Getting About
Dominance of Traffic Traffic, traffic everywhere! The degree to which Dublin’s historic centre is given over to traffic is often the primary comment of visitors to the city. Excessive traffic turns people away from streets and limits opportunities for other uses such as outdoor cafés or window browsing. The extent of traffic congestion in the city centre, a problem which has been largely tackled by most successful European cities, combined with a poor public transport infrastructure, are serious weaknesses for Dublin and for the success of the historic city centre as a place to live, visit and shop. Contrary to common perception, the sheer number of public transport vehicles is very often the problem. Swathes of taxi ranks inhibit areas with enormous potential, such as St. Stephen’s Green North, from developing, while activity on certain streets such as Marlborough Street and Fleet Street has almost completely disappeared due to the dominance of bus parking. While on-street car parking is an important source of revenue to the city, it means almost every city centre street is given over to some degree to visually degrading parking, and often comes at the cost of reduced activity and reduced business opportunities on streets.
Too Many Taxis? The city centre streets, particularly in evening time, are turning in to one never-ending procession of taxis (as seen above). Taxi drivers protest that the issuing of an excess of plates means there is not enough work to go around. Meanwhile, city users suffer the polluted air, noise and low comfort levels of vehicle-filled streets. Wider efforts to curb motor traffic impact in the city centre are being negated as it is so overwhelmed by taxis. Though categorised as public transport, taxis share the same adverse environmental and civic effects as the private car. Managing the city’s taxis is of vital importance to the quality of the historic city centre. 62