Banning cars in Dublin city centre.

It will be interesting to see if they:
(1) Remove the toll on the East Link bridge
(2) Remove all free parking spaces provided to civil servants, council workers, politicians in dail eireann (which appears to be inside the zone?)
 
odyssey06 said:
It will be interesting to see if they:
(1) Remove the toll on the East Link bridge
(2) Remove all free parking spaces provided to civil servants, council workers, politicians in dail eireann (which appears to be inside the zone?)
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They won't even charge them BIK on their spaces. There's no chance they'll remove them.
 
Purple said:
They won't even charge them BIK on their spaces. There's no chance they'll remove them.
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On a positive note, I think it could possibly transform Dublin City centre in a good way. At the moment, it seems that traffic (buses, cars, taxis, motorbikes and yes, the humble bicycle) can travel freely through the heart of our capital, while us poor pedestrians have to wait at countless traffic lights to cross roads to just get a few hundred yards through the city centre. I'm all for it. I agree that there are are too many precious spaces in the heart of our capital city wasted on benefits for Public/Civil servants and Politicians. Maybe we should be starting a movement to move the lot of them to the centre of Ireland rather than the centre of Dublin (Hello, Portlaoise, Carlow.......).
 

Can't tell whether you're saying that sarcastically or not... Really hope it's tongue in cheek. If not, do tell us which govt departments you'd move where, I'm intrigued.
 
Well the Companies Registrations Office and National Employment Rights Agency are on O'Brien Rd in Carlow already! )
 
Joe_90 said:
Well the Companies Registrations Office and National Employment Rights Agency are on O'Brien Rd in Carlow already! )
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Dept of Agriculture, Dept of Social Services (not sure if this is the correct terminology any more but all of their work is now technical from an administrative point of view), Dept of Sports, Tourism etc., Dept of Health, ...... in fact, any Gov Dept whose Head Office is situated in central Dublin and whose main activities are Administration.
 
I'm not talking about Charlie McCreevy's Decentralisation scheme which was based on every Minister in Gov at the time getting either a Dept or a major Quango in their constituency. I really mean moving any Adminstration HQ out of the centre of Dublin to any other major centre (anywhere in Ireland, actually, thanks to the wonderful network of M roads we now have courtesy of same Gov Ministers blessing their constituents with same). This is potentially revolutionary -
- it will be hated by the Politicians
- it will deliver cheaper Public Services
- it will disperse employment (imagine all of those Public Sector employees in one central space in central Ireland)
- it could alter the attitude of Public Servants, in that they might understand that their job is to provide a Public Service!
- it could reduce the nightmare of peak traffic (after all, private sector workers usually travel earlier and leave later)
- it could regenerate an entire sector of downtrodden Ireland after the Boom!

I could go on, but I think that's enough for now.
 
It's pretty sad and pathetic that a game-changing plan to make our capital city's centre a more pleasing area to visit, to shop and to work in has turned immediately into another public sector bashing thread. Really really sad.

Maybe some of you should actually read what is being proposed, think about how it might effect your travel patterns and contribute to the process?
 
Joe_90 said:
Well the Companies Registrations Office and National Employment Rights Agency are on O'Brien Rd in Carlow already! )
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The Companies Registration Office still maintains the same office in Parnell Square that it did before the bulk of its functions were moved to Carlow several years ago. Lights were on at 9pm when I passed recently.
 

I think it's entirely legitimate to question the usage of the city centre by public authorities... that includes everything from how public authorities are using city centre spaces, to bridges, to public transport, to the height of residential buildings within the city centre.
 
Yes I've no problem with that, but when it's the only query raised it raises suspicions.
I would be in favour of the parking levy that the greens proposed being implemented for all, including civil servants, politicians etc but I really wish people would look beyond that tiny element and see the massive benefits proposed in this document.
 
40,000 isn't a tiny number.
The point is that the real power in this country resides with the public sector (as it does in most countries and that's probably a good thing) and they are unlikely to make changes that adversely effect themselves.
 
I don't think there are 40,000 public/civil service parking spots between the canals but obviously you have your sources. I'd remind you that this proposal was developed by public sector workers.
Have you any other thoughts on the proposals other than parking spaces?
 
Does anybody know what happens when such bans are introduced in relation to disabled persons? My son drives but would not be able to walk far.
I would know many persons in a similar position who simply are unable to use public transport?
 
If done correctly, it could be a great boost to the city. But this is Ireland after all... It's all in the detail and how they facilitate those who do need to drive while putting better public transport in place. There was likely a lot of resistance to Grafton Street too, but that seems to work well, certainly the rents for shops there seem to be significantly higher than any of the neighbouring ones.

This recent article from The Guardian might dispel some of the fears expressed by the business community in and around the affected area, but I'd imagine they'll continue to fight it as they don't want to risk changes. It cites research showing increased trade in such areas, with one UK study showing a 40% increase where more people walk.

DCD said:
Does anybody know what happens when such bans are introduced in relation to disabled persons? My son drives but would not be able to walk far.
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I'm not aware of any pedestrianised areas that would allow exceptions for disabled or impaired drivers, but this is still a small area they're talking about, and facilities for mobility aids should improve considerably.
 
Leo said:
If done correctly, it could be a great boost to the city..
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Are we really certain of this? For example Cleary's recently closed but it was the only major department store in Dublin centre that didn't have either direct access from its own car park (e.g. Arnott's, BT's) or access from a linked multi-storey (e.g. Debeneham's from the ILAC or M&S from the Jervis Centre). There is a car park close by to Cleary's, i.e. Q-Park in Marlborough St, but it was difficult to get to, particularly if you were driving from the affluent Southside. Now Cleary's may have gone bust for a variety reasons but you can't ignore relative competitive disadvantage, from a lack of car parking comparable to that provided by equivalent city centre department stores, as a contributory factor.

The current proposals appear to be just a land grab by a state organization (i.e. the NTA), to the benefit of other state organizations (i.e. "public" – that is to say - state owned transportation). So you have state organizations looking after their own without any consideration of how this might affect wealth producing and service providing enterprises in Dublin.
 
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If Clery's closed due to Car Parking issues as you believe, why didn't it close down years ago? During the early years of the recession?

As for a land grab, I just don't understand what you mean. The NTA's job is to provide funding and plans for a better and more functional transport system for all which includes making it easier for businesses to deliver to other businesses by reducing congestion. Do you think an additional 40,000 cars coming into the city centre is sustainable? How does that help the city function as a place to work, shop and live?

What's your solution? Do nothing? Build more multi-story car parking?
 
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