Changes in “travel patterns” such as working from home one day per week and increasing public transport use are necessary to tackle Belfast’s traffic chaos, the Department for Infrastructure (DfI) has said.
The city centre is currently experiencing daily gridlock due to the high number of vehicles on the roads and the closure of key routes including Durham Street and the accessing of Grosvenor Road from Great Victoria Street.
The DfI has said part of the current problem is that December is traditionally a busy month for the city’s roads and is calling for commuters to look at alternative options to driving that could ease congestion.
Colin Woods, the acting deputy secretary of DfI Roads, spoke on BBC Radio Ulster’s Nolan Show on Monday and said the department was “looking at road engineering measures” to solve the problem.
However, he suggested road users themselves could help with their own changes.
“The answer is to get more people onto public transport, or to walk or cycle,” Mr Woods said.
“Public transport is the option that will remove vehicles from the streets.”
He continued: “If people would use public transport or work from home one day a week, we would start to see significant reductions in congestion...we don’t need everybody to take the bus; we don’t need everybody to take the train, but we do need to see changes in travel patterns.”
Mr Woods said the DfI understands the “frustration” felt by those on Belfast roads.
“There’s not enough physical space for the number of vehicles trying to use them at the minute, and we can see the impact of that on people’s journey times.”
He added that the DfI was also working with the PSNI “to look at things that are making the problem worse” including drivers blocking yellow boxes at junctions.
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