There is no simple solution to ongoing traffic congestion in Belfast city centre, but some tough decisions could alleviate the problem in the short and long term, according to one roads expert.
Many parts of the city centre have faced gridlock in the weeks following the opening of the new £340m Grand Central station, with knock-on impacts being seen for some public transport services.
Roads expert Wesley Johnston says people have been encouraged to drive into Belfast city centre since the 1960s, and that it’s “not exactly a surprise” to see daily logjams.
The Department for Infrastructure has proposed a number of “mitigation measures” in order to ease traffic pressure in the city, but Mr Johnston says “there simply isn’t an engineering solution to this”.
“The problem is we’ve been encouraging people to drive into the city centre since the 1960s.
“There is simply more people driving into the city centre than what there is space for.
“So it’s not exactly a surprise to see the city centre filling up with cars and causing congestion.
“The solution is to have other ways of bringing people in and out of the city that doesn’t involve cars.
“The difficulty is that the alternative forms of transport that we have at the moment just aren’t good enough.”
Reduce public transport fares
Mr Johnston says the short-term solution which will help to get more people out of their cars and on to public transport is an economic one.
“Fares are too high and they are putting people off from considering public transport,” he says.
“If you look at an example of a family going into the city centre, they will pay one car park charge.
“If they use public transport, each member of the family will have to pay individual fares and that doesn’t make sense in many cases.
“If we bring the prices down, more people will use public transport. It won’t solve every problem but it will certainly help.”
Park and Rides
A medium to long-term solution which the department should focus on in the years to come is the increased provision of park and ride services.
“I think park and rides are going to be one big part of the solution to this as it solves the “last mile” issue which is where the majority of the congestion is.
“But the thing is if you look at a lot of them, they are already full early in the morning so the capacity isn’t there.
“Dundonald, for example, is full at 8.30am every morning
“They need to be bigger and we need more of them and that clearly requires investment.”
Money
As is the issue with many public services across the north, roads expert Johnston says the root of many problems is a lack of investment, and the key solution is being able to find more money.
“I think they are capable of making the right decisions but they just don’t have the money to do so,” he says.
“The only real solution is to seriously invest in public transport services, but then you have to look at how to fund that and where do you take that money from.
“In Dublin they are awash with cash and able to invest in public transport and subsidise fares.
“Unfortunately we want nice things but we can’t afford to have them at present.”