DUBLIN CITY Council is coming under pressure from city-centre business interests to abandon the “bus gate” on College Green, despite a remarkable reduction in bus journey times and a huge increase in the number of cyclists.
The bus corridor, from which cars are excluded from 7am to 10am and 4pm to 7pm, Monday to Friday, is the subject of a High Court action against the council by 12 plaintiffs, including Brown Thomas, Louis Copeland, Q-Park and other multistorey car-park operators.
They claim business has fallen by 30 per cent since the public transport priority measure was introduced on July 27th and that late-night retailing on Thursdays has been particularly hit because car-borne shoppers find access to the city centre more difficult.
Their objections are supported by Mandate trade union, which represents employees of Brown Thomas and other department stores who fear losing their jobs if the council does not agree to modify or drop the bus corridor at its November meeting.
Labour Cllr Andrew Montague, who supports the measure, said it was “quite bizarre that the traders are trying to get it removed despite the fact that it’s clearly unclogging the city centre and it’s now quicker than ever for shoppers to come in by bus, bike or car”.
He cited figures showing that the average speed of the 46A bus had increased at peak times from 5km/h to 13km/h. “It’s now taking just 10 minutes to get from Nassau Street to Parnell Square, when it used to take as long as 40 minutes.”
Mr Montague also said there had been a rise of 62 per cent in the number of cyclists on O’Connell Street between February and September this year.
Green Party TD Ciarán Cuffe said he hoped the council would “hold firm” rather than adopt a proposal to scrap the bus gate for the duration of Operation Freeflow in December. “I don’t think car-park owners should call the shots on traffic management.”
He said those taking action against the council were “wrong to blame the bus gate for the global recession”, which was the real cause for the downturn in sales.