Crawling through the sprawl : commuting patterns, urban form and public transport in Dublin

The process of residential sprawl and accompanying car dependence has become irreversible, to the point where the case for further investment in expensive urban public transport systems has been undermined. Investments in facilities such as LUAS are taking place in parts of the Greater Dublin Area with static or declining population. Bus-based public transport looks much better value for our capital city. At the same time, the Government’s planned decentralisation of 10,300 public sector jobs will simply add to the existing rapid population growth of many towns - some of which are already dormitory suburbs for Dublin - and will do nothing to reduce car dependency.