I often find using public transport in Dublin an extremely annoying experience. Understandably the system is very complex and has inherited several handicaps. Dublin’s geographical layout contains many bottlenecks especially in the city centre that hinder the effectiveness of the service. The Dublin Bus service has approximately 1,200 buses and around 190 routes that currently operate daily, with most travelling through the city centre. The transport system looks something like this:
The construction of the DART rail service was revolutionary in 1984. Operating every 15 minutes provides a reliable service from north to south Dublin. Great if you live along the coast, but not if you live in west Dublin. It maintained a high level of service that kept Dublin moving during the freak snow conditions in 2010, that ground most road transport to a halt. However it is at the mercy of flooding, especially between Dun Laoghaire and Bray.
The Luas tram system was built in 2004 with two lines, red and green to accommodate passengers in west Dublin and I’m amazed no one thought to link them up. I know currently there are plans for a link up, but only estimated to be completed by 2017. I find it hard to believe that it will take 3 years to create 1km of track, yes its in one of the busiest parts of Dublin city, but surely a greater disruption for a shorter amount of time would be more beneficial?
But my biggest problem with Dublin transport is the lack of integration. The DART, Luas and Dublin Bus are all separate entities that compete for passengers rather than working together to provide a better service. At one point, each service had their own Smart-Card (an e-wallet system) that only worked on the corresponding service :-S.
In 2011, the Smart Cards were scrapped and the Leap Card appeared which had integration capabilities and offered a step in the right direction. For me though, it was only a baby step as passengers still have to pay per journey. An unlimited daily transfer journey is capped at €6.25 which is fine for a once-off journey but not for commuting. An unlimited weekly travel ticket in Munich costs just €13.20. Rambler tickets can now be bought on the card as a solution but ultimately its still rather expensive. The quality of the service does not justify the cost in my opinion.
I believe Dublin’s transport is in a very uneconomical cyclone – this is ultimately down to the fact that only 56% of Dublin’s commuters take public transport to work everyday. As a result the transport system’s cost needs to be higher than its European counterparts because the passenger numbers are too low for the transport companies to have funding for improvements. The lack of quality of the service means 25% of commuters drive and only 3% travel as a car passenger. That means that 88% of the cars in rush-hour only have one person in them! Research in Zurich found that a car takes up roughly 115 cubic metres of space compared to a single person, which was 3. Too much car transport, causes traffic jams and hinders the bus service… and so the cyclone starts again. The trams and DART are more reliable, but overcrowded because services are not frequent enough in rush hour, and the solution is take the car. And yes, the weather has a huge part to play. Nobody wants to be waiting at a bus stop for any length of time in the rain or wind.
Zurich city is a proven example of how public transport should operate. The Swiss authorities actively make driving in the city a torrid experience. The tram system dominates the city streets and has the ability to change traffic lights in their favour. This discourages driving and subtly forces people to use the transport system. And because there is a distinct lack of cars in the city, the public transport service is excellent, so excellent that 91% of Swiss Parliament delegates take the tram to work. Can we say the same for the Irish Government? For The Minister for Transport?
Aris Venetikidis showed how a new system could be spread out to dilute the density of traffic for a more efficient service, but the Department of Transport certainly wouldn’t entertain the cost of this project, even though it would effectively solve all the issues with Dublin transport in the long-term. Shame. Certainly Dublin Bus made an effort to employ good graphic design, courtesy of Imagenow and Applied Information Graphics to create a better map:
But by not really showing Luas and DART connections this map only really is effective for bus users, and they have left out crucial cross-city routes. Also the city centre is very difficult to map. Transport for Ireland have included integrated transport, but struggle to relay routes through the city centre which is still rather confusing:
I however believe there is an effective system in existance. Having studied the transport system for the last month now, I believe focusing on where the system already links up, could provide an answer to the woes of transport customers. While I’m no engineer and cannot create a new system, I believe that by emphasising the stops/stations that have multiple transport choices like DART/Commuter, Luas and bus connections you can have better integration and fluidity. Why not make these the core routes for rush hour?
Transport for Ireland have provided such information before and Dublin Bus have a decent enough website and app to help people get around, but for me (a part-time user) and even someone who is new to the system, the system is still too complex. A recent example was a journey I took from Dun Laoghaire to Terenure. I had to plan the journey on the Dublin Bus website which gave the option to take the DART to Pearse Station and then the 15A to stop number 1101, made perfect sense. On the 15A I purposely didn’t ask the driver to notify me when we were at the stop (as I believe you shouldn’t have to) and didn’t have a smartphone that the time to help me either. Oh and I forgot to mention it was night time. Sure enough I missed the stop and ended up at the terminus, luckily not too far from where I was supposed to get off. Result: I can see why people drive… cost me over €5 to get lost. This could have been avoided had I been able to see where the stop was. Some but not many buses provide some kind of information screen/stop announcement.
With my final year project in college coming up I decided to take on the task of designing a way to help transport passengers. I believe modern-day technology can improve the experience for transport passengers and even encourage new users. What if the bus had some kind of augmented-reality screen which showed the route and possible changes at certain stops? What if you could use your smartphone/tablet to have this screen in your hand?
I also thought about improving the printed media at integrated stops and stations. Maybe more detailed, maybe less.
While still in development, I believe by only showing the integrated possibilities of the transport, it will improve majorly.
Stephen Willis Graphic Designer 
