Diversions proposed under new Dublin City bus plan

Dublin motorists face 3km diversion under city bus plan

Dublin's College green was recently closed off to traffic for the second Sunday in a row. This was a trial in an effort to reduce traffic congestion in the city centre.

The idea was first proposed in 2016 and sought to ban all traffic in College Green, before being rejected by An Bord Pleanala last year over traffic concerns. These plans have not been completely abandoned and a new proposal is set to be put forward this year.

This trial was announced earlier in the year and proposed that the area in front of Bank of Ireland will be pedestrianised on three days.

The area has been temporarily pedestrianised as part of a three-week trial by Dubin City Council to reduce the amount of traffic coming through the city centre and see what it would be like without motorised vehicles.

The area is to be accessible only to pedestrians between 7 am and 7 pm, with some bus stops out of service and diversions in effect on the dates below:

Sunday, 21 July 2019
Sunday, 28 July 2019
Sunday, 4 August 2019

There is also to be a temporary two-way cycle lane in operation from the Dame Street/Georges Street junction as far as Trinity Street, and cyclists will have to dismount here to enter the pedestrianised area.

Although the proposed area was to extend from east to west between Trinity College and Anglesea Street, a large space between Fosters Place and Anglesea Street was initially closed off by barriers, preventing public access.

Buses and cars are affected by this trial although the Luas is still to operate as normal.

These diversions will affect the following bus routes:

George's Street Routes	Patrick Street Routes	James' Street Routes	Aston Quay Routes
Route 9	Route 27	Route 13	Route 69
Route 14	Route 49	Route 40	Routes 79/a
Routes 15/a/b	Route 54a	Route 123
Route 16	Route 56a	Route 747
Routes 65/b	Route 77a
Routes 68/a	Route 150
Route 83	Route 151
Route 122
Route 140

These restrictions have been put in place twice now and the last leg of the trial is on the 4th of August. From reports given by the public, it would appear that there is 50% more event space.

The purpose of this as said by Dublin City Council is to portray that events can be held here and the traffic restrictions in place allow this to happen.

Author

Justin Kavanagh
Justin Kavanagh is a recognised leader in automotive intelligence and vehicle data supply to the entire motor industry. He has almost 20 years experience in building systems from the ground up. As the Managing Director of Vehicle Management System, he understands the need and importance of trustworthy and reliable vehicle history and advice to both the trade and the public.
Follow me on LinkedIn