Busgate suspended….

So tonight (well, it’s a little late, so technically last night), Dublin City Council voted by 35 votes to 11 to suspend the “Busgate” (blocking of cars travelling through College Green during peak hours).  The suspension, I believe, will take effect from 18th November until 15th January, and will only impact on Busgate in the evenings (the block on cars in the morning will remain).

I know that Fine Gael and Sinn Féin were voting against, and I know that the Labour group split on the issue (with the majority voting to suspend Busgate).  I don’t yet have the full result.

The arguments in favour were that business in the city centre had dropped by 30% or so since last March.  There was no analysis of how much of this drop was caused by the recession (and indeed it appears that the drop was similar pre-busgate to what it was after the introduction of the busgate).  There was no study of the impact of busgate on business other than a qualitative survey of Dublin City Business Association members by the City Manager.  Yes, that’s correct, there was no quantitative study of the impact on business.  The only major lobby groups calling for closure of the busgate were Brown Thomas and the Car Park owners, alongside DCBA.

And yet, here we are, with our City Council having agreed to suspend, in the face of massive public opposition.  I listened to the arguments of some of the Labour councillors last weekend, and I utterly reject them.  I heard arguments that this would prove that busgate did not impact on business, and therefore we should secure that proof to secure the long-term future of busgate.  I heard arguments that this was a one-off suspension, that would never be repeated, regardless of the outcome.  I heard arguments that it was important to work with the City Manager to move towards pedestrianisation of the city centre.

I reject all of those arguments.  To go through them one by one, I always believe the onus is on proponents of change to prove the need for their arguments.  Until tonight, busgate was the new status quo.  DCBA and others singularly failed to prove in any way that busgate was damaging to their business.  I also believe that providing one suspension will always open the door for the same arguments to be used in future to successfully guarantee a future suspension.  And I don’t agree in any way that the City Manager should be an important constituent for City Councillors (I also find the politics of the current City Manager deeply suspect, so I do not believe that he will ever work with City Councillors to move towards progressive ends within the city).

And in addition to my refutation of their arguments, I’m simply livid at the cavalier attitude with which people’s concerns were disregarded.  RTÉ Radio had a vox-pop last week (which admittedly are always somewhat unreliable), during which RTÉ were unable to find a single supporter of suspension of busgate amongst the public.  And from every conversation I’ve had (with people on all sides of the policial spectrum), I’ve yet to hear one other voice which argued for the action which has now been taken.  Bus times HAVE BEEN REDUCED, and Deloitte verified this in studies for Dublin Bus.  Similarly, the danger to cyclists has been drastically reduced by the introduction of busgate.  Tonight, DCC stuck two fingers up at Dublin voters, and stated quite clearly that they care more about the views of the City Manager and DCBA than they do about those of their voters.

DCC members will argue (with some justification) that they have tried to avoid cow-towing to the Car Park owners by providing 1,380 free parking spaces after 2pm on Thurs-Sun.  And there is clearly an agreement on all sides that the over-pricing amongst this sector is a deterrent to people shopping in town.  But I fail to see a direct correlation betweeen the two matters.  Unfortunately, Ciarán Cuffe couldn’t resist implying that cow-towing was the primary motivation, but I think that’s both unfair and dishonest.

I believe in a pedestrianised College Green, with the space reclaimed as a public plaza (a commodity in all too short supply in our city), with cars removed from the city by way of a severe congestion charge, and with significant new investment in public transport.  Until recently, I’ve never had a need to drive thanks to cycling and poor public transport.  I don’t think it’s too much to aim for a city where everyone can aim to rely on public transport, walking or cycling to travel around a city, with no undue delays, and with comfort and safety.

That will remain my aim, regardless of how stupid I believe our City Council was tonight.

PS – You can join the facebook campaign to save busgate here (which incidentally currently has 1228 members, many of them Green or Labour members, and many of them regular citizens of Dublin).