[breakingnews.ie] LUAS fails to ease traffic congestion

[Brian Condron]

A survey by the Dublin Transportation Office has reportedly found that the introduction of the LUAS has failed to have a significant affect on car usage.

Reports this morning say the study found that car usage in areas served by the tram system is down just 2%, compared to a 4% rise in areas not served by the system.

Bus usage in LUAS areas has almost halved in the same period, while it has increased in areas with no access to the light-rail system.

Four-fifths of people involved in the study said they believed the LUAS had made travel to the city centre easier, but 40% said it had not eased overall traffic congestion.

Kind of missing the point aren't they, I never thought the Luas was built to ease traffic congestion, I thought that it was built to provided reliable and fast public transport despite traffic congestion. No matter how bad the traffic is, you'll get from Sandyford to Stephen's Green in just over 20 minutes. This comes back to the attitude that public transport isn't for me, it's for everybody else so I have a traffic free drive to work.

[Brian Condron]

LUAS leads to big reduction in car use

A report out today suggests that Dublin's LUAS service has led to big reduction in car usage among commuters living within its range.

But the report by the Dublin Transportation Office also found that the bus service was faring badly by comparison.

For people travelling within the Red and Green line areas car usage is down by 21%.

Commuters said speed is the principal reason for the switch but also parking charges and traffic congestion.

The study found that around one-third of respondents also said the LUAS influenced their decision to move into an area.

35% said they had made more journeys over the past two years because of the service, mostly for shopping.

But Dublin Bus seems to have become less desirable with its usage halving in the LUAS areas.

Reliability of journey time was the biggest problem with the bus service. The Dublin Transportation Office suggests that travel information should be provided at bus stops in the same way as the LUAS.

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[Mark]

A lot of mixed news reports on the radio this morning. One radio station to remain unnamed even said 2% instead of 21%.

[comcor]

Were wrong figures released? Or was the radio station just taking from the breaking news report?

AFAIK the TCH group doesn't have any Dublin area radio stations.