21st Century (2000–present)

Dublin BusConnects

2017– · Ireland · Northern Europe · Transit-oriented urbanism and corridor planning · Planned by NTA Ireland
Aerial view of Dublin, the city being reorganised by the BusConnects network redesign.
Aerial view of Dublin, the city being reorganised by the BusConnects network redesign. · CC BY-SA 3.0

Core idea

Core bus corridors + redesign

Why it matters

Big bus network transformation

Description

A programme launched by Ireland's National Transport Authority in 2017 to overhaul Dublin's bus system, the workhorse of the city's public transport. It comprises a complete redesign of the route network into a high-frequency 'spine' system, the construction of core bus corridors with continuous bus lanes and segregated cycle tracks along the main radial roads, new fares, ticketing and fleet electrification. Network redesign drew on international practice in frequency-based planning and was rolled out in phases from 2021.

Significance

BusConnects is one of Europe's largest bus-led urban mobility transformations, significant for showing that a bus network — rather than rail megaprojects — can be the primary instrument of transit reform in a mid-sized capital. The corridor schemes provoked intense disputes over front gardens, trees and road space reallocation, making the programme a case study in the politics of retrofitting bus priority into a low-density, historically car-oriented city.

What shaped it

Sources

Open it on the interactive timeline →
hub.toekom.st — History of Urbanism · an interactive timeline of 850 planned cities across 6,000 years.