Car ban looms for St Patrick’s Street as Cork’s traffic set for overhaul

Private cars could be banned from Cork City’s main street by the middle of next year under radical traffic plans due to be published tomorrow.

Details of the car ban, and the proposed changes to traffic flows on Grenville Place around the busy Mercy University Hospital campus will be outlined to key stakeholders — including the retailers, the Cork Business Association, gardaí, and Bus Éireann — tomorrow.

However, the Irish Examiner has learnt the proposals include a ban on private cars from St Patrick’s Street from 12.30pm to 6.30pm seven days a week.

As part of the ambitious Cork City Centre Movement Strategy, access will also be limited to buses, taxis, emergency vehicles and cyclists, with private cars being directed along the quays.

It is also proposed to make Grenville Place one-way eastbound, with return traffic using Grattan St, to regularise parking in the area, and to double from two to four the number of ambulance parking bays.

Following tomorrow’s briefings, the changes will go on public display until the end of May, with submissions from the public invited before June 5.

Pending feedback, and the delivery of certain engineering work on key junctions, it is hoped the St Patrick’s Street car ban will kick in by the middle of next year.

Fine Gael Cllr John Buttimer welcomed the public consultation but urged caution.

“Before a car is banned, before a brick is laid or a footpath extended, we must ensure there is full, thorough and meaningful public consultation where the consequences of the proposed changes are fully laid out.”

The strategy, which was agreed in 2012, is one of the single biggest overhauls of traffic management in Cork City in almost 40 years.

The strategy, which will be delivered in eight phases over 10 years, will shape how traffic moves in, around, and through the city centre for the next 30 years.

While new bus and bike lanes have been introduced, the St Patrick’s Street car ban is the most radical move.

The other phases include proposals to create a two-way system on MacCurtain St; for Brian Boru St and Brian Boru Bridge to become two-way; to allow traffic coming from Penrose Quay over Brian Boru Bridge to turn right onto Brian Boru St; and for traffic to make a left turn from Merchants Quay, travel across the bridge and then turn left onto MacCurtain St at the Coliseum.

Other proposals will see traffic at the western end of MacCurtain St being able to turn left onto Bridge St and then right onto Camden Quay, and traffic also being allowed proceed straight on to Coburg St, and onto Devonshire St.

There are also plans to allow traffic turning right at the eastern end of South Mall to cross Parnell Bridge on the left side, before travelling straight on to Anglesea St or turn left onto a new lane on Terence MacSwiney Quay, in front of City Hall, which will become two-way.

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