A battle between the past and the future is playing out in Dún Laoghaire. Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council, which has done an amazing job at reclaiming and reinvigorating the seafront, now aims to introduce a plan to re-energize the centre of the south county Dublin town, redirecting cars away from the main street and reducing traffic on the adjacent streets. This is the future. Councillors will vote on the plan once public submissions have been reviewed.

There is no urban planning manual anywhere in the world that argues for more cars in towns and cities. In urban transport, the car represents the past. A car-dependent town, where the streets are clogged up with parked cars taking up valuable public space, and traffic creating noise and pollution, has been consigned with Starsky and Hutch to the 1970s. The council is on the right side of history here. While it is possible to sympathise with disaffected drivers who want to use Dún Laoghaire as a rat run into town, personal disaffection is no substitute for urban planning.

For the rest of the country, other Irish town centres trying to figure out how to organise themselves for the years ahead, what happens in the next few weeks in Dún Laoghaire could serve as a blueprint. The core of the plan aims to reclaim the streets of Dún Laoghaire – a sort of “people before bonnet” movement, which repossesses public space for people, space that right now is occupied by giant SUV bonnets, many parked, others passing through.

Streets that are populated are safer, people act as protectors and witnesses, policing each other by our very presence. Living streets are safer streets

The plan for green spaces, vibrant walking neighbourhoods and a form of urban living that is the norm in continental Europe but has been denied us by a combination of the car lobby, inertia and Nimbyism, can be cut and pasted for........

© The Irish Times