8.9 Urban design and placemaking
Glad to see the NTA has highlighted the importance of biodiversity. We need as much greening of the GDA as possible to respond to the biodiversity crisis. It is however, completely insufficient. Plans to reduce car speeds to facilitate placemaking is fine but is not close to what is necessary: the city and its urban villages are traffic sewers and if the NTA is serious about urban design and placemaking, it has to reallocate space away from the private car and enable one-way systems all within the canals for trees to be planted, concreted areas to be transformed into green spaces, to prepare the city for floods and soaring temperatures (a tree planted street is on average 4 degrees cooler than a concreted one - within the canals, the tree cover is particularly poor).
PLAN 14 Reallocation of Road Space: “The NTA, in conjunction with the local authorities, will seek the reallocation of road space in Dublin City Centre, Metropolitan towns and villages, and towns and villages across the GDA to prioritise walking, cycling and public transport use and prioritise the placemaking functions of the urban street network.”
This is very important and is a welcome point, but it is not backed up by the BusConnects project in the Phibsborough and Church street area for example, where the already heavily concreted streets will be made available exclusively to motorised passing traffic, with the removal of the segregated cycle lane and the impossibility to increase footpath width.