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PLANS TO RESTRICT motorists to just one lane of traffic at one of Dublin’s worst spots for traffic tailbacks have been slammed by one councillor as “anti-motorist madness”.
The new restrictions on Amiens Street are being proposed to accommodate a new stretch of cycle path, from Clontarf to Connolly Station. It’s part of the wider Sutton to Sandycove cycle route project.
A planning decision on the changes has been put back until September after what was described as a “heated” debate between councillors and Council officials.
Consideration had initially been given to a two-way cycle track on one side of the road.
However, it was decided this option was not feasible due to the high number of side roads along the route, which would raise safety problems for cyclists.
Under the latest proposed designs from the council’s traffic department, the cycle path would be on both sides of the road and segregated from other traffic lanes, except at bus routes or at major junctions.
This would result in the number of available car lanes being cut near the busiest section of Amiens Street, at the stretch around the railway bridge into Connolly.
Local councillor Nial Ring described the plan to make Amiens Street one lane in and out from Talbot Street to Buckingham Street ”another example of the prolonged, continued and orchestrated attack on motorists in the city”.
“AA Roadwatch have congestion from the Five Lamps to Amiens Street as a regular feature in their traffic updates – with this proposal they would have to include back up at North strand, Fairview, Malahide Road, Howth road, Clontarf Road and beyond to their broadcast,” Ring said.
“I dread to think of evening southside to northside rush hour as traffic flows past Busarus in two lanes only to meet one at the Talbot street junction.”
He added:
“The effect of bus lane, cycle lanes and other ‘traffic improvement’ measures have already resulted in a 17% decline in private cars crossing the canals (2006-2014) but at some stage City officials have to realise that you cannot keep “driving” motorists off the roads.”
He said he would be asking Council management to ensure that any future proposals on traffic management should include expert commissioned advice “to ascertain and identify the effect of traffic congestion on the mental well-being of drivers and if incremental additions to congestion has a disproportional effect on their stress levels, frustration and ultimately driving behaviour”.
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I’m a cyclist. This *is* madness. I’m as keen as the Council on connecting the Clontarf bike lanes to Connolly Station but there’s a less painful way to do that by running a route from the Alfie Byrne Rd and through East Wall to the IFSC side entrance to the station. You couldn’t pay me to cycle along North Strand or Amiens St, cycle lanes or not.
I also take one of those bus routes that elbows its way around Busaras from Abbey St to Amiens St. It’ll be impassable with this restriction. Thank Christ for the DART!
This is part of the incremental and locally implemented UN Agenda 21 plan towards a green utopia where nobody will be allowed to drive cars all in accordance with green religious dogma and false science.
Thats a good idea. I wonder how expensive a two lane cycle lane bridge at new wapping st to sir john rogersons quay would cost. both quieter roads with small amounts of vehicular traffic and bikes and cars are out of each others way. It could literally be a freeway across the city with no traffic in a cyclists way for ages.
This sounds like it will cause mayhem at Bus Aras
Would link up with Dublin-Galway Greenway as well. As for Busaras, a move out to beside the Point Depot is years overdue. Immediate tunnel access for coaches leaving Dublin would be fantastic. It would also speed up traffic at the Beresford Place corner with Amiens St as there’d be no coaches entering or exiting the current building.
Must also be close enough to removing the toll from the east link bridge. If O connell st and westmoreland st are pedestrianised then traffic in other bridges is gonna be mental, amiens st case in point
Pedestrianised is a strong word. There’ll still be buses and Luas and a future Metro and probably taxis. That will make for a busy set of streets, even with private cars banned.
No taxis will be allowed on westmoreland st, but yes they will be mad busy. A bit of forward planning would be great. Fat chance in this kip
Tin-foil hat on a bit tighter than usual today?
I reckon you’re wearing one yourself!
It mightn’t be a bad idea to extend the Luas to the Blanchardstown Hosp site, with parking facilities for medical staff , build the new Children’s Hosp there and move the central bus station there as well , eliminating all the congestion in Amiens St and James St
WHO ARE THESE FOOLS TO PROPOSE SUCH A MOVE DO THEY NOT CONSULT THE CAR DRIVER OR THE BUS DRIVER WHO ARE IN THE THICK OF THE TRAFFIC ON A DAILY BASIS..IT SEEMS THE AVERAGE CAR DRIVER WHO HAS NO OTHER WAY OF GETTING TO WORK.WHAT IS NEEDED IS A MULTI STORY CAR PARK AT AFFORDABLE PRICES WHAT HAPPENED TO PARK AND RIDE ANOTHER RED HERRING ALL THESE BIG IDEAS BUT NO FOLLOW UP TO REDUCE THIS ROUTE TO ONE LANE IS SHEER MADNESS
This has the stink of Owen Keegan all over it.
stench of owen keegan is right
Simple answer is to remove all the businesses from the city centre. Close all the roads. Then we could have the biggest cycle park in the world….
Wait are they thinking about getting rid of the bus lane?
As a Dublin Bus driver myself who drives that way I can see this annoying a lot of people.
Raised cycle lanes would probably be a better idea, though I dunno how easy that would be to do. I think its Amsterdam that has raised bridges and cycle paths to keep cyclists and motorists separate, freeing up more road space and ensuring cyclist safety.
Problem with that in Dublin is that the feral scúm class would congregate there and drop bricks at traffic below and assault cyclists once they run out of benzos for the day. It would basically be another junkies’ board-walk.
That circles back to needing more Gardai on the streets. Funny how many problems come back to that.
So its the junction that has the main inter- city bus station for the city and a terminus for the Luas and a major train station ..that will work well…unbelievable idiots in the council.
This plan is for all of about 100 metres. For the minimal benefit that it offers cyclists it is really not worth the expense, let alone the hassle that it will bring the city.
It is the hassle they want, any inconvenience that can cause motorists hassle is ok with certain people in DCC.
Seriously, what brain dead moron thinks this stuff up. The halfwits need to be locked up for their own protection.
They need to be locked up for our protection
As a car user who chooses to take the bus this is a stupid idea. It will lead to even worse traffic conditions on this part of a major artery from Dublin northeast into the city centre
Well you see, they want you to own a car an pay all the expenses that go along with that but then they also want you to use public transport so you can get shafted all the ways so this seems like a pretty good solution to them.
Whiff of keegan on this plan. Who made him god ??
Why dont they ban FREE car parking for civil/public servants? But no…thats like asking TD’s to close the bars in the dáil to encourage responsible drinking in society. Not a chance!! Clowns
Why not just introduce congestion charges?
The nurses and doctors for the new Children’s Hospital in James St have been told they have to travel on buses and the Luas , their work is a matter of life and death yet the pen pushers in Civil Service get free parking . Also totally ridiculous siting of the new Children’s Hosp, in another congested area with no parking , whose going to gain from this ?
They did something similar on western Rd in Cork. A joke of a set up, traffic is worse than ever with a single lane. giving priority an copious amounts of space to cyclists and buses is not gonna make me get out of my car . You could give these clowns buckets of cash and they’d still make a pig’s ear out of it
I wonder as they try to reduce the amount of road space for cars into and out of the city will they reduce road tax to compensate drivers?
You don’t pay road tax. You pay motor tax. It’s based on emissions.
Emissions, engine cc size, vehicle weight.
@Niamh
Your “road” tax whatever that is, goes mainly to Irish water, so what you’ve just said is basically the same as if saying “If I don’t flush the jacks will Irish water give me some money back”
If an ordinary Irish taxpayer walks to work each day and doesn’t own a car, can he call you to get a refund for subsidising (though his PAYE tax bill) you choosing to bring a single occupant private car into a congested city?
Fu**ing cyclists.
Get on yer bike!
who are these people deciding this mad one lane.At the moment tre road space is not enough .why not ban car parking along these routes and that will give you the cycle path.It is just a car park for motorists
I’m fully convinced that an awful lot of Dublin planning staff spend their days smoking the happy pipe and dreaming up ways of pissing off the motorists who keep the capital city going. And of course they get well paid for this said exercise
The DCC are determined to make Dublin a nightmare to travel around- no matter what your mode of transport.
I have come to the conclusion that there is a bet in place to see which one of these halfwits can come up with the most stupid idea. How these idiots manage to tie their shoelaces is staggering.
D C C heads….
Cycling lanes are a good idea for cyclists if only they would use them properly. There are inbound and outbound cycling lands on Washington Street in Cork which is great because a lot of students from UCC use them to go in and out of the city center. The problem is that some of them don’t understand how to follow the pointy arrows on the road. Which leads to me nearly having an accident recently with some muppet cycling the wrong way up the bicycle lane. Of course I was to blame because I am in a car and all cars are bad and should give way to cyclists who are going the wrong way. The same idiot had no helmet or reflectors either so it’s just as well I always give one extra look to take into account twin wheel t**ts.
How did you end up in the bicycle lane?
Surely at some point in time,Keegan, o’Brien and DCC in general will realise roads will be safer when all types of user are treated with respect!
This stretch of road is one of the two busiest cycle arteries in the country and the infrastructure is terrible for cyclists. People need to realise that the more space that is given to cars the more car traffic is generated. Inversely, the less space given to cars the less cars will use the available space. The age of the car-centric city is over. The car-mad lunatics were going to turn the grand canal into a motorway in the 1970′s such was the contagion of car-centricity. The tables have turned. Bicycles and public transport are the future of cities.
Congratulations on living within cycling distance of the City with no kids to transport on your way to work.
The age of the car-centric city is *not* over for Dublin. It is however (rightly) declining, but it cannot decline much further without a rise in decent public transport infrastructure and particularly Park & Ride facilities – Dublin suffers from massive sprawl (due to previous planning stupidity), so it’s not feasible to extend bus,tram and rail to every place it’s needed and the ownership (not running) costs of cars means that you won’t get people out of them easily (more great government policies), so leveraging people’s car ownership with the need to keep cars out of the city centre means P&R needs to happen.
Still no orbital routes in Dublin to link up the hub/spoke based bus model.
I wish I didn’t have to go into the city centre to get anywhere via Dublin Bus.
One part of government talks about housing being unaffordable forcing families to either rent tiny apartments at extortionate rates near the city or rent further out and commute to the city. This would be ok if we had first class public transport (ours is at best hit and miss) and also reasonable child minding facilities but we have neither thus forcing working families to commute each morning with kids in tow to creches near work. The other part of government is hell bent on closing road space so that single people living relatively near the city can cycle in from the nice suburbs. Where is the joined up thinking ??????????????????????????
My da works for DCC he told me some years ago about a person in head office,Who spent a couple of million euro on some scheme without any consultation with the field staff that it would affect. Ended up being a cluster f**k of an idea and said person got a promotion,If this was in the private sector that person be getting a P 45 there really is no accountability in certain sections of the public and civil service
John Tierney wasted over €17m on the debacle in Eyre Square in Galway, then he wasted another €96m with the Poolbeg Waste plant and then a further €2m erecting some umbrellas on Temple Bar square. His reward for all that waste was a €248,000 pa salary as CEO of Irish Water so he can waste even more taxpayers money. All thanks to FG and Lab, wasters the lot of them
Quote: “..segregated from other traffic lanes, except at bus routes or at major junctions.” – like every other useless bike lane in Ireland – non-segregated bike lanes, consisting of paint and pink tar, are a box-ticking exercise in futility, designed by people who don’t cycle. They annoy serious cyclists, give novice cyclists a false sense of security, and encourage illegal parking, jay-walking and traffic creeping out into junctions.
Plus, the biggest problem with segregated cycle lanes is that, where they might be needed, there is no space for them (which is why they are needed!), and where there is space for them, there is little need for them – like it or not, few people will change their route to use cycle lanes on back streets, it’s hard enough to get some to avoid riding the wrong way down one-way streets on the footpath (every two minutes on Lombard St East, Dublin 2).
The two way cycle track on one side of the road is clearly the best option for everyone concerned; bikes, public transport, pedestrians and private motorists.
They’re very common in the Netherlands and from my understanding less road space would be needed to be taken from current private use.
It just needs to be done right, ie no shared space with pedestrians, priority over minor side roads and segregation from motor traffic through every junction.
it’d make more sense to extend the red luas up through clontarf and beyond from connelly maybe up amiens St, though it is a total bottleneck, I can’t see why a cycle Road can’t go thru East wall
The initial plan was for a dedicated two way cycle track through East Wall but then some residents down there kicked up a fuss so now DCC have been left with this Amiens St plan. Councillor Nial Ring was one of the people who objected to the East Wall route and now he is here objecting to the Amiens Street one too. He also objected to the Sutton to Sandycove cycletrack that is now part of public policy.Last June he also objected to the planned Dublin to Galway greenway. This councillor is basically an anti-cyclist, whenever any attempts are made to provide cyclists with infrastructure that makes cycling safer he objects in the strongest of terms. When a solution is found he objects again. It should come as no surprise to people that Nial Ring is a former IFSC banker and also one of Bertie Aherns inner circle.
The real madness is the fact that 20% of car journeys are less than 2km! And we wonder why there’s an obesity epidemic. We need to make roads fit for walking and cycling.
Could we just get someone over from somewhere like Amsterdam to do it for us? For all our bloody junkets over the years, we have no clue and we never will. We need help from people who can plan and carry out necessary changes like this.
I live and work in Bulgaria. In the Capitol, Sofia, the public can choose between buses, trolley buses, trams and a modern underground system. Cars use the same road space as trams and trolley buses without any problem. There aren’t many cycle lanes as you dont see to many using bicycles.
The whole ethos re cars is different, the attitude is to get them to their destination as quick as possible and hence off the road. At the same time the police show no mercy to anyone, car drivers, what cyclists there are, and pedestrians if they break the road laws.
The relocation of Bus Aras to the area down by the Point Depot would be the biggest thing that could be done for congestion relief in that area, it’s simply not fit for purpose anymore and is outdated..
Also building a proper taxi rank outside Connolly station whereby taxi’s can’t park half out on the road, or do illegal U-turns in the middle of the street.
Removal of the on-street parking along the length of Amiens street to build a proper cycle path along with moving the bus stops to the outside of the cycle path would be the safest way to go. No one parks on that street really anyways due to the high incidents of car break-ins.
Who hires these idiots? …No common sense or cop on
I live in city centre. I’d support this, even more heartily if park and ride facilities could be built near major arteries further out to encourage more people to use mass transit, and some ride-sharing scheme endorsed to promote carpooling.
Who cares? Why is this even news?
The late Gerry Ryan used to say that ‘the motorist was treated like the enemy of the state’ , how right he was , if they’re not forcing them off the road they’re slapping them with tax after tax, fines , toll charges and penalty points , lying in wait in covert operations under camouflage on motorways
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