Problems with getting out of South Circular Road and with residential parking

The South Circular Road supports a lot of traffic every day.  I would love to see that being reduced.  The heaviest times of traffic usage are at school opening and closing times and morning and evening rush hours.  The congestion at these times is inconvenient to all.

However, in addition to the volume of traffic, the inconvenience is caused by the failure by authorities to enforce the relevant laws.  People park illegally and double park at the Scoil Mathair De entrance near the New Street.  Equally they park illegally and double park near the Redemptorist's church while waiting to pick up students.  People also park illegally at the creche.  If the Gardai and Council are not prepared to ensure that the current parking regulations are enforced, why should we believe that they will enforce the new regime?  In other words who will stop the parents behaving as they do at present, which would frustrate the grand design?  And if they are prepared to improve enforcement in the new layout, then why not do so at present?

I live on the South Circular Road between the Ballinacurra Road junction and the Lifford Avenue junction.  Under this plan, I will have only two routes by which to exit my area.  Firstly by going down Lifford Avenue to Ballinacurra Road and secondly by going to the SCR / Ballinacurra Road junction.  In either case, in order to turn left, heading towards the City, I will have to cross a bus lane in order to merge with existing traffic.  In order to turn right to head away from the City Centre, I will have to cross a bus lane and a traffic lane in order to merge with the traffic coming from the city centre.  At present, Ballinacurra Road is extremely busy.  Given that there will be no through traffic along SCR to the City Centre, Ballinacurra Road will be even busier, making merging much harder.  At the Lifford Avenue junction, visibility is very restricted, making it even more dangerous.  There are 260 homes, 2 creches and 2 businesses in this small part of the road and planning permission has been granted for 32 more houses.  There are a further 50 plus houses on Lifford Avenue.  In addition a further 20 houses on Ballinacurra Road access the rear of their houses from Lifford Avenue for parking, because of the Bus Lane on Ballinacurra.  So provision needs to be made for nearly 400 houses to be able to leave or return to their homes.  At a minimum we would need a full set of traffic lights - not just pedestrian lights - at the SCR / Ballinacurra Road junction.

Many of my neighbours on this road - including myself - are retired and some are quite elderly, with restricted mobility.  Some of these can drive, even if their walk / balance is poor, but they need a car conveniently parked as they would not be able to walk long distances.  They also may have carers calling and home deliveries of groceries, fuel etc.  The reduction in parking will greatly affect their quality of life.

The proposed new junction at SCR, Lifford Avenue and Boreen a Tobair is badly designed.  Boreen a Tobair residents (20 houses) need to be able to cross safely in either direction.  It should be a straight cross roads.

There will be a serious impact on the lives of residents from Fennessy's as far as Alphonsus Street / Gerard Street.  Here, many of the residents are elderly and those on the RHS have no space to take their cars off the road.  The area allocated for 10 cars at the Laurel Hill Avenue junction is very tight, making 10 spaces there a very optimistic proposal.  It is not feasible to ask elderly people to park in communal parking spaces at some distance from their homes.  Many of them would not be sufficiently mobile.  On wet and windy nights especially in the winter, they would be too slow.  Also there is a safety problem, especially after dark.  There is antisocial behaviour on the South Circular Road and if the authorities are not prepared to clamp down on that at present, how can we have confidence that they will do so in the future?

Some people point to the summer of 2020, when access to the road was closed at the Ballinacurra / SCR junction.  It is claimed that this proposal would see a return to those days which were indeed very pleasant.  However, this is an illusion for a number of reasons.  Firstly, that was summertime, when the schools / colleges were all closed.  Secondly, large numbers of people were working from home, so even commuters living in the area were not travelling.  Thirdly, there were restrictions on the distances that people could travel for some of this period, which further reduced traffic on the road.

In summary,  Active Travel is to be welcomed.  However some of the problems associated with cycling / walking on South Circular Road are due to a failure to enforce existing Traffic Regulations.  Locals feel that this failure is a cynical ploy to drive through change, which in turn will not be adequately enforced.  A significant factor in the opposition to this proposal is the loss of confidence by the public in the willingness of the authorities to support their needs.

Safe Travel and Active Travel are desirable for all.  We all agree that children need to be safe, but so do their grandparents.

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