Belfast gridlock: John O’Dowd needs to get a move on - The Irish News view

In a novel but entirely unconvincing approach to solving Belfast’s record-breaking traffic congestion, infrastructure minister John O’Dowd believes part of the answer lies in giving more cars access to bus lanes. It is impossible to understand how this can do anything other than make bus journeys even longer and more unreliable than they already are.

Mr O’Dowd, who is inclined to brush off even mild criticism, has yet to offer a plausible explanation for why inviting all taxis into bus lanes is a good idea. A so-called pilot scheme will allow taxis to use the bus lanes around the new Grand Central Station and will, he says, support the taxi industry.

It is unclear why the department feels the need to support the taxi industry to this extent, especially in the environs of the much-vaunted £340 million bus and train station Mr O’Dowd himself helped to open just weeks ago. Finding ways to support public transport would make more sense.

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If Grand Central is to stand a chance of becoming the transport hub that persuades more commuters out of their cars and on to buses and trains, Mr O’Dowd and his department should be keeping bus lanes for, as the name suggests, buses.

The speed with which the infrastructure department has moved to get taxis into bus lanes is in contrast with its feeble endeavours to pedestrianise Hill Street in the Cathedral Quarter, a task which bizarrely continues to elude it.

There are some relatively straightforward measures that could help ease the traffic flow. Enforcing parking restrictions and the rules around yellow boxes at busy junctions would make positive differences, for example.

If more drivers are to be persuaded out of their cars and on to public transport, Mr O’Dowd should be keeping bus lanes for, as the name suggests, buses

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More imagination around encouraging more people to use public transport - rather than taxis or their own cars - is needed. Rather than put its energies into facilitating taxis, why doesn’t the department experiment with pilot schemes around, for example, free fares for a week or every Tuesday, when congestion is typically worst? Translink’s plan to operate late night bus and train services in the run-up to Christmas is a welcome move, but couldn’t it be extended?

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The draft programme for government includes a commitment to “safer, more active and sustainable travel”, but it is hard to divine where cycling fits in with Mr O’Dowd’s enthusiasm for taxis. Indeed, it’s difficult to make the case that cycling is in any sense towards the top of the department’s priorities.

These are not trivial matters. There are significant social and economic costs to being stuck in traffic, whether you are in your own car, sat on a bus or in a taxi. It’s time to get moving towards a sustainable solution.