Do People think that Buses should be banned from Dublin city

[pfkf1]

After recently starting a job in Dublin city centre for the first time recently, (I had worked out in the suburbs previously) my own view is that buses should be banned from dublin city centre, I find that it takes about 1 hour to get into Dublin in the mornings, and even longer in the evenings.

My own view is that bus lanes should be replaced by LUAS's I also believe that Stephen's Green should be pedestrianised and it should become a major transportation depot. If we replaced buses which are unreliable and are expensive, it would make sense to replace bus lanes (not all) but certainly a lot with LUAS's and move the buses out to the suburbs to serve local communities.

Doing this would also improve public transport no end in Dublin which would make our economy much more competitive into the long term. Throwing buses at Dublin's transport problem will no longer work as all it is doing at the the moment is adding to the traffic chaos.

This plan should certainly be looked at and costed and see what value it would add to the economy. I am fully aware that it probably worsen the transport problem in the short term and lead to huge dissatisfaction with motorists, but this plan would be seen as a way to take cars off the streets, as people would use public transport if it was reliable, cheap, and efficient.

What do people think, is it time to remove buses from city centre public transport plans?

[garlandgreen]

And the idiotic idea of the week award goes to.........

[pfkf1]

And the idiotic idea of the week award goes to.........

Care to qualify that statement?

[bobbysands81]

After recently starting a job in Dublin city centre for the first time recently, (I had worked out in the suburbs previously) my own view is that buses should be banned from dublin city centre, I find that it takes about 1 hour to get into Dublin in the mornings, and even longer in the evenings.

My own view is that bus lanes should be replaced by LUAS's I also believe that Stephen's Green should be pedestrianised and it should become a major transportation depot. If we replaced buses which are unreliable and are expensive, it would make sense to replace bus lanes (not all) but certainly a lot with LUAS's and move the buses out to the suburbs to serve local communities.

Doing this would also improve public transport no end in Dublin which would make our economy much more competitive into the long term. Throwing buses at Dublin's transport problem will no longer work as all it is doing at the the moment is adding to the traffic chaos.

This plan should certainly be looked at and costed and see what value it would add to the economy. I am fully aware that it probably worsen the transport problem in the short term and lead to huge dissatisfaction with motorists, but this plan would be seen as a way to take cars off the streets, as people would use public transport if it was reliable, cheap, and efficient.

What do people think, is it time to remove buses from city centre public transport plans?

I actually wonder why we need a LUAS at all. Why did we have to do the tracks/cables etc... for the LUAS when we could just have run buses on roads where the tracks are now laid? Surely mucu much cheaper than laying tracks etc...?

[Zyklon B]

Well, that's a grand idea (replacing most bus lanes with light-rail). The problem is: cost. Where are these tens of billions of euro going to come from? It'd probably take 20 years to complete.

An alternative idea is: ban cars from the city centre. Or introduce London-style congestion charges and use the funds to buy more busses, perhaps contribute to a fund with the long-term intention of building more light rail.

[Zyklon B]

I actually wonder why we need a LUAS at all. Why did we have to do the tracks/cables etc... for the LUAS when we could just have run buses on roads where the tracks are now laid? Surely mucu much cheaper than laying tracks etc...?

Eh, no. The Luas has been a stunning success, it now takes about 15-20 minutes to get into town from Dundrum where in the bad old days it could've been upwards of an hour. It's almost paid for itself. You could justify another 20 lines and I'm sure in the fullness of time they could recoup the loss over a few years. Question is: what government would stump up the ten of billions it would necessitate to build? Or could it be wholly privately-financed?

[gaelach]

What do people think, is it time to remove buses from city centre public transport plans?

No. What a stupid idea.

*Edit: I've no idea why I'm shocked by the stupidity of the idea.

[garlandgreen]

And the idiotic idea of the week award goes to.........

Care to qualify that statement?

Well where do I start? How do you think all the folks who commute to the city centre every day will get in there once buses are banned? Personal helicopter?

[bobbysands81]

I actually wonder why we need a LUAS at all. Why did we have to do the tracks/cables etc... for the LUAS when we could just have run buses on roads where the tracks are now laid? Surely mucu much cheaper than laying tracks etc...?

Eh, no. The Luas has been a stunning success, it now takes about 15-20 minutes to get into town from Dundrum where in the bad old days it could've been upwards of an hour. It's almost paid for itself. You could justify another 20 lines and I'm sure in the fullness of time they could recoup the loss over a few years. Question is: what government would stump up the ten of billions it would necessitate to build? Or could it be wholly privately-financed?

You're missing my point mate - I'm from Dundrum so I know how amazing the service is and what a success it is. All I'm saying is that why was all the money spent on the lines, overhead cables, track etc... when they could have ONLY allowed new buses to run on the route that the LUAS currently uses. They could have given the buses the same advantage with traffic lights etc...

Actually maybe I'm wrong cos there's no way that buses could cope with the amount of people using the service, nor could them get on and off as quickly and there's probably less pollution/noise from the LUAS than a bus.

[fergalr]

Looking at this intelligently, the bus terminus locations could do with being considerably more spread out, as well as the routes as they pass through the city centre. Buses are responsible for most of the congestion on O'Connell St, Westmoreland St, College Green, Nassau St, Dame St and certainly on Eden Quay, where my big yellow baby picks up.
I was in a taxi a month ago going from O'Connell St to Cabra and we had to avoid Parnell Square because there was about a 70m tailback comprised entirely of buses.