Office of Public Works announces the launch of the Phoenix Park Parking Strategy
The Office of Public Works is developing a parking strategy for the Phoenix Park. The Park is enjoyed by over ten million visitors each year. The OPW wants your views on how to encourage our visitors to choose more sustainable travel, such as by cycle or walking, when visiting the Park. We understand that to make the Park more inclusive for all visitors, some visitors will need to drive to the Park. We need to ensure that our parking provision can facilitate all visitors. The first phase is an online survey which we encourage everyone to complete. This is to inform the development of a parking strategy. The draft of the strategy will be published in the autumn.
The OPW has appointed consultants (Systra) to develop this parking strategy for the Phoenix Park. In order to develop an inclusive strategy, we are inviting everyone with an interest in the Park to take part in this online survey. This strategy will identify the key issues, challenges and opportunities for parking within and adjacent to the Phoenix Park. There will also be engagement with key stakeholders located within and in the vicinity of the Phoenix Park to understand their views regarding cycle and car parking and any associated issues and opportunities. It is expected that the parking strategy will primarily be focused on measures related to visitor cycle and car parking, particularly for visitors with mobility issues to ensure that they can visit the Park.
As a first stage, a public survey will run from Wednesday, 15 June to Friday, 8 July 2022 online at https://www.systra.ie/en/phoenix-park-survey. The feedback to this survey will help develop the parking strategy.
Announcing the launch of the first phase of the Phoenix Park Parking Strategy, Minister O’Donovan said: “The Phoenix Park is a national amenity much loved both by people in and outside Dublin. I would encourage all visitors – both from the local community as well as those of us for whom a visit to the Phoenix Park might be a rarer occasion and part of a special trip to Dublin – to give us feedback on how you get to the Phoenix Park and what you factor into your travel plans. The more information we have directly from our visitors, the better our parking strategy will reflect and meet their requirements, so I would like to ask everyone to complete the online survey over the next three weeks.”
A further non-statutory public consultation period will take place in late autumn 2022 to seek the public’s views on the draft parking strategy.
-ENDS-
For further information, please see www.phoenixpark.ie or contact the Press Office at pressoffice@opw.ie.
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Notes to Editors
- The Phoenix Park is located at the western edge of Dublin City Centre, just north of the River Liffey. The parkland extends to over 700ha and is enclosed by 11km of perimeter wall. It is a historic, natural and cultural landscape of significant international importance. At the same time, it is a diverse recreational space enjoyed by millions of visitors.
- The Phoenix Park has in excess of 25km of roads, 17km of cycle lanes and 27km of footpaths.
- The Office of Public Works (OPW) has appointed Transport Consultants Systra to develop a parking strategy for the Phoenix Park, advancing one of the key recommendations that emerged from the Phoenix Park Transport and Mobility Options Study Post-Consultation Report published by Minister of State with responsibility for the Office of Public Works, Mr Patrick O’Donovan TD, in July 2021.
- The Phoenix Park Transport and Mobility Options Study Post Consultation Report sets out a series of recommendations for how park visitors will access, experience and move within the Phoenix Park while protecting the public and park environment. It makes a number of recommendations to reduce commuter traffic and speed, to increase the cycling and pedestrian opportunities and to provide for limited public transport. It also takes into account the complex issues the Park presents given the multiple and competing users of the space. The report can be accessed at the following link: https://assets.gov.ie/179953/49e35d57-4037-4dca-b161-e2370b4cb768.pdf.
