Evaluating the impact on noise levels of a ban on private cars in Dublin city centre, Ireland

Dublin’s city centre is the primary destination in the Dublin region for shopping, employment and education. Public transport services in the area have experienced significant time delays throughout peak periods of the day due to severe traffic congestion. In an effort to alleviate traffic congestion and increase the efficiency of public transport in the area, a ‘bus gate’ was introduced to one particularly sensitive area in the city centre. The scheme restricts private vehicles from accessing the area during peak traffic hours. It was hoped that this scheme would result in significant journey time-savings for public transport users and would also result in reduced noise pollution in the city centre from the removal of through traffic. This paper aims to quantify the effect the ‘bus gate’ has had on noise levels in the area. Noise levels were monitored prior to and after the introduction of the scheme and the extent to which the scheme impacted on the noise levels was thus evaluated. The study also estimates the impact extending the ban would have on noise exposure levels in Dublin city centre.