TRAFFIC SIGNAL boxes are dotted around major junctions in Dublin city, but few people have paused to consider them.
Dublin businesses are hoping to change that by using the grey metal boxes to give information and directions to tourists and locals.
The Dublin City Business Improvement District (Bid) has given a makeover to 14 of the traffic boxes by adding a city map and historical facts relating to the streets they are located on.
The information and anecdotes are provided by local historian Pat Liddy. Yesterday he gave a walking tour incorporating some of the newly-decorated boxes.
The boxes, he said, would be of interest to tourists and Irish people alike. Many Dubliners had not heard some of the quirky anecdotes about their city.
He pointed to the fact that the upmarket Grafton Street started life as a dingy lane, connecting College Green and St Stephen’s Green. Not many people knew that Amiens Street was formerly known as The Strand, as it once marked the edge of the city and the beginning of Dublin Bay.
Nor did they know that St Stephen’s Green was named after the medieval leper hospital of St Stephen, which was located on Mercer Street.
Richard Guiney, chief executive of Dublin City Bid, said this was one of a number of projects undertaken by his organisation to improve the appearance of the city centre. The organisation is funded by the 2,000 businesses in its catchment area. The district is 2km long, taking in the city centre from Parnell Street to St Stephen’s Green.
Dublin City Bid recently distributed some 20 large planters containing 3,000 plants around the city, and hopes to add many more to the city streets.
It has been removing graffiti and is working towards eliminating chewing gum from streets. It employs full-time street ambassadors who patrol each day, providing guidance to tourists and identifying issues like damaged paths and blocked drains.
Mr Guiney said the body wanted to improve the experience of shoppers, visitors and workers in the city. “There is a generation of children growing up who are taken to do all their shopping in the suburbs. They are not familiar with their city,” he said.
Dublin City Bid now intends to organise walking tours around Dublin, aimed at groups of people such as mother and toddler groups. “I think people will be surprised by what they learn,” Mr Guiney said.
