Plans to control the volume of traffic in the Phoenix Park will make it a more pleasant place for everyone, writes Frank McDonald
That the Phoenix Park is under pressure from traffic can be illustrated very simply. Last week, an irate commuter - frustrated by the fact that Knockmaroon gate is not opened until 7.30am - used a power saw to break its padlock and chain so that he could drive through earlier.
The problem for the park is that it's now engulfed by Dublin's sprawling suburbs - the "exploding city", as Office of Public Works (OPW) commissioner David Byers said yesterday - and this, in turn, has generated a staggering 10 million car journeys a year.
The Phoenix Park was correctly identified by the OPW in a 1986 management plan as a "national historic park". This definition elevated it above city parks and put it beyond the clutches of Dublin Corporation (as it then was), which might otherwise have taken it over.
The corporation's parks department, encouraged by the late John Boland TD, who was minister for the environment at the time, talked of "developing" the park for more intensive leisure and recreation uses, including hard tennis courts and perhaps even a swimming pool.
The OPW takes a different view. It wants to preserve the landscape of the park which, at 733 hectares (1,760 acres), is reputedly the largest urban park anywhere in the world. It was first enclosed by the Duke of Ormonde as viceroy in the 1680s, to protect the royal deer.
But at least three or four deer are now killed every year by speeding cars.
A traffic study by consultants Faber Maunsell, commissioned by the OPW, shows that there are also numerous road accidents involving cars hitting pedestrians and cyclists, especially at night.
The measures planned by the OPW to curtail the abuse of the park as a commuter "rat-run" are likely to prove contentious in some quarters. However, they are clearly needed to protect the park's tremendous amenity value and unequalled landscape.
"We think that grasping the nettles about traffic will allow us to preserve the ambience of the park, if this creates difficulties for car commuters in the outer suburbs," Mr Byers said. "But it will bring benefits to people living nearby and recreational users."
There are some who would probably argue that city buses shouldn't be allowed to go through it. But tour buses are permitted to use its main avenue and the fact that ordinary buses are excluded, while cars are not, invidiously discriminates against public transport.
The OPW is now involved in consultations on its plans. If these plans are accepted by the relevant authorities - and there is no valid reason why they shouldn't be - the Phoenix Park will become a more pleasant place for everyone.