Cars are now travelling slower than ever before in Dublin, with average speeds less than that of the horse-drawn carriages of the 19th century, which travelled at speeds of up to 16 kilometres per hour (kmh).

Traffic is grinding to a halt, with the average speed of a car in the city dropping to 12.4kmh, according to the latest report by the Dublin Transportation Office (DTO).

A typical car journey in the capital is now 17% slower than it was in 2005, when the average car speed was 14.4kmh an hour. In 1997, cars travelled at an average of 18.6kmh — 34% faster than they do now.

Even though they are getting nowhere fast, ever more cars are travelling into the city, with the number crossing the canal cordon increasing by 2% between 2005 and 2006. The number of cars approaching Dublin on national primary roads increased by 4% in the same period, even though public transport options have improved with the introduction of two Luas light rail lines.

There is little incentive, however, for motorists to switch to buses. The 2007 DTO roadusers monitoring report shows that Dublin’s buses are the modern equivalent of slow coaches. Buses travelling on Dublin’s network of quality bus corridors (QBCs) in the morning rush hour took 6% longer to reach their destination than those travelling the same routes in 2005.

Buses bringing commuters home from work in the evenings have speeded up, however, if only by 2.3%. The report recommends that buses travelling on QBCs be given priority at traffic lights to speed up journey times. Dublin city council and the DTO are currently creating a computerised system using satellites that will allow them prioritise buses at junctions.

They also highlight how continuous QBCs are much more successful than those routes split between QBC and normal traffic. “If we really want to get people out of cars, we have to be much more ruthless about prioritising QBCs over other traffic,” said Fergus O’Dowd, Fine Gael spokesman on transport. “QBCs need to be longer and shouldn’t end at pinch points. It defeats the whole purpose.”

Even Dublin pedestrians are facing delays. The average waiting time at a pedestrian crossing in 2007 was 1:59 minutes, four seconds longer than the corresponding figure for 2006. The longest waiting time was recorded at the junction of High Street and Nicholas Street in Dublin city centre, where pedestrians have to wait up to 4:03 minutes to cross the road.

At some traffic junctions, pedestrians are now waiting up to a minute longer for the “green man”, with traffic engineers prioritising cars in an effort to speed up traffic flows. At the junction of Dorset Street and Gardiner Street, the waiting time for a pedestrian is 3:20 minutes, up from 2:01 minutes in 2004.

At another junction at the intersection of Crumlin, Dolphin and Parnell Roads, the average waiting time for pedestrians is 3:06 minutes, 1:16 minutes longer than it was in 2004.

In 2006, 17,114 people crossed the canals every morning during rush hour on foot, a 12% increase on 2004.

“The key to making the city more pedestrian- and cycle-friendly is to reduce the number of cars choking the streets,” O’Dowd said. “But there don’t seem to be enough incentives to get out of the car. Where are the park-and-ride facilities that were promised?”

The DTO report urges local authorities to review the waiting times experienced by pedestrians. With improved junctions, pedestrians could travel at an average of 5kmh in the city — faster than both cars and buses on many stretches.

Along with a rise in the numbers walking to work, more people are getting on their bike. Cycle flows across Dublin’s canals increased by 20% during morning rush hour between 2004 and 2006.

The sharpest drop in the average bus speed during morning rush hour was on the Malahide QBC, where a typical bus travelled at 9.9kmh in 2006, down from 11.8kmh a year previously. Despite this, 62% of commuters from Malahide chose the bus as their preferred transport mode.

During evening rush hour, buses on the Rathfarnham QBC travelled at 9.3kmh, down from 12.2kmh in 2005. The Clontarf QBC was one of the few to speed up during the morning and evening peak times, with buses travelling at 18.6kmh in the morning and 23.6kmh in the evening.

Despite the worsening traffic snarl, road accident casualties within the greater Dublin area decreased by 12% between 2002 and 2005, mainly due to the construction of ramps on many streets, especially routes favoured by young joyriders.

To combat traffic congestion, the DTO wants to ban cars from key city centre locations such as College Green and reduce the speed limit in the city centre to 30kmh. A congestion charge has also been mooted, although Noel Dempsey, the transport minister, has promised he will not introduce this measure until public transport improves in the city.

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