Our capital is second slowest city in world
A 10km trip in Dublin traffic takes 29 minutes, 30 seconds
DUBLIN is the world’s second slowest city centre for drivers, new analysis has found.
Journeys of 10 kilometres in central Dublin – the equivalent of a trip from Heuston Station to Blackrock village – typically takes 29 minutes and 30 seconds.
Our capital city was outstripped only by London, where a 10km journey took an average of 37 minutes and 20 seconds last year, according to analysis by Satnav technology company TomTom.
The time was a minute slower than in 2022 and was the longest time among the 387 cities across 55 countries analysed, putting London top of the slow city centre ranking for the second year in a row.
In third place was Toronto, Canada (29 minutes), followed by Milan, Italy (28 minutes and 50 seconds) and Lima, Peru (28 minutes and 30 seconds).
AA Ireland’s Jennifer Kilduff said: ‘Commuting around Dublin city centre by car can be quite slow at times.
‘Depending on the time of the day or if there are any events or incidents on the roads, delays are inevitable.
‘With recent changes to the flow of traffic, widening of bike and bus lanes along the quays, this often leads to a bottleneck of traffic.
‘So the TomTom analysis and journey figures that have been released are not that surprising.
‘If you must travel through the city by car, our advice would be to plan the journey, try to avoid rush hour traffic and while obeying speed limits you must be prepared to have patience.
‘Although cars are still very much a vital mode of transport in Ireland, perhaps using public transport where possible in and around the city would be a faster and cheaper option.’
Dublin has a staggering 64 different statutory bodies with a role in the city’s traffic management.
Labour Councillor Dermot Lacey, from Donnybrook in Dublin 4, wants control of traffic streamlined down to a single authority.
He told the Irish Daily Mail: ‘I have been calling for a single authority for 20 years.
‘That’s why we have a problem, we need to have a single Dublinbased body that is making decisions.
‘At the moment the only overarching body of any sort is the National Transport Authority which, of course, is accountable to nobody. It has no Dublin-elected representative whatsoever.
‘I differ from a lot of my colleagues in that I support a directly elected mayor but I think a directly elected mayor should have very few powers.
‘But one of the powers they should have would be to head up a democratic Dublin transportation authority to try and grasp the nettle.’ He pointed to simple solutions to speed up traffic flows such as co-ordinating traffic light sequences between junctions.
‘Administratively and structurally we need to sort out the range of bodies that have a role in Dublin traffic. It’s not sustainable the way it is at the moment, streamline the decision-making process.
‘There also needs to be more enforcement of bus lanes so buses don’t have to go out past parked cars, that would be one of the things that I would do.’
A spokesman for the Department of Transport said: ‘The Department recognises that congestion is a significant issue facing Dublin. We recently published an analysis which references the TomTom Index itself.
‘The paper uses a different approach to consider the economic cost of congestion within the Greater Dublin Area over the period 2022-2040.
‘The results of this analysis indicate that congestion can increase over the coming decades driven largely by population and economic growth.’
Dublin City Council was contacted for comment.
Only London was slower
Solutions to speed up traffic flows