About Us

Streets Are For People is a collective of community groups and volunteers: the Irish Pedestrian Network and Dublin Cycling Campaign, with the support of Extinction Rebellion Ireland.

On Saturday, 20th July 2019, our volunteers successfully opened up South William Street to people, by closing the street to motor traffic. With the resulting space available and an opportunity to linger, the street immediately became peaceful and welcoming street, and quickly filled with locals, tourists and workers of all ages and abilities.

We look forward to more opportunities to make streets for people in the city, with the ultimate aim of growing permanent, pedestrian streets in our city.

Principles

Our underlying principle is that our city should be an attractive place to live.

Our core messages are:

1. Streets are for people
2. We have a right to clean air
3. Our city should be an attractive place to be and to live

The compelling arguments to support this action have been made clear recently, and have been accepted by the general public:

• We are experiencing a public health emergency: Air pollution levels in our urban areas are unacceptably high and are directly impacting on public health.
• We are now living through a climate crisis: We must move away from unsustainable travel (i.e. private cars including electric vehicles).
• People want to live in attractive, healthy, and livable cities. That is not possible if our urban environments are dominated by cars. 
• Streets like South William Street should never have been given over to car domination in the first place, and they should have been returned to the use of people years ago. 

The action on South William Street was long overdue – and was only the beginning! Streets Are For People events will be organised on a regular basis until a rapid expansion of street pedestrianisation occurs in Dublin.

Context

In July 2019, Dublin has been reported as having one of the worst urban environments in the developed world across a number of dimensions:

• 6th most congested city in Europe.
• 3rd worst time spent in traffic for any city in Europe 
• Most of Dublin’s city streets have levels of Nitrogen Dioxide above EU legal levels
• 1,500 people die in Ireland annually as a result of over-exposure to air pollution, 
• In Ireland in 2018 there was a 32% increase in pedestrian fatalities as a result of road collisions.
• International cycling and liveable cities advocates described cycling in Dublin as a “brutal street battle”, and worse, while visiting for an international cycling conference.

Dublin City Council, the National Transport Authority and other state bodies have had many years and opportunities to take the city streets away from motorised vehicles and give them back to people, but continue to operate in a slow manner. Lengthy public consultations are favoured in an unrealistic attempt to build consensus, rather than pursuing evidence-based policy and listening to the will of the majority.

The people of Dublin, disenfranchised by bureacracy and “car is king” mentality, decided to take up the challenge to pedestrianise one of Dublin’s favourite urban places: South William Street (SWS).

Contact Us

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