Everybody who has to commute in Dublin during the morning rush hour will most likely share the following experience: Traffic congestion. As thousands of cars simultaneously pour from the suburban periphery into the centre, they inevitabely start to clog up in the Dublin streets.

The amount of cars fluctuates, just as the numbers of passenger on the morning bus. Sometimes you get a seat. Sometimes the traffic jam already starts in the suburbs. Then the commute takes upwards of one hour.

If the traffic is already slow when you start your morning commute in the suburbs, you know you are in trouble. Because the worst part of the bus commute only starts once you reach the centre.

Dublin is an old city. It never got bombed or razed like some continental European cities. While this has preserved much of it's historical structure and walkability, it also means that most streets are rather narrow. Most of Dublin stems from a time, it seems to me, when individually owned and driven cars were not the number one mode of urban transport.

What this means, is that the city is prone congestion. Dublin is a growing and since most buildings are low-rise, the city has spread into suburbs around the rather small urban core. In these suburbs you find an endless maze of two storey row-houses with their own parking spaces and small backyards. Most of these homes are partitioned into halfs. Apartment buildings with more than two floors do not seem very prominent.

What happens is that all these people living in the suburbs have to drive into the centre to work,every day. All of them have to funnel there through narrow streets, busses stuck in the middle of them.

While there are bus lanes, they do not alleviate the problem that there simply is too much traffic for the width of the streets. Especially when you hit the road running into the city next to the river Liffey, this becomes apparent. This road is one of the main traffic arteries of the inner city and usually turns into one giant traffic jam in the morning.

Bus after bus pours onto the road, blocking each other as they stop at the side of the street to let out their passengers.

There are tram lines under construction. But will this really help stopping the congestion? It is definitely a first step, but a much more extensive net of public transport not consisting of busses suceptible to traffic jams, is needed.

After voicing this many complaints, I just want to mention: I do not dislike Dublin. Quite the opposite. Taking a bus in the morning is just somewhat of an annoyance.

I should probably fix my bike or start taking the train more often.

See you!