Cars will be banned in Dublin city centre ‘by August’
A BAN on private cars and commercial vehicles travelling through the centre of the capital city will be in place by August, the Transport Minister has said.
The ban forms part of the new Dublin City Centre Transport Plan which was signed off on by councillors in the capital yesterday.
Transport Minister and Green Party leader Eamon Ryan said the transformational move will allow a fresh influx of cyclists and pedestrians in the city.
Mr Ryan said yesterday: ‘People will see a transformation this August when we take the through traffic out of the city centre.
‘That is going to make a huge change in Dublin. We will see a tipping point where we will see a large increase in cycling and walking as a mainstream form of transport for our city.’
But business groups have raised fears the changes will ‘decimate’ them. Consultation responses to the plan show that while it was broadly welcomed, some companies, such as car park owners and others are opposed to the measures.
The Dublin City Centre Transport Traders Alliance’s submission said the council’s consultation survey was flawed, and suggested it would consider taking legal proceedings.
Stanberry Investment Limited, which owns the Grafton Carpark – formerly Brown Thomas Car Park – said it would ‘decimate city centre retail business’.
Its submission also said: ‘The underlying principle of the draft plan is to reduce private car access by two thirds.’ A further statement in its submission noted that: ‘The plan actively seeks to close our client’s business,’ and it described the plan as an ‘elastic band around the centre of the city rather than envisioning how to support the quality of public life in the city’.
And Mr Ryan refused to rule out additional parking charges for SUVs and criticised ‘ridiculous’ delays to the Central Dublin Plaza.
Asked whether Ireland should replicate moves in Paris to increase the cost of parking for SUVs, Mr Ryan said: ‘The demand management strategy will go to public consultation in the next few weeks. I just set out a whole range of different options but there’s nothing, there’s nothing planned yet but, yes, we need that demand management strategy [it] will give us a lot of options. And how we do parking is very much part of the equation.’
A Cabinet source said that ‘all options’ would be on the table in the demand management strategy, but they stressed that it would have to go to consultation.
As part of the plans approved by Dublin City Council (DCC) yesterday, private vehicle traffic along the North and South Quays will be removed, leaving the space for buses, taxis, cyclists and pedestrians only.
A ‘major traffic change’ will be made at the junction of Westland Row and Pearse Street.
Only public transport and cyclists will be allowed to turn left from Westland Row onto Pearse Street.
Under the plans, the city centre will be open to private cars only to access workplace car parks, residences or to multi-storey car parks where it does not interfere with the overall aim of the plan, to allow servicing and deliveries at the appropriate times and to maintain access for emergency vehicles.
The plan also states that implementation of the changes proposed
‘Will decimate city centre businesses’
at Westland Row in combination with the removal of through traffic from the South Quays at Aston Quay will result in the Pearse Street-Tara Street route no longer comprising a major traffic artery.
Traffic will also be removed from College Green and Dame Street from the junction with George’s Street eastwards.
This specific measure will be phased in conjunction with the implementation of the BusConnects service changes to ensure that bus services are facilitated until the new routes operating away from College Green and Dame Street are introduced. Parliament Street will also be turned into a car-free environment.
Mr Ryan has also said the only way to achieve climate targets is by ensuring that they are not politically divisive between rural and urban, and rich and poor.
He warned the scale of change needed to meet targets will involve changes within every industry and sector.
It comes as the European Union aims to slash its net greenhouse gas emissions by 90% by 2040, to ensure that the EU is climate neutral.
The 90% reduction will entail huge changes involving the ramping up of the use of renewables and change across all sectors in food, transport and infrastructure.
Mr Ryan said the 90% reduction is an ‘incredible change’.
‘That 90% figure is not coming from the political system,’ the Minister said yesterday, ‘that’s the science.’