Re: Re: college green/ o’connell street plaza and pedestrians

To the best of my (admittedly limited) knowledge, the primary driver of red/green phasing is the SCATS system in Dublin City Council. Buses are part of it, yes, but not the sole concern, although the end result is similar, yes- the pedestrian suffers.

I can’t say I’d favour your proposal to re-surface the roads. Banning turns and through routes is the most time- and money-efficient approach, regardless of how slow it seems. But I agree in principle- as I’ve said many times before, the pedestrian should be at the very top of the food chain in the city core.

@GrahamH wrote:

I find it all quite disturbing that a bunch of suburbanite TDs who come into the city for Dáil sittings and a frolic of a Sunday afternoon before Christmas who listen to the grand projets of a handful of quango invitees to their sittings, are making decisions that affect the very grain of a city of which they know absolutely nothing about.

Depends on the quality of the advice, really.

But how else should it happen? If we were to wait for full public support I’d have long since packed my bags for fairer shores. (The only thing that gets full public support is ‘I want to drive my car where I want’ which is all well and good until we realise that they’re not talking about one car, they’re talking about one car each.) Sometimes – especially when extended periods of pain are involved – it can be convenient to play the ‘my hands are tied by the “experts”‘ card.

Also, you make it sound as if the ‘grand projets’ are discrete proposals from various bodies. Not so. There was a time when they were planned as an integrated system. Yes, the implementation is the responsibility of different bodies, but not the decision to provide them at a strategic level. And while the datails might leave a bit to be desired, the implementation should be separated from the policy when criticism is being levelled.