How we navigate our city defines its character. That’s why I’m committed to revolutionizing Dublin’s transportation landscape, from enhancing public transit to calming chaotic traffic and ensuring safe cycling and pedestrian experiences.

Below are my ideas on how to do it – you can read my plans on other themes here.

Pedestrian priority

Pedestrians are forced to wait for passing traffic, with little time given to cross at lights. I would seek to extend pedestrian crossing times, make pedestrian crossing more frequent, and install more pedestrian lights, such as these ones we secured for the South Circular Road and Donore Avenue.

I would also encourage the council to install more zebra crossings at smaller junctions. These give pedestrians the right of way over traffic and there are only three in Dublin City Council at the moment. I’ve seen them work well in Brussels, where they are on virtually every street corner. National regulations for their installation changed in 2024, which makes them much cheaper and easier to install – we should seize the opportunity.

And I think we should push on with pedestrianising more of the city centre. Drury Street, Suffolk Street, and Capel Street have been big successes in the last few years. I would look at pedestrianising South William Street, Newmarket, space around the Custom House, and College Green – and identify other opportunities to increase footpath space across the city.

Safe cycling

Cycling should be a safe option for anyone who wants to take it up. I have pushed hard for safe cycling infrastructure in the last five years and will continue to do so this term.

Safe cycle lanes allow people of all ages to get on their bikes. Dublin needs to move away from bits of cycle lane here and there to a real, connected network of safe cycle routes. Thanks to national funding, there is now real ambition to do this: the city council has a plan to go from the current 10km of segregated bike lanes to 310km.

I fully back this kind of ambition. I’ve seen first hand how much pressure there is against cycling infrastructure: to make any progress, we need to elect councillors who will stand up strongly for it.

Safe cycling also means somewhere to store bikes. I have long advocated for bike bunkers for Dublin’s terraced housing, and after a long saga of delay, it will hopefully be rolled out in the next two years. I want to make sure the job is completed.

Improve public transport

Councillors don’t have direct control over public transport, but we do have a say in how road space is allocated. I would give buses and the Luas extra priority at junctions, and give buses more priority on our streets, mainly by expanding the network of bus lanes.

Unreliability and delay in the bus network is primarily caused by buses getting stuck in car traffic. With a proper network of bus lanes, we can reduce the uncertainty and speed up travel times. That’s why I’m backing the Dublin City Centre Traffic Plan: you can read my piece in the Journal here.

The Dublin Bikes network also provides a useful part of our public transport network. Though long resisted by city council management, I will make the case to expand the network of stations to those parts of the city which don’t have the service, particularly in Dublin 8.

Improving accessibility

The city is still a hostile place for people with disabilities. Better public transport will help some people, as will lower-stress cycling and walking routes. But we need to ensure that infrastructure for pedestrians remains so: bringing in new wardens to stop footpath parking would be a major step to make streets easier to navigate for wheelchair users, people with buggies, people with visual impairments, and those with other disabilites.

For blue badge holders, the city council should expand the network of disabled parking spaces, particularly in the city centre, and ensure that they are designed to guarantee sufficient space for access.

Taming the traffic

Traffic congestion ruins streets and wastes people’s time. We need to shift traffic away from residential streets and give people real alternative options to the car.

I would like to reduce the speed of traffic, which is a major obstacle to calm streets and safety. In 2020, we had a really disappointing vote in the council, which rejected plans to reduce most speed limits in Dublin City to 30kph. I would like to revive that plan, fix any problems, and rebuild a political majority in favour of safer, slower car traffic. I would also work to see limits enforced by cameras and Gardaí.

Finally, I think the trialling of “car free days” in the core city centre would be a great way to bring people into town and showcase its potential. I saw first-hand how well they work in Brussels and would love to try one in Dublin at least one Sunday a year.

Electric charging

Charging electric cars is particular challenge for those who live in terraced housing without front drives, or in apartments without parking. The four Dublin councils have a plan to deal with this (you can read it here), but the rollout has been hopelessly slow. I would continue to push to have this public side of the charging network rolled out as quickly as possible.