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DUBLIN TAXI DRIVERS have been receiving complaints from people with disabilities and tourists visiting the city because of restrictions put in place in the last year.
Tony Rowe, chairman of the National Transport Assembly of Ireland, and a taxi driver in the capital himself, has said the restrictions around College Green and the removal of over a dozen taxi ranks has negatively impacted on the service.
He said Dublin still has more taxis than any other European Capital, but drivers have “abandoned the city centre, especially around the Grafton Street and Dawson Street areas” due to the restrictions.
Rowe said bringing a customer to destinations in those areas now takes much longer and in many cases drivers can not bring them right to the door because of the restrictions.
A ban on taxis travelling southbound in the College Green area in peak times was introduced earlier this year to address traffic congestion following the launch of the Luas Cross City.
Rowe said 18 taxi ranks have also been taken out of circulation, which means drivers have few places in the city centre to use as a base to collect people.
He said his organisation was recently contacted about a wheelchair user who regularly uses taxis to bring her from her house into a bookshop in the city centre to meet friends for a cup of tea.
“She had to be dumped out at Grafton Street in the rain because the driver couldn’t bring her down, he was banned from going into the College Green area at that time of the day,” he said.
“People with disabilities are being treated deplorably. The Luas will never be able to replace a taxi service for people with disabilities because it doesn’t go t their door and pick them up.”
He said the lack of ranks combined with these restrictions are also “making us a laughing stock” among tourists.
“Tourists are contacting us in large numbers saying they can’t get taxis in town, all the ranks are gone. There are lots of elderly tourists and now it’s hard to drop them right to their hotels, sometimes they have to be dropped with their luggage and walk.
It’s sending out wrong message to be throwing tourist out of cars because they can’t go into high footfall areas
Rowe said he has asked Dublin City Council to work with taxi drivers on the issue and has put forward proposals for new taxi rank locations in the city.
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How about people not leave beaches strewn with half eaten sandwiches and other rubbish for seagulls to feast on. No wonder they think they can get handy grub from people.
This is it. They’re as smart as a dog an as easily domesticated by free food.
it wouldn’t take a genius to feed them properly for filling a bin.
Maybe if idiots put there food in a bin ..The poor birds wouldn’t bother them.
I’ve tackled a few aggressive birds in my time.
Horrible little shits are really coming alive the last week or two. The young grey ones with their whistly screech are awful, we are often woken by the tap tap of one pecking on our skylight. Very tempting to get some kind of air rifle at them
What they need to do is introduce Anti-Seagull Behaviour Orders, or ASBOs for short.
Shoot the feckers, there’s way too many of them anyway.
No there is not too many. Populations declining & actually threatened in Ireland
get yourself to howth on a sunny day my man!
Ah but are the thousands of littering Irish not the problem? Instead of the evolved scavenger doing what it evolved to do?
Birds of prey are declining rapidly, but seagulls? Come on, seriously, wake up. They’re everywhere.
This is from UK but relevant here. Simple fact is gulls populations are in serious decline with herring & great black baxked gulls both red listed. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/earth/wildlife/9533420/Seagulls-invade-cities-because-of-collapse-of-fishing-and-rise-in-recycling-food.html
all the natural predators of seagulls are gone now thanks to us. look at what happened to the passenger pigeon in the states or myxomatosis with rabbits. when you mess with mother nature it has repercussions.
The COMMON GULL no such thing as a Seagull (although the term is commonly used so it may as well be accepted and only needs to be officially acknowledged, which would save so much grief but I digress) anyway, the gull do have a natural predator and it’s US, but in the UK they are a protected species (I don’t know about here), I think it was because people were eating them to extinction and their eggs make great custard (em allegedly). So it is a problem of their own making……. no pity whatsoever.
America is the natural predator of the COMMON GULL??
I saw a documentary on this in the 60s, think it was called the birds, it didn’t end well, we must round up the trouble makers at once and send them to Greece, as an additional punitive clause in the bailout package.
ALL the sand eels and mackerel sprat are no more due to the pollution of our seas , I noticed that all the seaweed on the east coast is black from pollution. The gulls are starving and taking it out on us dirty humans.
Cull the flying rats!
Prefer a seagull shitting on me from above and robbing the food from my kids hands than this Cameron chap
Too many Seagulls, and not enough recipes
They’ll probably fight them on the beaches…
250000 to research seagulls! What will it possibly tell you that common sense doesn’t.
Some are cheeky, shoot them.
Not all seagulls are cheeky. Some are intelligent and friendly.
http://jrnl.ie/2221490
Rule Brittania
It’d be a real quandary for the posters here if this site had a poll: Who would you like to see die more, seagulls or people floating in rafts in the Mediterranean?
David Cameron best friend is Senator Ted O Sullivan as seagulls have lost the run of themselves
Gay marriage and now this !!
We should all just pitch fork it up. Grab your torches people were going gill hunting.
Really. seagulls are getting out of hand! Really!
There were seagulls in Yorkshire??? Has Yorkshire a coastline??
yes.
Sorry!!! I was thinking of West Yorkshire wedged between Cumbria and North Yorkshire!! Yorkshire is like Tipperary with the different Ridings!! Stunning coastline I might add!!
No part of West Yorkshire is anywhere near Cumbria.
I think you might find the South eastern section of Cumbria is within the Yorkshire Dales National park and borders Yorkshire!! :)
pigeons are the real problem, horrible birds
You wank them seagulls
angry birds
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