DUBLIN'S traffic managers are to meet in the coming days to review Operation Freeflow Phase 2, the scheme to tackle traffic congestion in the city.
Road works, trucks, selfish motorists and the President are among the factors cited for a reduction in the effectiveness of the scheme, designed to keep major roads clear so that traffic can move more freely.
The AA said yesterday that Freeflow 2 was not working: "It is very disappointing to see that the measures which had been so effective before Christmas should have petered out so completely in the New Year."
However, the Garda rejected the suggestion that the scheme was not a success.
The first Operation Freeflow was initiated for Christmas and focused on illegal parking which blocked important routes in the city. Extra gardai were deployed to shift illegally parked vehicles and police the queues of cars building up at the entrances to multistorey car parks.
On March 13th phase 2 of the operation was launched. However it received little publicity, according to Dublin Corporation, partly because the President announced her intention not to seek another term on the same day.
"An operation like this needs to make an impact with the public to be successful," said Mr Ciaran de Burca of the Corporation's traffic department. "The first was very high profile coming up to Christmas, but Freeflow Phase 2 was launched on the day the President announced her retirement and that was a major problem - it didn't get the publicity," he said.
He said Dublin Corporation, the Garda, Dublin Bus and the Dublin Transportation Office would meet in the coming days to review Phase 2.
According to the AA, there has been "increased congestion resulting in longer delays and occasional gridlock for Dublin motorists." It suggested this was because the first Freeflow concentrated on the city centre while the second took in a wider area, and the Garda's resources were "spread too thinly".
A Garda spokesman disagreed, however. He said the force had identified the same major arterial routes to be monitored for both operations, and had extra traffic patrols on them between 7 a.m. and 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. and 7 p.m. on weekdays.
Dublin Bus said it believed traffic was marginally slower in the capital now than at Christmas. A spokesman said the average bus was moving through the city at between 10 and 10.5 miles per hour, compared with between 11 and 11.5 miles per hour during Operation Freeflow Phase 1. This would add between three and four minutes to a seven mile trip.
"The buses are a little slower, but not much," he said.
Meanwhile there is good news for pedestrians. Dublin Corporation is planning to give them more time to cross the street, by changing the "phasing" of traffic lights. Mr de Burca said walkers clearly needed extra time on busy streets, and lights would be altered to acknowledge the corporation's order of priorities for Dublin's road users "pedestrians, cyclists, public transport and then cars".