on Beresford Place until just before the Five Lamps.

It’s a crazy gap.

It’s like they’re stringing the job out on purpose. Loads of bits left unfinished, couple of guys working here and there.

Well today just after the fire station inbound they were digging up the newly installed kerb stones that were recently laid. And the nice new tarmac as well. The minister of bicycles Ryan will be gone from office by the time it’s finished.

This was planned way before ER ever got into government. It's amazing how everyone is putting some kind of blame on him for the continuing roadworks. They're probably digging something up because they f**ked up some wires or waterworks. All Eamon's fault of course and there'll be no more cycle lanes or carbon tax, or wind energy, or anything of the likes after the next election.

So why did you have to mention Eamon Ryan at all? Do you think he micromanages every project you don't like in Ireland or something?

The new Google offices had to be substantially rebuilt because of problems during the build. An entire section of motorway had to be rebuilt because the road surface collapsed shortly after opening. Design and build problems happen to lots of projects. I’m almost all cases, one or more of the contractors will take the hit so the extra work costs the state nothing. Mountain / molehill.

I think the greens will lose out in the next election. Then people won't understand when the same plans and changes are still taking place. 😂

People seem to be getting very upset about infrastructure that includes bike infrastructure being built.

The truth of the matter is, road capacity is at its limit in the city. Sure we can add lanes but that would fill up quickly and go nowhere. And cost 100's of millions.

North strand probably carries around a thousand cars into the city an hour. This is really bad. That is 1000 people. Whereas a bus lane with only 50 busses per hour would have 4500+ people per hour. If you are in your car stuck in traffic you'd think that the bus lane is a waste of space but it is doing more work for the economy than the general traffic lane you are stuck in. A bicycle lane has an even larger capacity than the bus and car lane combined.

And more people cycling and using public transport will free up more space on the road for people who have to drive.

Cars require a lot of road space. A car (usually with one person) travelling at 50 km/h (if possible) needs around 40 metres of road. It can be surprising how low road capacity is for cars.

Retired people get free travel passes, not free taxi passes. I'm not sure what is so difficult for "some people" to understand here.

The recommended distance between bus stops is 400m. For North Strand they decided 600m, despite being 50% below standard.

There is a very good reason the guidelines are 400m. Considering you also have to walk at the other end of your journey, if people have to walk "too long" to a bus stop.... usage of that service reduces quickly and people drive or simply don't leave (old people).

If said older person takes the bus to town they will have to walk far more than 300metres when they arrive at their destination. How long is Henry St or Grafton St for example? Far longer than 300m and there is no bus on either road. So that argument doesn't wash. If they can stroll around town to do their bits and pieces they cam stroll to the bus stop.

There are many places in the Suburbs which have bus stops way in excess of 400 m. I don't really agree with many elements of Busconnects, however the removal of some bus stops in my opinion is welcome.

You do have to factor in the distances walk to the main road where the bus operates as well.

That’s often why bus stops can be closer together than some people might like - in some housing estates people could be walking 600m metres or more to the estate exit before you take the stop locations into account.

Moving stops to increase the distance can be a deciding factor in putting people off from using the bus rather than driving.