Dublin is the ‘second-slowest city centre in the world’ for drivers

They’ve never been in Galway city on a rainy Monday morning coming in from the Dublin motorway.

It used to happen up until 1978. But in the election of 1977 FF got the biggest majority in the history of the State on the policy to abolish Property Tax. This spelled the end of local government funding which had any connection to communities.

This year we will have the chance to elect 949 local politicians. But some electoral areas will probably have fewer than an average of two candidates per seat. Even though the next rung on the ladder would lead to untold riches available to TD's. We used to have about 600 more on town councils but they were turfed out a few years ago. But apparently there is going to be an elected Mayor in Limerick.

"Outside of the Oireachtas, Ireland's National Parliament, local authorities are the only bodies whose members are elected by direct vote of the Irish electorate. There are 949 councillors in Ireland, who are elected in local government elections every five years."

Whats your alternative?

The only solution in short and medium term is to get as many people as possible onto bikes and buses.

Maybe when Bus Connects is close to completion they can have a big promotion and have very cheap annual tickets.

I think it's about 1000 a year for an adult (I know there's tax deductions).

Maybe they could offer €200 for an annual ticket and cheaper again for children and students.

They could have a media and marketing campaign comparing cost and journey times of car, bike and bus.

Not surprising, the small road and narrow roads around Ireland are not able to cope with the traffic compared to other countries around the world.

Note the glide from post 1 . . .

. . . to post 2:

The slowest city for drivers and the slowest city for commuters are not the same thing.

If you look at the full TomTom list, the slowest city are all large cities - urban region with a population of well over 1 million - with relatively small, dense centres that date from when the city was much smaller. The centres were not designed or constructed, and did not organically grow, on the basis that everyone coming into the urban centre would bring half a ton of metal with them.

The only ways you can improve driving speeds in this situation are:

1. Demolish much of the city centre and to create space for a lot more vehicle infrastructure — enough infrastructure to cater for as much traffic as the few remaining bits of the city centre that actually have something worth going to in them can possible generate. Quite a number of American cities have done this, but the social, cultural, human etc impact is severe. The "sweet spot" where there is enough vehicle space for all the vehicles coming into the city centre to be unimpeded seems to be about 60% of the land area of the urban centre given over to roads, parking, etc and 40% given over to all other uses. The only European cities to have done this are those were the necessary demolition was done in the 1940s courtesy of the RAF and the USAAF — most rebuilt their centres much as they were before, but a few opted for new, specious, car-friendly but basically soulless centres.
2. Drastically restrict access by private cars so the the limited streets in the urban centre do not get overly congested. That can work to deliver short driving times, but of course most drivers don't benefit because they are kept out of the urban centre, so that's not a universally popular approach.

Most cities faced with this issue, and not willing to tear themselves apart so that 60% of the urban centre can be given over to cars and storage for cars, opt for providing alternatives to driving in the urban centre. I no longer live in Dublin but, when I did, my options for commuting to work, starting with the shortest, were (1) cycle (2) public transport (3) walk (4) drive. That actually strikes me as the optimal order for a human-friendly city.

Co-operation between drivers. Arrange with two other people to have three people in one car as often as possible, rather than one person in three separate cars.

Why does it always have to be underground. What about elevated trams? Other cities have them.

There's enough low height housing in Dublin city centre to get away with a few elevated routes.

I know there's the argument it would affect the aesthetics of the area. But you know what else does? Traffic jams, poor air quality, lack of trees from being cut down so tens of thousands of vehicles can clog up roads. Not to mention dilapidated and run down buildings that give off a nuclear holocaust vibe. And the Luas is very quiet in comparison to most trains/trams. A full network of them would do the job.

Not everyone's cup of tea, but surely worth a go?

Cheaper too I'd imagine.

Would that make the traffic go quicker?

They mean a person in each car. Don't be pedantic.

That's how buses work.

Buses are outdated, unatrractive & are slower than driving.

We will not get people out of cars by trying to shunt them on to buses.

Buses are basically for students and retired folks and that mind set isnt about to change at scale.

There isnt a single 30 or 40 something I know that drives that would even consider moving to bus travel. Even if the bus was free.

Especially the drivers with kids whom need to run around to sports practices/shops/friends houses etc on tight timelines.

Not to mention the fact that BusConnects has no completion date, due to driver shortages.

BusConnects is a cheap substitute for a proper underground system and it will fail to move people out of cars.

It is more like car sharing.

The main reason for buses being slow is that they get stuck behind all the single occupancy cars in traffic and all the vans and trucks blocking bus lanes. We need some serious enforcement to keep bus lanes clear, and some serious prioritisation of bus traffic.

Your views are fairly outdated. Lots of people, young and old, use buses, whether regularly or occasionally for commuting or for local trips. When the bus service works, like the 46A or 145 services, or the new 24 hour services on the 39 routes, they work really well.

We need to give them the space to work even better.

Its reaasonable, but its still not as quick, comfortable or as convenient as driving.

Cyclings quicker and more convenient than driving. Also cheaper and better for health.

It depends. Most of Dublin's within the M50 is a 30 minute cycle to the city center.

I wouldn't expect everyone to cycle or take the bus, but as I said originally the only short or medium term solution to Dublin's traffic is to encourage as much modal shift as possible.

An Underground could be delivered in the Medium term, but the journey has to start with a plan.

No harm in encouraging cycling or bus transport in the meantime, but you are only ever going to see small changes in modal transport. From Car to Bus/Bike.

This study is evidence of that.

Count the number of bikes/buses using an arterial road in Dublin and then count the number of cars using the road over the same period.

Bus travel is a sticking plaster approach that needs to be reinforced with a large scale PT system that is faster, cheaper and more efficient than driving, for the masses.

In other words, a mode of transport that people actually prefer vs driving.

There is really only an underground system thar can deliver that, especially when you consider the rapid rate of Dublins population growth.

It depends on high you define "medium term", but we might have one Metro line in 10 years time. So, although great to have it, it's not a complete solution. We're still back to buses and bikes.

Copenhagen have added 4 Metro lines since 2002 and are planning a 5th.

That's the type of ambition we need. On top of that, they're mad for cycling.

Building a Dublin underground? Well I would say that most people here will be retired or using a flying-wheelchair by the time an underground is built in Dublin... The home of the world's most expensive and still not finished Hospital... You may as well hope for a Solar-powered Monorail while you're at it...

There's some here who will bitterly hold onto their cars for city transport and others who will tell you the bicycle will solve all our traffic problems.. Neither is correct....and will still be on here in 20 years with both sides arguing that they know best...

We'll have one Metro line in 10 years. I'm pretty certain of that.

Bikes are still part of the solution. So are buses, Dart, walking.

I live close enough to Dublin and I'm lucky enough to be on a public transport link but I wouldn't ever in my wildest dreams use my car to drive into Dublin City centre during the day. I've driven it at night the odd time to collect herself from a night out but that's it.

Plenty of my friends/acquaintances drive in there all the time and give out about it. They're part of the problem, they shouldn't be driving in. They live near me and have same options I have.

That's not to say everyone has same options, but if people are too lazy to walk to a bus stop or train station (I have both) I'm not going to entertain their giving out about traffic.

I'd love to know the number that drive in when there are very viable options available to them but I'd guess it's at least half the cars in there during the day really shouldn't be.