Reinventing Dublin: the feedback

THE READERS:All week, in our Reinventing Dublin series, ‘The Irish Times’ has been suggesting ways to improve Ireland’s capital city. Hundreds of readers have also offered suggestions for making Dublin better. Here's a selection of their ideas

TRAFFIC-FREE AREAS

'Make a park and promenade on north Liffey quay'

Stop traffic going along the Liffey, thereby cleaning the air, reducing the noise, and rejuvenating and re-energising the heart of the city for the people.

It will bring people back into the centre of Dublin, the tourists will love it, and it will reconnect the city in a pleasant, healthy way. On the north bank (where the sun is) allow terraces, cafes and so on, and make it a park and promenade, with a cycle and skate path extending from Phoenix Park to the O2.

There should be extensive car and truck-free zones in the city centre, for example from Christ Church to Trinity (potentially with awnings for when it rains), and open-air markets all along.

Remove excess street clutter, and make a better cycle path system around the city centre like the one along the Grand Canal. Only allow very small trucks in to the centre for more frequent but smaller deliveries.

Rachael Ball

I have long advocated using the two canals as a boundary to cars of nonresidents. Limit the use of cars within the city to those who live there and those who must travel in and out of it. A decent public-transport system of buses, taxis and free bikes would need to be arranged.

Taxi fares would need to be lowered with the zone, but then taxis would benefit from increased custom, albeit for much shorter journeys

Bus fares would need to be lowered also – the existing lower shoppers’ fare, which covers the very heart of the city, could be extended both timewise and geographically.

Tony McCoy O’Grady

How about that idea to turn one half of the quays into a pedestrian or cycle path in order to link up the shamefully isolated Phoenix Park? How about linking the Portobello and Inchicore cycle paths; when’s that happening?

John Foody

GAPS IN CITY CENTRE

‘Fill gaps with parks, markets’

We need to fill in the gaps. There are many empty sites on prominent streets in Dublin. A prime example is O’Connell Street. There are two huge gaping holes in the streetscape on the west side one of which predates the boom.

These kinds of spaces need to be filled. It can be with parks, housing, markets . . . what-ever will make the city more attractive.

If every vacant spot in the city was filled with apartments, for example, it would bring more life to the city centre and help control urban sprawl.

Keith L Cullen

The planned shopping centre on the Carlton site is obnoxious and should never be built. And people who work for Facebook and Google are most certainly not “Bohemian” – they are the opposite.