pedestrianise Capel Street

If you’re coming in to the centre of town by car along Dorset St… and miss your turn down Gardiner St.. you inevitably end up crawling down Capel St.. as you can’t turn on to O’Connell St via Nrth Fredrick St anyomre…. They would have to perform a miracle of traffic planning if they were to get that street pededtrianised… and what about the furniture shops?

Originally posted by LGL

Could by ideal as on street Café setting

I am not disagreeing with you about the potential of Capel Street for future pedestrianisation, but why is there a present obsession with turning the city centre into a series of coffee shops with outdoor seats? It is almost becoming like a replacement of ‘planning for the public good’ with ‘planning for the coffee drinker’. Capel street is one of the few remaining streets in the City Centre that is not now over-run by large outlet stores (not that there is anything wrong with them). The point I am making is that Capel Street is different to other streets in the city centre and is interesting for those reasons. It is also one of the last remaining streets that is almost fully devoted to the sale of long-term practical and durable items such as furniture!

LGL, Sorry if I seemed to rant at you. It just seems to me that we (and I mean some of using these threads) cannot discuss the use of outdoor space without it turning into a discussion of outdoor coffee shops. As I said, I am not disagreeing with you about the suitability of the conversion of the street into a pedestrianised street.

Incidently, it would be interesting to see how long it would take for the street to change in character, or even if it would change, after pedestrianisation!?

i’m with phil, pedestrianization has a very particular affect on streets and can detract from their character on occassion. capel street needs traffic reduction, it needs it badly, but it would be a pity if it lost the diversity of specialist shops or its commercial feel.

It would be a shame to see it become a mere extenison of the Parnell St Cinema belt, but may form an important axis with O’Connell street nonetheless

Rather than pedestrianise it would it be possible to do a ‘ Parliment ‘ street on it ? Trees? Shiny Bins? We would then have this grand ‘vista’ leading to City hall. Traders would still have access…

BTW the AIB on Capel St needs to come down. The view along Mary St ( From Henry ) deserves to be completed with a building, that’s at least symetrical to the road, and possible Grander.

City Coucil are giving the street a makeover. Plans are on display in the Civic Offices for repaving, tree-planting and street furniture.

As far as I remember… the junction of little Mary St to Mary st… where the AIB is… was at the point of connection of two estates… I think there was meant to be some sort of continuity but was cocked up in its realisation…. (An Meitheal Gaeleach strikes (A Kevin myers quip… btw anyone read today’s about Mayo? V funny))… This comes from a history of urbanism class more than 10 years ago so memory is hazy…
All the same … why not celebrate not getting our act together with something perplexing and mediocre?

Very difficult to cart sideboards down pedestrianised streets!

I agree about leaving Capel St alone, whereas ped streets are appealing, at the end of the day the road has played an integral part in urban centres for centuries. I think the problem is the sheer volume of traffic using these streets, rather than the very idea of traffic in these locations. Improved pedestrian priority and better pavements etc can make a world of difference alone.

‘Planning for the coffee drinker’ – heh heh, good one Phil. I agree about such places taking over in some areas, but they can certainly help turn streets around, places like, oh I don’t know – O’Connell St 😉 But there’s nothing like a decent row of traditional shops without chrome-mania outside the door – now stacks of chippendales and fire surrounds, that’s a different story 🙂

Capel street has two traffic lanes and two rows of parking. As it’s one-way, perhaps the ideal compromise would be to reduce this to one lane of traffic (and somehow put the rest elsewhere – where I don’t know!!) and one row of parking. The parking would alternate between trees/puplic-bench/cafe seating, and then parking, alternating on both sides. This would also make the street easier to cross, as it can often be a bit difficult. It would also give a nice place for the ‘get-yer-bananaaas’ ladies. Parking of course is an absolute must for a furniture street, and perhaps should take up 2/3 of these side areas, to 1/3 trees/bench areas.

I’d hate to see Capel St lose its furniture/art/camping/DIY aspects, but I’m sure the occasional bench or couple of seats can only complement that (for the few pubs and sandwich shops). I’m not sure that it would necessarily take off as a cafe destination, as in some ways surely the new pedestrian mall/boardwalk/liffey st/parliament st are far better locations for sun, etc?

On the markets area plan – the AIB is set to come down !! To allow a pedestrian flow into the area without a percieved border

I love capel street and wouldn’t like to see it pedestrianised. There is a limit to the number of streets that can be pedestrianised in a city and Dublin has reached it’s limit, sort of….

Anyone ever been to Holland where all the city centre’s are pedestrianised, most have too many streets cut off for traffic but it’s great for cyclists of course.

Anyone curious to know what happened to the proposed superpub development on Capel Street? Its being turned into a Centra! Surprise surprise eh! Still it seesms it will just replace the exisiting store farther down the street.

Its amazing the rate at which property is changing hands on this street! – the Luas effect.

@roskav wrote:

… and what about the furniture shops?

Ah sure Ikea will have got rid of them… 🙂

Who needs Ballymun anyway – why don’t they flatten Capel St and build there instead. Another of those marvellous landmark buildings that everyone loves so much for the city – its distinctive yellow head could be seen for miles around, not to mention from space 🙂

First day without rain today in …….. 6 weeks?!!

This new Capel Street pavement-widening job is pretty cool. The whole middle section of the street has effectively been narrowed down to one traffic lane. Way to go council!!
.

Pissing down now. Friday will be 40 days if it’s an Ark-U-seek. 😮

Ah dear, (throws himself into Liffey).

incidentally, are there any buildings there that AREN’T for sale? 🙂

I think what you see for sale are new apartments above the shops.

From what I understand people are selling because two separate groups and possibly a third are landbanking so they’re seeing what sort of offers they can get.