<
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-02-17/dublin-takes-aim-at-traffic-congestion-with-a-car-ban-on-certain-trips>
"This year, Dublin will become the latest European capital to bar
through-traffic from its city center. In a bid to clear the roads and clean the
air at its core, Ireland’s largest city is beginning a process of replanning
central streets so that private cars and commercial trucks will be allowed
access only if their final destination is downtown.
By displacing vehicles merely passing through on their way to somewhere else to
beltways further out, the plan promises to both ease current traffic congestion
and allow for the creation of new pedestrian streets and plazas that will make
Dublin’s heart an altogether more pleasant place to linger. The plan set a goal
of a 60% traffic reduction in the urban center.
The tools used to achieve this are fairly simple: two “bus gates” on either
bank of the River Liffey will prevent private vehicles from crossing, and
several streets will be reconfigured so that vehicles traveling into downtown
are routed along loops that ultimately direct them back out in the same
direction.
The proposal echoes vehicle restrictions underway in other European Union
cities, such as Paris, Amsterdam and Lisbon. And like city leaders elsewhere,
the architects of the Dublin plan invoke the “15-minute city” concept — which
aims to allow residents to access all major destinations within a 15-minute
walk or bike ride — as a key goal. But while efforts to limit car traffic in
some city centers across the water in Britain have triggered angry (and
conspiracy-tinged) opposition from aggrieved motorists, Dublin’s enjoys
overwhelming public support so far. More than 80% of 3,500 respondents in a
public consultation published Feb. 7 said they backed the new zone, a ringing
endorsement for a city that hitherto has not had a strong reputation for
progressive urban policy.
Major objections to the traffic ban have so far been scant. One was mounted by
London-based Diageo, owner of the Guinness brand, who warned that the plans
will disrupt the “historic” truck routes from the Guinness brewery along the
River Liffey out to the port — even though beer casks were in fact transported
by barge along this route until 1961."
Via
Fix the News:
<
https://fixthenews.com/good-news-human-rights-greece-education-burundi-reforestation-america/>
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
