Motorists banned from bottleneck

MOTORISTS who travel across Dublin city centre via Dame Street are facing major disruption to their travel plans from next week with the introduction of a ban on cars using College Green during peak morning and evening rush hours.

The controversial traffic management plan by Dublin City Council is designed to remove one of the city’s major bottlenecks as well as improve public transport services and the environment for pedestrians in the city centre.

The College Green bus corridor, which comes into effect next Monday, will ban all private cars from travel through College Green from 7am-10am and 4pm-7pm from Monday to Friday. Only buses, taxis and cyclists will be permitted to use the College Green corridor during these hours.

However, the owners of one city centre car park are seeking a judicial review of the council’s plans in the High Court. The company, which owns a car park on Fleet Street in Temple Bar, has initiated a legal action because of its fears that the ban will seriously impact on its business.

The plan could also face another obstacle as it is understood that An Bord Pleanála has been asked to adjudicate if Dublin City Council needs to submit an Environmental Impact Assessment because of the scale of the measure.

The council claims the main objective of the scheme is to divert non-essential or through traffic onto alternative routes during peak traffic periods. It will also facilitate any future construction work on major transport projects such as Metro North and a new Luas line to connect the two existing ones.

However, the re-routing of private vehicles away from the busy College Green/Dame Street axis is likely to cause traffic disruption at other key junctions around the city in the autumn with increased congestion levels after the end of the summer holidays.

Dublin City Council was forced to limit the ban to peak drivetime hours following opposition from Dublin city traders and car park owners to the council’s original proposal to introduce a 24/7 prohibition on all private cars to College Green.

But Dublin City Council executive manager, Tim Brick, insisted yesterday that the new traffic management scheme was not designed to create “a car-free zone”.

“The College Green scheme is a measure that had to happen. It currently does not work for most people,” said Mr Brick. The local authority estimates that 6,800 cars currently pass through College Green daily during the proposed restricted hours.

The council said the only solution to removing the College Green bottleneck was to re-route private cars as there was no possibility of widening the roadway as footpaths in the area were already quite narrow.

Research shows that just over 3,500 cars with almost 5,300 motorists and passengers pass through College Green during the morning rush-hour in contrast to over 1,200 buses which transport 60,900 commuters.

Dublin Bus spokesman Paddy Doherty said bus routes operating cross-city services currently took between 15 and 40 minutes to travel between Parnell Square and St Stephen’s Green, largely due to the bottleneck at College Green. Mr Doherty said bus passengers would notice immediate benefits from the scheme in terms of reliability and journey times.

Dublin Bus is also introducing a special “city fare” of €0.50 which will allow commuters to travel within an area bounded by St Stephen’s Green, Parnell Square, Capel St and the Customs House.