King of the road is well used to bumps

Dublin's director of traffic is in the wars over proposals to limit times for city-centre deliveries, writes Colm Ward

Those prone to paranoia would be well advised to avoid Dublin's traffic control centre. One wall of the room is taken up entirely with video screens - about 50 in all - that monitor virtually all the capital's traffic.

Controllers here have the mammoth task of keeping Dublin's traffic moving. And there is very little they don't see. This is the domain of Mr Owen Keegan, Director of Traffic for Dublin City Council.

Mr Keegan has made headlines recently following his proposal to limit the time during which commercial vehicles can make deliveries to city centre premises. Or rather, the proposals have made the news as a result of the outcry they provoked in some quarters.

He is quick to point out that these proposals came about as a result of extensive consultation with many of the groups concerned.

"There were people, like the Dublin City Centre Business Association, who recognised the value of what we were doing, who felt it was important to get better traffic flow in off-peak times, which is good for commercial vehicles, good for customers coming in to shop, et cetera, and who were prepared to accept some discipline in their own operations and their own members' operations to achieve this."

The initial consultations took place in April, 2000, during which interested parties had the opportunity to make submissions. Further consultation took place the following September. At that time, it was decided to introduce the scheme in a limited area only.

What resulted was the proposal to limit commercial deliveries to between 10 a.m. and noon, unless the premises had a designated loading bay or off-street loading facilities. Mr Keegan stresses that there will be no change to the situation that currently exists, whereby deliveries can be made between 7 p.m. and 7 a.m.

A pilot scheme will initially take place in a limited area of the city centre bordered by Parnell Street, Church Street, George's Street, St Stephen's Green, Merrion Square and Westland Row. This is expected take place for three months from the end of August, after which it will be re-evaluated.

According to Mr Keegan, the strategy originated in the recognition that unrestricted commercial deliveries were putting too heavy a burden on the existing traffic capacity.

"There was a concern on the one side to tighten up enforcement of existing restrictions and there was also a view that, on a small number of strategic routes, we couldn't tolerate the loss of capacity associated with having, effectively, a six-hour window.

"On most of these routes, there was a three-hour clearway in the morning and a three-hour clearway in the evening but the period between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. was available as a double yellow line. And a double yellow line does allow delivery.

"The problem with deliveries is that, if they are spread over that six-hour window, effectively you are losing a lane of traffic - a lane which is maybe 50 per cent of the capacity for that period. And there seemed to be an inherent logic in respect of these routes to say we shouldn't allow that loss of capacity. Road capacity is at a premium and we can't have this completely uncoordinated approach to deliveries," he says.

He believes that, with better management of their deliveries, businesses need not suffer from these proposals. He points out that the restrictions will apply only on main routes so that commercial vehicles may pull up on some side streets when making deliveries outside the designated times.

He also makes the point that many of the routes in the pilot scheme already have restrictions in place limiting deliveries to between 10 a.m. and noon. The only change for those areas is that, from next month, this rule will be enforced, he says.

Although he is quick to assert that many city-centre retailers have supported this strategy, he is not surprised that there has been some negative reaction.

"What is significant, and I think that this is why the objections have been so vociferous, is that there is a large number of, particularly recently constructed, retail outlets, that don't have any off-street storage capacity.

"Traditionally, when you were designing retail outlets, you would have your own storage facility. People realised that it was much cheaper to conduct your stock control on the public highway because you had a very benign public authority, so why bother taking up valuable potential retail space," he says.

This commercial vehicle management strategy is just one aspect of a much larger plan to improve traffic flow in the city. It involves preventing road closures due to roadworks unless absolutely necessary, improving the signalling system and encouraging the use of cycle lanes and public transport.

"There's a much more concerted effort to manage traffic on the network and I can see that growing in the years ahead," Mr Keegan says.

Part of this effort involves getting better information to motorists so that they can find out where delays exist and take action to avoid them. This will be facilitated partly by a system currently being developed where cameras will monitor licence plates at several points on a road and then relay this information back to a computer that will calculate the amount of time required to travel between different points and, hence, the overall speed of the traffic. This information could then be accessed with a mobile phone, Mr Keegan believes.

Given the extent of the overall traffic management programme, he is frustrated at what he sees as the excessive publicity given to the new commercial vehicle restrictions. "There are a whole lot of things happening all the time, trying to achieve a multiplicity of goals, and this is just one small element. This one has attracted a certain degree of attention," he says.

He is under no illusions that his department can satisfy the demands of all of the people all of the time. However, he believes that everyone - motorists, pedestrians, cyclists and businesses - will benefit from improved traffic flow. "Our job is to try and balance those demands and give real improvements for those more sustainable modes and keep the general traffic flowing," he says.

Name: Owen Keegan

Job: Director of Traffic for Dublin City Council, responsible for managing traffic flow in the city.

Why is he in the news: Recent proposals by his office to limit the time during which commercial vehicles can make deliveries in Dublin city centre have provoked negative reaction from some lobby groups representing businesses in the city centre.

The Commercial Vehicle Management Strategy proposes that on-street deliveries can only be made between 10a.m. and noon and again between 7p.m. and 7a.m. This will not apply to those premises that have designated loading bays or off-street loading facilities. Initially, the strategy will be piloted on certain strategic routes in the city centre for a three-month period after which it will be assessed.