The Dublin Community Blog

Just back from Paris (and our ill fated rugby match!) and I have to say we were all VERY impressed with the bicycle rental scheme that’s going on there! I had heard something about it on the news here before we left, and we were really looking forward to seeing how it will take off in Dublin.

SO how will they stop the knick-knacks sending them to a watery grave I hear you ask!

The way it works in Paris is: you go to one of the many bicycle stations (situated within a 300 meter radius of each other) pop in your credit card to lay down a deposit of €150 and then you purchase your ticket. You can purchase all manner of subscriptions to suit the length of your visit. The locals use a ‘smart’ card that you just swipe and go! Each journey is free for the first 30 mins, so what they are encouraging you do to do is use the bike to get to your destination and pop it back in the station. It keeps a majority of the bicycles in circulation for people to use.

It made getting around Paris a doddle – from the top of Rue St Denis to the Rive Gauche in jig time!

The bicycles themselves are tamper-proof, un-deflatable tyres with three gears and the essential bell to warn pedestrians of your arrival! We couldn’t find that much information about the Dublin scheme, but it seems like the same company are behind it. JC Decaux are footing the bill in exchange for a number of adverting spots around the city.

Dublin Fire Brigade and the army bomb disposal unit are at the scene of a fire at gates of the Phoenix Park. A pit of chemical phosphorous was exposed on a building site on Infirmary Road. The site used to be part of a military base, I wonder if it is an old British one with phosphorous buried there since World War I? The fire is out now but there is still a risk that more phosphorous could ignite. Traffic in the area is being diverted through the Phoenix Park.

If anyone is in the area with a camera they might get some cool and interesting photographs, if they can get a view of the site, but don’t do anything silly, phosphorous is dangerous.

It was confirmed today that the Green Luas line will be further extended from the still to be completed terminus in Cherrywood all the way out to Bray. It is hoped that the line will be completed by 2015.

The Bray Chamber are naturally delighted, but, being devils advocate, I have to ask if this is really the best way to extend the Luas? After all Bray is currently served by the Dart, which the Luas will interconnect with in Bray as well as at the new inter-connector to be built at St Stephens Green. I wonder would other parts of Dublin have been better served by a new rail/tram link than Bray? Does anyone feel their area is getting overlooked in the public transport plans?

In a recent article of The Dubliner magazine, a variety of Irish “luminaries� were asked what they would do to “save Dublin.�  The answer came from politicians, artists, property developers, authors, historians, etc. and the quality of answers ranged from daft/silly/“they can’t be serious� kinds of ideas to a more common sense/“yes, of course!� breed.

Here are some of the ideas that I found interesting (whether or not I agreed!):

Arts Consultant, Ciaran MacGonigal:
“Once a year, have a public flogging of all the planning officials for their bad decisions . . .�
“Directly elect a prefect or mayor for Dublin City for a term of five years.�  (See Dec’s post from a few days ago.)

Artist, Pauline Bewick:
“Rapists and paedophiles should be castrated.�  (Right.  I’m sure the UN Human Rights Council would turn a blind eye to that one.)
“All citizens should have a plot to garden to become vegetarian, lessening the gases from cow and pig farming.�

Novelist, Joe O’Connor:
“Introduce a charge for driving in the city centre.�
“There’s an urgent need for more music venues on the scale of Vicar Street.�

Director of Dundrum Town Centre, Don Nugent:
“If I could do just one thing to save Dublin, I would ban the importation, sale or use of chewing gum.�  (Now we’re dreaming big!)

Comedian, Eric Lalor:
“All vehicles should be banned from the city centre to be replaced with donkeys.  If it’s good enough for Jesus and Mary, it’s good enough for us.�
“What better way to travel to and from the city than by Roller Coaster?  It would be great fun and our public transport would be the envy of fun loving people all over the world.�  (Woo hooo!  Tear off the roofs of the LUAS trams and away we go!)

The litter problem and traffic congestion were probably the most commonly addressed issues in the article, along with the lack of Gardai presence on the streets. I found it interesting that nobody mentioned the cost of living in Dublin which is now the world’s 16th most expensive city to live in, according to this report.

How about you?  How would you “save Dublin?�

The Port Tunnel is currently closed in both directions due to a “computer system error“. The ban on heavy goods vehicles in the city center is lifted so if you need to go through the city center to get home this evening you should probably consider leaving now while traffic is still moving.

The type of computer error that can close a hole in the ground is not specified.

Update: The tunnel is now open but the HGV ban wont be reinstated until 7am tomorrow morning.

Following yesterdays post about traffic congestion in Dublin I thought this article from ITV yesterday was interesting. Teams of researchers in cities around the world timed how long it took 35 men and women to walk 60 feet on a footpath.

The results place Dublin in the top 5 with an average time of 11.03 seconds.  Singapore takes the top spot with super fast 10.55 seconds. Couples in Paris can stroll arm in arm at a romantic 12.65 seconds, while those who like the quiet life should consider a move to Blantyre in Malawi where they can enjoy a laid back 31.60 seconds which I believe is only slightly faster that the M50.

Thankfully, I rarely have to endure Dublin traffic nowadays, and in fact, as I’m shooting up the motorway in the opposite direction to all the commuters, I regularly take (guilty) pleasure in listening to the traffic reports on the radio. But I would love to know what the deal is with the past two days. By all accounts it’s been completely manic out there, and I’m just wondering if any ideas what has led to traffic being so crazy around the city this week?

The Port Tunnel “malfunctioned” this morning and the south bound bore was closed for a period of time during rush hour traffic. City officials therefore decided to lift the ban on 5 axle vehicles in the city center putting extra traffic onto the M1 and M50. On top of this there were a couple of traffic accidents around the city, on the M1 and the Swords Road. The result was traffic chaos and gridlock.

Now it appears that that the tunnel malfunction was a height sensor. Forgive my amazement but surely there should be some level of redundancy built into a project that cost €752 million? Would it have broken the bank to install a second set of sensors, or maybe just one of those bars across the top that represents the max height? It’s not rocket science.

If the Dublin traffic system is so close to breaking point that 2 accidents and a faulty sensor can cause traffic jams all over the city and become the main headline on the morning news reports then there is something very seriously wrong in city.

People often wonder why Dublin’s traffic is so bad. Usually, and rightly so, it’s blamed on the city’s completely inadequate public transport network. As an illustration of this, Dublin today received it’s first new train station in 116 years!! Yep, you heard that one right, it’s one hundred and sixteen years since Tara Street Station opened its doors. Ok ok, there have been various DART stations opened up through the years, but, we’re talking main line stations here.

But enough history, today saw the opening of the new Docklands Station in the IFSC. The new station serves commuters from Clonsilla, Coolmine, Castleknock, Ashtown and Broombridge, and has allowed for an additional four trains each direction per day already. Amazingly, Iarnród Éireann claim that this gives them a service frequency of about 10 minutes from West Dublin to the city centre between the hours of 07:10 and 09:00. It will be interesting to hear tales of whether or not this becomes reality for people along this route.

Also, to tie in with this, Dublin Bus are offering a range of services to and from Docklands Station. The new 151 route and new feeder bus 93 route will be available for Docklands Station commuters.

More details on all services can be found on the Irish Rail Website and the Dublin Bus Website

Dublin Port Tunnel today opened its doors so to speak to all traffic. Up to now, it had been limited to HGV’s only, but from today, all vehicles are allowed to access. There is still no charge for HGV’s, however, cars etc will be tolled, with a toll fee ranging from EUR 3 – EUR 12 depending on the direction you are travelling and the time of day that it is. More details on the charges can be found here

Let us know if you’re planning on using the tunnel in your car via our poll over there >>>