street furniture

Dublin Corporation will install a modern taxi shelter in Upper
O’Connell Street next week that may ultimately provide a
template for replacing hundreds of bus shelters throughout the
city.

Senior officials have estimated that as much as £5 million a
year could be made in revenue from advertising panels
incorporated in the shelters, which could be used to subsidise
city bus services.

The new shelters are being developed in partnership with
Adshel, now a division of the multinational Moore Group,
under a “design, build, operate and maintain” contract, at no
cost to the corporation.

The director of traffic, Mr Owen Keegan, said the first new
taxi shelter was being installed in O’Connell Street under
licence, but further shelters, some 50 in all, will go through the
planning process.

Each shelter is made of glass and stainless steel and comes
with seating, telephone booths, a litter bin, lighting, a pole for
pennants to herald civic events and public information and
advertising panels.

Mr Keegan told The Irish Times that in certain locations, such
as College Green, the taxi shelters would not include
advertising panels because they would be “inappropriate” for
civic design reasons.

Otherwise, he stressed, there would be no difference in design
between taxi shelters in different parts of the city. “We are
insisting that Finglas, for example, will get exactly the same
shelter as everywhere else.”

If the prototype taxi shelter in O’Connell Street gets a positive
response, Adshel is expected to apply for planning permission
to erect similar shelters elsewhere.

“The design was driven by the need to secure an overall
improvement in the quality of all street furniture in the city, and
it was felt that taxi shelters offered the opportunity to make an
immediate impression,” Mr Keegan said.

He described the new shelters as “very modern, contemporary,
clean and neat” and said he was sure that they would be
appreciated by people queueing for taxis, especially on a rainy
night.

He also pointed out that the corporation’s contract with
Adshel, which runs for a 15-year period, contains “strict
maintenance provisions” including the replacement of any
broken glass panels “within hours”.

In addition, he said, the company will be paying a “substantial
amount of money” to the corporation every year in rent for the
street space.

He also regards it as inevitable that the city’s 300-plus existing
bus shelters will be replaced by the new model. In future, all
bus shelters will become “municipal facilities” and any bus will
be able to stop at them, including buses run by private
operators. They will also have digital displays giving “real-time
information”.

Public information panels in the new taxi shelters will include a
map of the city showing the location of taxi ranks as well as
fares and complaints procedures.