New bus gates on Bachelors Walk and Aston Quay

I think quite a lot of people do bother. Even if they don’t do anything about a reply, sending official complaints and comments to them does work.

TDs are always mouthing off about, phone calls to their office or emails or talking to constituents. They say that because as our representatives we have to hold them to account. All in a polite and formal manner, but still needed.

I emailed my local green TD as well, Neasa Hourigan, got a good reply indicating how she is pushing back against this along with her Green colleagues.

Also emailed Richard Shakespeare, all I got was a notification of receipt. Though I was never expecting any reply really so I guess it's something.

It's not the democratic will of the people. It was not a Part VIII, it was a non-statutory consultation, and such measures are an executive function of the Council Chief Exec, not the elected Councillors. So nobody is bound by anything at all that came from the submissions that were made, or any vote of Councillors.

I've known Dick Shakespeare for 25 years, man and boy. He makes things happen, he's an innovator and a collaborator,but....he's also a realist and a pragmatist.

If a large representation of his City Centre rates payers are pissed off, and are likely to interrupt their payments or other forms of protest, then Shakespeare is absolutely going to pay attention.

He knows, more than anyone, that it is he who pays the piper, calls the tune.

Hi Richard!

Seriously though, why bother running public consultations at all if a very narrow section of vested interests (car parks in this case) get to completely disregard them 4 weeks out from implementation? just a waste of time and money if the council that created said public consultations completely ignore the overwhelmingly positive response to it from citizens in favour of Noel Smyth & Co.

should be a simple camera to catch people using it and as the tickets go out, it will encourage compliance. However, I still think Guinness and any other heavy industry should be facilitated to use the quays - there is no need to remove the roads, no amount of “realm improvement” will make that a pleasing place. Better than those trucks being sent around through Phobs/Drumcondra etc to the port. There are a predictable number of them.

Roll out the barrells

not realistically and there seems to be issues with trying to schedule at night as Guinness, for noise reasons, is subject to limited hours plus the port has very little storage for the tankers. I’m more concerned for the other neighbourhoods than for Guinness per se. That’s a side issue however. I live in D6, happily drive through town and down the quays but I can see the sense in the traffic limitation - it’s rarely necessary. Might be convenient but rarely necessary. I’d also be happy to see taxis excluded from bus lanes too if it was of general benefit.

This is just the car park lobby though, nobody else.

We’re all familiar with your particular penchant for confidently announcing the end of active transport projects. You were adamant just a few months ago that councillors would never vote for the Active Streets projects in Dun Laoghaire, that had assured you so personally. I think your success rate is below 50% at this stage, it’s time to take a break.

Ah but it isn't though, is it?

Retail Excellence Ireland and the Restaurants Association of Ireland are two massive umbrellas.

You are so full of absolute ****. Remember you said the clontarf works would be stopped within a few days as the public wouldn't stand for it? And you claim to have all this insider knowledge lol. Class A muppet.

You stand by your record of fairview works being reversed? Clown.

One question, and before you all hop on me, it is a genuine question.

Why is the proposal to have the bus gates for 12 hours a day rather than 24 such a big deal? (I don't know if its Mon-Fri or 7 days a week).

Surely being bus only from 7am to 7pm, would allow for the majority of those commuting for work.

Mon-Fri would also allow for shoppers who wanted to drive into town on weekends.

I think its a fair and reasonable compromise.

Okay, I get your point about the turns.

Thanks for the reply.

That doesn't answer the question I asked.

But it implies the answer is "so as to make things as inconvenient for drivers as possible at all times" - even when there is no need to.

Full disclosure, I'm on this thread as not in favour of the plan, as a disabled driver. But I would be happy on a compromise on a reduction of the bus gates on the quays from 24 to 12 hours, Monday-Friday. with everything else left as per the original plan.

Thanks for the reply, but I still do not see why the allocation of road space for buses has to be 24 hours a day, 7 days a week when buses don't even run 24 hours a day. I think 7am to 7pm is a very good compromise.

I made my views on disabled drivers known earlier on the thread so I won't repeat them, other than I don't believe for one second there was ever a chance that currently pedestrianised areas would ever be reversed or ever expected that it would even be considered.

With high enough passenger numbers to justify shutting off part of the quays to cars for 24 hours a day, 7 days a week? I doubt it.

Thanks for the reply, but I have my answer.

Obviously no compromise is going to be good enough for some people.

it will mean less cars and traffic in that part of town, which is a great thing, no?

It is a great thing if you are in that part of town, but some other part of town is worse. This is simply a land grad by those privileged enough to live in the central part of Dublin.

nope it's a win for the working classes getting to their jobs by bus

That’s hilarious! A plan than mostly benefits bus passengers is clearly engineered to benefit the wealthy 😂

As an outside observer, posts like this (and several others like it from others here) do nothing to either further the argument or convince people that increased public transport focus is what's needed, even if it means inconveniencing them.

It just comes across as throwing toys out of prams because the vote didn't go the way they think it SHOULD have. Yet of course, if it had, the same posters would be telling everyone that it was the will of the public etc…

It's the local transport equivalent of the complete tantrums witnessed when Trump was declared in 2016. Love him or loathe him, the reactions were priceless in many quarters.

What of course SHOULD happen here now is a return to the drawing board and consultation. WHY are people against it? What alternatives or compromises exist? The facts - regardless of whether some like it or not - are that public transport or "active travel" (such a nonsense marketing term if there ever was one) are neither practical nor desirable for a lot of people traveling into or through the city - especially those coming from maybe a county or two away because of the shortage of affordable property to buy or rent, coupled with an increase in employers insisting on a return to the office in part to justify the cost of the rents they are paying for those city centre locations.

Personally I think WFH options should be the default for most office jobs unless an employer can justify otherwise. Making people travel to sit at a desk to do the same job they do at home is ridiculous in many cases.

I also think it needs to be recognised that overcrowded, slow (in part because of the constant stop-start of too many bus stops), wandering routes, and antisocial (on some routes) elements of public transport aren't going to entice someone to give up the car and trying to beat them into submission is just going to cause more resistance and resentment.

Improving and adding options like park and ride (Red Cow LUAS being the best example of what's there) to the busiest entry points of the M50 would also be worth looking at.

Also recognising that the M50 is in itself a big part of the problem because of the spread out nature of the city. Someone living in Blanch but working in Sandyford has no other real options unless they want to add hours to the day travelling through the city.

Similarly the congested mess between J7 and J10 causes huge problems because of the mix of residential, retail, and business locations over these few km.

Fundamentally though, there's no easy solution to this but the answers need to factor in ALL the needs and elements, not just the "cars bad, public transport good" attitude that comes across a lot in these discussions and decisions.

If it's limited to 12 hours per day we cannot reclaim the space from the car lane to make much needed infrastructure upgrades. The quays will remain a dangerous place to cycle. At present anyone who is in any way nervous on a bike will not cycle along the quays - that needs to change. We need to make taking the bus or cycling to work a better option than driving. I say that as a driver and cyclist.

The Dublin Transport Plan is clearly in the best interests of the city as a whole, even if it inconveniences some people (fewer than 2% of the people who travel on this route each day).