Retailers have weighed into the row concerning the 'banning' of cars from the city centre as the Retail Ireland lobby group asks Dublin City Council to scrap plans to pedestrianise key parts of the city centre. The appeal comes only a week after a local councillor labelled some City Council decisions as an "attack on motorists in the city".
Retail Ireland has written to the council as part of a public consultation on the Dublin City Centre Transport Study, which proposes investing €150 million to make the city more pedestrian and public transport-friendly. According to the lobby group private cars are the second most popular form of transport in the city centre and in writing to the council, as well as the National Transport Authority and the Department of the Environment, wants the plans adjusted to allow cars access to the city centre.
The lobby group also wants the lifting of the toll on the Eastlink bridge, allowing cars using city bridges to avoid the charge.
The move is of course a commercial one with Retail Ireland quoting a study, which found that shoppers who drive spend more than those on public transport but states that its members have not been consulted on this 'radical' car ban and, as stakeholders, is seeking to be involved in the consultation process.
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The news comes on the same day that, due to on-going Luas Cross City works, the College Green bus corridor begins operating from Monday to Friday, 7am to 7pm.