Dublin Will Ban Through Traffic Downtown

The Irish capital of Dublin will start prohibiting vehicles from passing through its city center unless their final destination is there, reports Feargus O'Sullivan in Bloomberg CityLab.

“By displacing vehicles merely passing through on their way to somewhere else to beltways further out, the plan promises to both ease current traffic congestion and allow for the creation of new pedestrian streets and plazas that will make Dublin’s heart an altogether more pleasant place to linger.” Officials say the goal of the plan is to reduce traffic by 60 percent downtown.

As O’Sullivan explains, “The tools used to achieve this are fairly simple: two “bus gates” on either bank of the River Liffey will prevent private vehicles from crossing, and several streets will be reconfigured so that vehicles traveling into downtown are routed along loops that ultimately direct them back out in the same direction.”

Cities like Paris, Amsterdam, and London have enacted policies limiting vehicular traffic in their central cores or charging cordon pricing. Unlike in other places, the plan has overwhelming support from Dublin residents.