Ireland's Transport Minister Emon Ryan expects the transport plan to have a "transformative" impact on the city centre from later this year.
The Dublin City Centre Transport Plan, which will be tabled to City Councillors for consideration on Wednesday afternoon, aims to discourage drivers from simply 'passing through' rather than 'going' to Dublin City Centre. According to Dublin City Council, two-thirds of vehicles currently use city centre streets, but do not destination in the city centre.
The plan would discourage these drivers by allowing public transport to use only parts of the northern and southern piers, and introducing a series of civic plazas and traffic steering restrictions. The plan will not prevent drivers from entering the city center, and the routes of commerce and parking lots will be preserved, but the aim is to end the dominance of cars on city streets.
Ryan announced at an event Wednesday that he would allocate 2With 900 million euros in funding, he said Dublin's transport plan would have a "transformative" impact on the city centre from later this year.
People will see a shift in August, when we remove cross-traffic from the city center. This will make a huge difference for Dublin. "We're going to see a tipping point where walking and biking will increase dramatically as the mainstream mode of transportation in our cities." ”
This 2Of the €900 million for Active Mobility**, €500,000 is being spent developing a car-free plaza at College Green in Dublin, which Ryan says is long overdue.
"It's ridiculous that it's taken so long and it's still in the planning stage," he said. See what other similar cities are doing. Look at what Paris has done, look at what London has done. We need to do the same thing, starting with College Green. ”
According to the downtown transportation plan, the development of the new civic plaza will begin next year.
Two new "bus gates" will be introduced this year at O'Connell Bridge near the pier, one on the north side of Bachelors Walk, which will prohibit cars and trucks from traveling east to the Customs House and dock area. The other will be located on the south side of Aston Quay, where private cars are prohibited from O'Connell Bridge in the direction of Heuston train station.
At the same time, private cars will also be prohibited from turning left from Westland Row onto Pearse Street, and vehicles will be directed to turn right and away from the city centre. This will require a new two-way traffic section from Westland Row to Sandwith Street.
This change is expected to significantly reduce traffic from Pearse Street to Tara Street, thereby reducing traffic lanes and introducing two-way bike lanes.
The plan would also make Parliament Street a car-free zone and proposed a new civic plaza at Lincoln Place near the back entrance of Custom House and Trinity College.