As reported yesterday, the rollout of the Dublin City Centre traffic plan starts this Sunday with bus gates at OConnell Bridge, but on the eve of the changes, theres still a lot of misinformation circulating. Heres myth buster:CLAIM: Cars will be banned from the city centre.Thats false! The city centre is the area between the canals, and the changes are mainly limited to the core city centre. But even in the core city centre, local access is being maintained.CLAIM: Most city centre businesses will close.Thats false! Different traffic surveys and shopper surveys show that most people coming into the city centre do not do so by car, especially in the core city centre. For those who still want to or need to use cars, access to all of the car parks and the central on-street parking is being maintained.CLAIM: Disabled people will not be able to access the city centre.Thats false! People with disabilities are a wide range of people and use various modes of transport, including walking, wheelchairs, mobility devices, bicycles, trams, buses, personal cars driven by others or themselves and taxis.For those using cars, access to all of the car parks and the central on-street parking is being maintained, and Dublin City Council is not planning to reduce the disabled parking bay. Most places in the city centre can be accessed without using the quays near OConnell Bridge, and many trips through the area are already quicker by avoiding Bachelors Walk.For those using buses and trams, their trips will be more reliable, and it will be less likely that somebody who is disabled will be left waiting at a bus or tram stop or waiting longer than needed on a tram or bus.CLAIM: There was no public consultation. Thats false! There was public consultation, which was one of the most widely covered public consultations by the media. It was followed by more in-depth consultation with disability groups, businesses, and business groups that requested it. ALSO READ: Lets be honest: People can disagree with Dublins traffic plan, but anybody who didnt hear about it was living under a rock.CLAIM: Cars have to go somewhere, traffic will just move to other streets.Thats false! Following a similar level of changes across the last 20 years, traffic data shows that there has been a 48% evaporation of cars entering Dublin City Centres streets at peak times. So, there is both local and international evidence that traffic evaporation is a real thing.The critical thing is that evidence shows that people can and have switched from making trips by car to at least making some trips by walking, cycling, or using public transport. CLAIM: It will increase congestion and air pollution.Thats false! While people against sustainable transport projects often make this claim, measures prioritising sustainable transport have been proven to reduce air pollution. For example, the promotion of sustainable transport and the reduction of space for cars in Paris is linked to a 65% decrease in NO2 emissions and a 36% decrease in PM. CLAIM: Public transport needs to be improved first and Its the cart before the horse.Thats a circular argument! Improving public transport is at the core of the transport plan, so these arguments basically amount to saying that you have to improve public transport before you take action to improve public transport. Its a circular argument which makes no sense.More people than ever are using buses now, and the frequency of many routes has been improved. As part of the BusConnects roll-out, more routes will be improved within weeks. Action is needed to improve bus priority.CLAIM: MetroLink and/or Dart expansion is needed firstThats false! While this is a bit subjective, were talking about 200 private vehicles per hour on Bachelors Walk on the north quays and 390 vehicles per hour on Burgh Quay on the south quays. Even combined with further changes as part of the plan, were not talking about metro-level changes.MetroLinks capacity is around 20,000 passengers per hour. For context, the existing passenger carrying capacity of a single Green Line tram is 408 people per tram, and for buses, its around 80-100 people per Dublin Bus.The capacity increases needed to accommodate the changes are closer to what is being provided by the current BusConnects rollout of more frequent bus routes. Additional intercity rail services have been added, and new carriages are being added to Intercity and long-distance railcars.