Car commuters in grip of gridlock for years to come

Car commuters in grip of gridlock for years to come

THE commuting nightmare for motorists which has slowed rush-hour car journeys almost to walking speed on key Dublin approaches is to continue and worsen for many years, the city's director of traffic admitted yesterday.

As new figures show the average car journey time is now less than 14kmh (under 9mph), Owen Keegan frankly admitted yesterday there was no solution in the short or even medium term. Matters are even going to get worse for drivers.

An exasperated Mr Keegan revealed that:

� Huge chunks of road space - 50pc - are shortly to be allocated for bus lanes, even though Dublin Bus has no extra buses ready to put on them.

� Chronic delays on the M50 are going to worsen during upgrade works on the M50 for at least two years.

� Government "paralysis" over deregulation of the Dublin bus market is preventing Dublin Bus from getting the extra buses it so badly needs.

"I can't see how there is going to be any improvement in car commuting in Dublin in the short to medium term," Mr Keegan told the Irish Independent yesterday.

"It has been steadily getting worse. Where is the improvement going to come from? I honestly cannot see any great relief."

Drivers, currently taking 67 minutes to travel just seven miles into Dublin city, are in for even longer journey times.

"The existing road space that is there is going to be reduced. If we open a quality bus corridor you take 50pc of the road space and you have one lane for buses and one for cars instead of two," said Mr Keegan.

In a controversial outburst, the traffic supremo accused the Government of "complete paralysis", similar to the Aer Rianta and airport debacles, regarding the deregulation of the Dublin bus market.

The Government was refusing to give Dublin Bus any extra buses until deregulation was sorted out for fear of giving the company a commercial advantage over other operators.

It was not Government policy, he pointed out, to improve the lot of motorists. Their policy was to improve all other modes of transport, thereby encouraging motorists to leave cars at home.

He said allocating road space in favour of buses was "entirely defensible" given the huge amounts of commuters that can be carried on buses instead of cars. But it needed extra buses.

Car commuting was "a bit like unemployment" and people "would not endure endless delays" and would respond by changing modes of transport, he predicted.

Mr Keegan supported in theory the introduction of London-style congestion charges to stop cars coming into the city. In a "win-win" situation, the charge would apply to those wishing to drive into a zone around the city. It therefore would reduce the number of cars by encouraging people to use public transport and free up congestion for those determined to drive.

Figures from the Dublin Transportation Office (DTO) recorded before the metric changeover showed the average speed from the capital's suburbs into the city centre ranged from 7mph (11.47kmh) for Ballymun, to 7.8mph ( 2.58kmh) for Monkstown.

On the notorious N4 route from Lucan to the city centre, where it recently could take 2.5 hours to travel just six miles into the city, the average speed was 8mph (12.8kmh).

Journey times last year were 15 minutes slower than in 2003.

The speed on the M50 averaged 44kmh (27.7mph) going north and 42.4kmh (26.5mph) heading south. The road has a speed limit of 120kmh.

A nine-mile route starting and ending at the Custom House recorded a walking speed for cars during the busy morning peak. The journey time recorded by the DTO stood at just 10.15kmh (6.3mph), a fall from 6.6mph in 2003.

Mr Keegan also said even if a Metro is announced it would be a number of years before it is built.

The DTO figures showed that at 8am a journey from Tallaght to O'Connell Bridge via Harold's Cross took 67 minutes, 15 minutes slower than in 2003.

What did they expect would happen, when every week, more than 2000 new cars are sold in Dubland. The brother gave up using his motor five years ago, and cycles the flat four mile journey into the city centre in 25 minutes, in all weathers. He reckons he is the only one in his office who arrives unstressed in the morning, as all others drive. He is also better off by the �4,400 a year he doesn't have to pay for parking. He worked out that it was the equivalent of a �7,500 pay rise. He knows that a certain number of his neighbours are tied to using a car because of school drops etc, but many more are not, and he can not understand why so many of them endure the crazy daily torture of grid locked traffic.

The DTOs goal is to actually slow journey times to encourage people to use public transport. They'll never admit it but they will add a bus lane than saves a few minutes for the bus but adds 20mins to the car as success. IMO they view everything as relative trying to push people onto public transport.

My 2.5 mile bus commute can take 15 or 60 minutes dispite probably 75% via bus lane. Half of the bus lane is useless as traffic backs up so bus can't even get into it & then theres 4 bus spots within few minutes walk.

:rolleyes:

No solutions to the problem given, well done head of the DTO.

Here's a few for you....

Extensive park and ride facilities on the Dart, Luas, Arrow, even intercity routes.

Park and Ride facilities for the main QBC's, eg 46A, and extend them out further.

More pedestrian bridges, rather than pedestrian lights - new stretch of road on my route has 2 new sets of pedestrian lights, on top of a new set of traffic lights.

Give Tax breaks to employers and employee's to e-work.

Sequence lights, giving priority to the main roads. Again on my route in, it's quicker taking the old road at several points of the journey than it is to sit on the 2 lane each way bypass due to the poor sequencing of lights.

Introduce a comprehensive, and compulsory, school bus network to get the scrummies off the roads in the morning. This has the most potential I feel - compare school holiday traffic to the rest of the time?

I used to goto work from Clonsilla to Swords in about 25 mins on my motorbike until it was stolen a few weeks ago.So the last 2-3 weeks have been using the bus which takes anything from 45mins to 1 hour.

I was thinking of cycling to work but was wondering how long it would take. Anyone got any ideas ?

IMO all the traffic problems on main roads such as those outside the M50 are caused by traffic lights in middle of dualcarraigeways i.e. no flyovers. This is most obvious at Lucan & Newlands Cross. Powers that be in the wisdom have choosen to spend 800m+ upgrading M50 junctions but trafffic will still get stuck at the traffic light junctions.

The N8 will be expanded to 3 lanes on way out to Naas but will still have 2 idiotic traffic lights at Kill & Johnson which i've never seen significant traffic at. Without those traffic lights once traffic got past Newlands cross would have no congestion until Laois.

:rolleyes:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by pete

The N8 will be expanded to 3 lanes on way out to Naas but will still have 2 idiotic traffic lights at Kill & Johnson which i've never seen significant traffic at. Without those traffic lights once traffic got past Newlands cross would have no congestion until Laois.

:rolleyes:

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It's the N7 and, as far as i know, new flyover interchanges at Kill and Johnstown will form part of the upgrade.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Magoo

It's the N7 and, as far as i know, new flyover interchanges at Kill and Johnstown will form part of the upgrade.

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Well the penny has dropped. If i'm still in dublin in a few years may get some use out of it. If i've left will be able to bitch 'n moan about dublin getting all the roads budget. ;)