Operation "Open City" gets underway in Dublin today.
Gardai say the aim of Dublin's seasonal traffic management campaign, is to help people get about their day's business, and enjoy the seasonal festivities.
They'll be facilitating the movement of public transport in Dublin and minimising traffic disruption to the general public through high visibility and enforcement activity.
Operation Open City will remain in force on the streets of Dublin until Christmas Eve.
Key activities in 2014 include:
• Highly visible Garda traffic patrols on the city’s arterial routes, car parks and main shopping areas during peak commuting and shopping times and at key venues and arenas for major concerts and events scheduled for December (incl. Andre Rieu, Elton John, Madness);
• Monitoring of clearways, Quality Bus Corridors and Luas tracks to minimise vehicular obstruction;
• Additional night-time public transport services on bus and Luas;
• Provision of a rapid-response towing services to quickly clear breakdown incidents – provided by Dublin Bus for commercial vehicles and Dublin City Parking Services for general traffic;
• Provision of 2 Garda Quick Response Teams to respond to critical incidents, one north city and one south city, daily.
• Daily teleconferencing between the key players – Gardaí, National Transport Authority, local authorities, etc to ensure rapid responses and immediate shared information throughout the crucial pre-Christmas period
• Use of social and other media to share information quickly with the public (@gardatraffic)
People are strongly encouraged to leave their cars at home whenever possible over December, and to use the National Transport Authority’s Apps to help them get about on public transport:
• The National Journey Planner which plots public transport trip options – in real time – between any two addresses in Ireland; and
• Real Time Ireland which gives up-to-the-minute arrival time information for buses, Luas, trains; etc
All road users should note that recent analyses by the Garda Síochána Analysis Service has found that of the 24 fatal collisions this year in the Dublin region, the two most common periods for Fatal Collisions were the peak rush hour periods of 8am-10am and 4pm-6pm daily, where 10 fatal collisions have occurred to date.
For many businesses in Dublin, the 6-7 weeks before Christmas can represent between 30% and 35% of their annual turnover. City centre footfall numbers from 2013 show that from the week beginning 4th November through to Christmas Eve, almost 23 million consumers visited the city – or 460,000 people per day. Already this year in 2014, the first big week of Christmas shopping has showed an increase of 20% on the busy retail streets.
