Are There Too Many Cars in Dublin City? Ireland 1969
Free parking, more car parks or ban motorists from the city centre? What is the solution to Dublin’s growing traffic problem?
Dublin City centre faces the challenge of a growing number of cars on the road and the growing need for places to park.
Today, the inner city needs thirty six thousand spaces to park its cars. By 1985, it will need sixty thousand.
Dr Wilbur F Smith, an American traffic expert, believes that there is a lack of regulation of parking on Dublin streets.
Raymond O’Donoghue, Area Secretary for Ireland of the Automobile Association (AA), recently wrote about the problems of congestion and parking in the magazine ‘Drive’. He is critical of a Dublin Corporation plan to introduce meters on the principle of making a person pay for a system of restricting parking. He believes a free parking scheme should have been tried like the Paris disc system and advocates for an increase in off-street parking in the city.
Our street system was never designed to carry its present traffic volume.
Minister for Transport Mr Kevin Boland believes that there is no magic answer to the traffic problem in Dublin. The minister believes says that the only way to reduce city centre traffic is to discourage motorists from driving into Dublin.
Raymond O’Donoghue warns against restricting or banning traffic from the city centre. He believes that the solution is to build appropriate off-street parking to accommodate the cars.
This episode of ‘Newsbeat’ was broadcast on 13 November 1969. The reporter is Cathal O’Shannon.
Credit to : CR’s Video Vaults