Council votes no to park-and-ride for city suburbs

DUBLIN City councillors have voted overwhelmingly against a proposal to turn residential areas into unregulated park-and-ride car parks.

An amendment to the parking regulations, which would allow commuters to park freely in residential areas, would clog up streets, especially near Luas and Dart stations.

A meeting of the council's transportation and traffic strategic committee yesterday turned down proposals as the changes would cause traffic pandemonium.

They said the real solution to Dublin's traffic problems lay in a fully integrated system between the Dart, Luas, Dublin Bus, the NRA and the local authorities.

Council officials had argued that allowing commuters to park free of charge in residential areas that are close to Dart and Luas stations would encourage them to switch to public transport to access the city centre.

But yesterday councillors said the proposal is being brought forward in isolation and will ultimately cause more traffic problems than it will solve.

As the proposal is not integrated with any similar scheme from adjoining councils such as Dun Laoghaire (which has 10 Dart stations and six Luas stops on the Green Line) or South County Dublin (six Luas stops on the Red Line) councillors disputed that it could lead to more traffic driving further into the city to benefit from the free parking.

Councillors agreed that the proposed scheme was appealing to commuters who regularly had difficulty in finding parking near rail and Luas stations.

But they insisted it has angered residents who claim that they cannot park outside their own homes because of commuters.

"Unregulated parking means you cannot limit it to people using the Dart or Luas.

"Anyone can just park there all day long," said Labour Cllr Oisin Quinn.

Anita Mullan
Irish Independent