4 days ago
- Politics
- Irish Independent
Local residents complain of ‘absolute mayhem' following new Pearse Street traffic restrictions
The changes, the latest phase in the Dublin City Centre Transport Plan, came into effect last Sunday and introduced new restrictions on cars turning left onto Pearse Street from Westland Row.
Buses, taxis and cyclists aren't affected, but general traffic must now turn right at the junction.
Reaction to the changes had initially been muted, but correspondence received by councillors indicates that many local residents are now seeing traffic issues worsen on local roads such as Sandwith Street and Macken Street.
One resident said: 'We could list off dozens of reasons why these new measures are not effective.
'All anyone has to do is stand on Sandwith Street at any time of the day to see the gridlock and dangers that are happening.
'The traffic issues are not merely an inconvenience; they are a significant barrier to everyday life, impacting our ability to reach work, school, appointments, and even leisure activities,' they added.
'It's clear to see that the new traffic measures on Westland Row/Sandwith Street are causing absolute mayhem for the surrounding area.'
Local Sinn Féin councillor Kourtney Kenny said she's heard many similar stories over the last few days.
'I've had women onto me who have children with dyspraxia and they need to go to [occupational therapy] appointments,' she said.
'They're down €100 missing the appointment because they actually can't get out of their home. They're prisoners.'
Dublin City Council is seeking to make the city centre less attractive for traffic cutting through the city, but Cllr Kenny said the answer wasn't to 'penalise people living in the inner city'.
'Some people are carers, some people are healthcare assistants, some people have disabilities and rely heavily on their cars,' she said.
'Dublin City Council said, after the fact, they're willing to meet residents, but you know yourself, you could be long waiting on that.'
Danny Byrne, a Fine Gael councillor for the area, said that while the reaction from residents has been negative, he felt it was just 'teething problems'.
'I know there's always a willingness [from the Council] to listen and to observe how it progresses. You can't really assess it over a few days until maybe people get used to it.'
Similarly, Green Party councillor Janet Horner said it was 'inevitable' that traffic changes would cause some disruption for the city.
'Everything obviously does require a bedding down period, there's no point being too knee jerk about any of this stuff where there's a few days when a new measure throws up a little bit of chaos or extra confusion,' she said.
'Let's look at the data. Let's see how this is bedding down and achieving what we wanted to achieve.
'We are investing, we are making changes. The idea of that is to make it easier, better, cheaper, more comfortable, safer to take sustainable means of transport into town.'
The next phase of the Dublin City Centre Transport Plan will make Parliament Street a car-free zone after 11am daily. It will come into effect at the end of June.
Dublin City Council was contacted for comment.
