Dublin pedestrianisation plans to be reassessed following city riots

The full 24/7 pedestrianisation of Dublin’s new civic spaces is being reconsidered by Dublin City Council following the recent riots in the city centre, it has emerged.

The council is to examine whether some traffic, possibly taxis, will be allowed into pedestrian and cycle zones at night, in areas such as the planned College Green plaza to maintain “passive surveillance” and guard against leaving large empty spaces in the centre of the city in the evening.

Concerns about the use, and potential for misuse, of new public spaces were raised with the council’s head of traffic Brendan O’Brien at a briefing for Dublin Chamber of Commerce on the proposed new Dublin City Centre Transport Plan in recent days.

Under the plan road space would be reallocated from private cars to buses, cyclists and pedestrians. Cars would be banned from sections of the north and south quays, close to O’Connell Bridge through the use of “bus gates”; Parliament Street would be made traffic-free; and new civic plazas could be created at the Custom House and at Lincoln Place near the back entrance to Trinity College.

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The move follows a ban on private cars from College Green since May, when the “bus gate” became a 24/7 measure, and the removal of cars from Capel Street last year.

[ Capel Street’s traders remain at odds over its pedestrianisation ]

Aebhric Mc Gibney, director of public and international affairs at Dublin Chamber, said there were questions of “safety of the city” when cars have been removed.

“The debate about the use of public space once it is been pedestrian enhanced or fully pedestrianised is an important one in the context of the riots,” he said.

There was violence, looting and arson attacks in the city last month in the wake of the stabbing of three children and a carer on Parnell Square.

“There certainly is a piece around the safety in the city and passive surveillance. While on the one hand it’s great to have bus gates in different places, in a way the more cars there are means there is somebody there, you don’t want nobody there,” Mr McGibney said.

Many of the public spaces that would be created by removing private cars would still be accessible by public transport, Mr O’Brien said. However, in an area such College Green, which the council plans to make traffic-free, west of the Luas Green line as far as the junction of Dame Street and George’s Street, the use of the area at night did need to be reconsidered.

“Your point about passive surveillance is quite correct‚” Mr O’Brien said. “In College Green, it is a big, big space that we’re creating and while there will be deliveries in it until 11am our thought process at the moment is potentially at night there will be taxis to pick up people in it.”

This may require changes to traffic regulations, he said but the council was considering how the use of spaces could be “flexible” rather than entirely traffic free.

“There is a concept of flexible space – thinking about space as not being only road or only pedestrianised, that it can be flexible. You can provide deliveries up to a certain hour, it can be for pedestrians after a certain hour, but later on in the evening it may be better that you would have taxis into that area so people are not walking through a big empty space.”

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