Dr Tadhg O'Mahony

The consultation for the draft Dublin City Centre transport plan to 2028 is now open until the 1st of December. It’s a step in the right direction, seeking to reclaim the city from being one of the most car congested cities in the world, and all of the problems that has created. It doesn’t work for people, the environment or the economy, and it certainly doesn’t work for motorists. We know we can’t build our way out of this problem, we must re-balance back towards walking, cycling and public transport, and we also urgently need better planning for housing, access to services and attractive places for us to live and be. But is this plan enough? My contribution to the consultation is detailed below:

“The draft City Centre Transport plan is a step in a positive direction, and in that sense is to be welcomed and supported. However, Dublin is beginning
from a very low base and there are significant questions over if it goes far enough. Dublin is one of the most car congested cities in the world, with
significant impacts on public health, inequality, public realm, the economy and the environment. It is also carbon emissions intensive and provisions for
active and public transport have been severely constrained, with under-investment over the course of the last half century.

From work I have pioneered in Ireland on ‘sustainable mobility transformation,’ at the Climate Council, EPA, TII and Oireachtas Committee, it is now accepted that a transformation is needed, and that this requires an integrated long-term spatial and transport plan to 2050. Within this 2028/2030 are wayposts in this journey, not end-points. To support this long-term strategy we need analysis of transformed settlement patterns for higher density and sprawl repair. We need analysis of transformed transport where active and public transport dominate to understand the how and the why of this possible outcome among the alternatives. We then need integrated long-term strategy that combines the two if a transformation from the current dysfunction is to be delivered.

National and Dublin city spatial and transport planning are classic examples of policy silos. Weak integration guarantees continuation of status quo,
pushing out vision and discussion of the necessary transformation, and of all the benefits this could deliver. We don’t know if this draft plan is sufficiently
transformative to realise the opportunities of change, but we do know from experiences in other cities that change is possible and desirable and that
incremental, short-term and weakly integrated solutions do not lead to systems change. In sum, while it is desirable to switch in the right direction, we will
also miss another opportunity to vision, analyse, discuss and strategise a better functioning city. I will be happy to discuss if you wish.

Dr. Tadhg O’Mahony.”

The consultation and supporting documents are available at the following link:

https://consultation.dublincity.ie/traffic-and-transport/draft-dublin-city-centre-transport-plan/