A battle between the past and the future is playing out in Dún Laoghaire. Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council, which has done an amazing job at reclaiming and reinvigorating the seafront, now aims to introduce a plan to re-energize the centre of the south county Dublin town, redirecting cars away from the main street and reducing traffic on the adjacent streets. This is the future. Councillors will vote on the plan once public submissions have been reviewed.
There is no urban planning manual anywhere in the world that argues for more cars in towns and cities. In urban transport, the car represents the past. A car-dependent town, where the streets are clogged up with parked cars taking up valuable public space, and traffic creating noise and pollution, has been consigned with Starsky and Hutch to the 1970s. The council is on the right side of history here. While it is possible to sympathise with disaffected drivers who want to use Dún Laoghaire as a rat run into town, personal disaffection is no substitute for urban planning.
For the rest of the country, other Irish town centres trying to figure out how to organise themselves for the years ahead, what happens in the next few weeks in Dún Laoghaire could serve as a blueprint. The core of the plan aims to reclaim the streets of Dún Laoghaire – a sort of “people before bonnet” movement, which repossesses public space for people, space that right now is occupied by giant SUV bonnets, many parked, others passing through.
Streets that are populated are safer, people act as protectors and witnesses, policing each other by our very presence. Living streets are safer streets
The plan for green spaces, vibrant walking neighbourhoods and a form of urban living that is the norm in continental Europe but has been denied us by a combination of the car lobby, inertia and Nimbyism, can be cut and pasted for other towns, particularly those blighted by municipal decay and vacancy. The way to get rid of vacancy and dereliction is more people, not more cars.
The car has been an amazing transport vehicle, which liberated many of us. To move is to be alive and the open road can be exhilarating, but cars are not for town centres. Today, Irish towns and cities are choked with cars. In terms of annual “hours lost in traffic”, data compiled by Inrix using road sensor information reveals that Dublin (with 114 hours) and, amazingly when you think of its size, Galway (with 94 hours) rank as the fourth- and seventh-worst offenders in Europe.
Urban space is valuable, and we are beyond the point where space can be given over freely to cars. It really is that straightforward.
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Healthy towns are living towns where families live and hang out. They are complicated, interdependent ecosystems that require people who live, shop and socialise in the town centre. As well as encouraging cycling and walking, opening up the streets to people accords to what the great American urbanist Jane Jacobs described as the “eyes on the street” rule. Streets that are populated are safer, people act as protectors and witnesses, policing each other by our very presence. Living streets are safer streets.
The core of the opposition to the Dún Laoghaire plan seems to come from some residents in adjacent areas who are worried that if cars are banned from the centre of the town centre they will go through their residential area. People ask: if the traffic can no longer go through the centre, surely the roads to which the traffic is being redirected will clog up?
International evidence points to what is called the iron law of congestion, proposed by urban planner Anthony Downs in 1962, which states that “on urban commuter expressways, peak-hour traffic congestion rises to meet maximum capacity”. Based on what economists call induced demand, the iron law boils down to: If you build it, they will come. A vast literature of studies from numerous countries around the world concludes that the more road space given over to cars, the more cars you get.
We tend to think of traffic as a liquid: if we open up more space the liquid will pass through more quickly. In reality, traffic is more like a gas: it expands to fill up all the space it is allowed. The corollary is also the case. When car use is limited on certain roads, the cars don’t relocate, clogging up other roads; they disappear. Yes: disappear. People choose other options – public transport, walking, cycling, taxi, car share.
A fascinating article in the Dublin Inquirer examined what happened in the city when certain through routes were closed off. One in-depth study of a temporary road closure in Phoenix Park showed that traffic volumes into the city centre reduced overall – a textbook example of traffic reduction. North Frederick Street was once open to all traffic. Implementation of a “bus gate” in 2002 restricted cars on the same street but also, astonishingly, reduced dramatically southbound car traffic on O’Connell Street. Between 1997 and 2010, similar reallocations of road space were made on 16 quality bus corridors in to Dublin city centre. In that time, bus passenger numbers crossing the canal bridges increased by 45 per cent and cars crossing the canal fell by 21 per cent.
The point is that people change their behaviours. Limiting road space for cars doesn’t lead to more congestion, it ultimately leads to less. This won’t happen overnight, but it will happen.
Given the opportunity, it should not come as a surprise that many residents of Dún Laoghaire, people who actually live in the areas affected, are hugely supportive of the Living Streets plan.
Essentially a Victorian town, it was built to be lived in, not passed through, to be enjoyed, not traversed
Two years ago the town trial-ran this initiative for the summer, closing off the main street. According to the council’s surveys, 70 per cent of the responses were supportive and more than 82 per cent stated a positive response (very or fairly positive). Four out of five also stated that the scheme made Dún Laoghaire a “nicer place to live”, with three-quarters stating they were disappointed when the temporary scheme ended.
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In another survey, half of businesses voted in favour of Summer Streets (which saw George’s Street Lower closed to vehicular traffic and pedestrianised from 11am daily from the junction with Patrick Street as far as Myrtle Square opposite St Michael’s Hospital), with 29 per cent against and 21 per cent neutral. Eighty-one per cent of residents, 67 per cent of customers and 44 per cent of businesses would like to see the scheme implemented permanently.
Crucially – and this may seem hyperlocal but bear with me – 59 per cent of Monkstown-bound vehicular traffic in Dún Laoghaire is through traffic, providing no economic value, according to the council. Most Irish towns will experience something similar: cars drive through on their way elsewhere.
In Dún Laoghaire, a battle for the heart and soul of the town is ongoing. Essentially a Victorian town, it was built to be lived in, not passed through, to be enjoyed, not traversed. Dún Laoghaire, like all towns, is a sensitive ecosystem. And, like all ecosystems, they must be allowed to breathe rather than being choked.
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