The plan, if it goes ahead, may result in further very significant sections of Dublin city centre being made a safe haven for cyclists. However, proposals to pedestrianise College Green, creating a plaza, have been stumbling along. And now a group representing businesses has urged it be trailled.
Long-mooted plans to pedestrianise the College Green area of Dublin city centre should be trialled early in 2019, Dublin Chamber has said.
The €10 million plan, which has been in the offing for some time having been put forward by Dublin City Council, would take drivers and their vehicles out of a congested section of the city centre.
More significantly, if such a marquee area was pedestrianised, it may result in a fresh approach being taken to the city which would spell good news for cyclists.
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Dublin Cycling Campaign has previously praised the proposal to pedestrianise College Green, which is the area directly to the front of Trinity College’s main entrance in south inner city.
Just last month the pedestrianisation plan hit its latest hurdle when An Bord Pleanála refused planning permission for it.
However, that refusal is a set-back rather than a fatal blow. Furthermore, in recent weeks Dublin City Council’s councilors agreed the civic plaza at College Green should proceed, with some changes.
It means while the project is on hold, there is still support for it within the council, which is crucial and should continue to drive it forward.
And now Dublin Chamber, previously the chamber of commerce, has suggested trial runs take place.
Vehicles would be kept away from the areas that they would be banned from in the event College Green is pedestrianised.
It means the impact of the scheme, on drivers and businesses, would be trialled with a view to informing debate.
The chamber said Dublin City Council should consider running a 'pedestrianised Sunday' at College Green. This would “provide locals with an opportunity to visit the area and experience what College Green Plaza would be like”.
This could be followed by full weekend trials, and even trials for longer periods.
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A recent chamber survey of 400 companies found 72 per cent were in favour of College Green Plaza being trialled.
"The pedestrianisation of College Green is something that most people and businesses would like to see happen,” said Dublin Chamber's head of public affairs Graeme McQueen.
“But doubts remain regarding how practical the idea actually is. A short trial, or series of trials, would give Dubliners and businesses in the city an opportunity to experience what a pedestrianised College Green would be like.
“A successful trial would help alleviate some of the fears and concerns that businesses have over the potential impact of a pedestrianised College Green.
“Such a trial would also provide the Council with important feedback and learnings that will help shape any revised College Green Plaza proposal."
How cyclists would be catered for
Dublin Cycling Campaign has rightly stressed that pedestrians and cyclists should not be required to share the same areas in the new pedestrianised College Green Plaza.
And it has also called for other measures to be included in the plan, including self-enforcing separated cycle tracks.
These, the capital’s cycling campaign group has said, should be well-defined visually and spatially, using angled kerbs, grade-separation and colouring.
This would create new bike permeability for Trinity, Dame Street, Grafton Street Quarter, O’Connell Street and other destinations in the area.
In welcoming the suggestion to pedestrianise College Green, Dublin Cycling Campaign has also called for the use of bus stop bypasses.
These would be used, it has proposed, at all stops on Dame Street and all other possible measures to separate buses and cycles in the area.
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