College Green car lanes to close, as part of plans to remove city traffic

The three-year plan would see Dublin City become completely traffic free.

Car lanes are to be phased out of College Green from next year, as part of a wider plan to remove Dublin City traffic altogether, the Minister for Transport has told the Business Post.

Speaking to the publication Eamon Ryan described an overhaul of some of the busiest roads in the city over the next few years, as part of an effort to reallocate road space away from cars around town.

“For College Green, which we have been talking about for so long, we will start next year and take out two of the lanes, and then the following year take through traffic out,” he said.

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While a new design for the College Green/Dame Street pedestrian plaza concept still needs to be drawn up by Dublin City Council, the traffic reduction plans outlined by Ryan would see the first steps towards the removal of buses and cars from this area.

According to the Business Post, Ryan’s next focus will be on the north and south quays of the city and roads on Beresford Place, Westmoreland Street, Pearse Street and St Stephen’s Green, which he described as “a race track around Dublin”.

“All these wide one-way multi-lane streets which are designed for as many cars as possible, that is no longer the way to go.

“Dublin City Council has committed to changing all that, to take the traffic out of the city centre in the way that I said, and to do that within the next three years. That is an example of the type of project we need to do”, he said.

Header image via Shutterstock 

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