Potential for €10 congestion charge, parking increases of 400% and a 20kmh reduction in speed limits

Thelonious Monk

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120320122#Comment_120320122

None of the measures would affect people driving to Gorey etc. to purchase groceries, I would imagine this is mostly Dublin related.

cnocbui

Emigrate.

ednwireland

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120320087#Comment_120320087

I've never seen a decent muppett to vote for up here in 26 years. I think everyone's given, the reason sf are so strong is that other parties just thought they could keep picking up there traditional vote no one else has ever bothered seriously campaigning.

could have built all the new roads to be wide enough to take light rail / trams you would have tullaghan to donegal town/the gap available for rail now.

the n2 link to letterkenny got wiped out with recession/ institutions collapsed in the North.

we did have green candidate but she went off to live on a commune.

all old raillines are due to be turned into greenways.

I wouldn't be so sure these sort of measures won't keep to the main cities.

Flinty997

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120320091#Comment_120320091

That's because must people won't switch until they have no other choice.

I'll will agree the available alternatives could be better. It's improving though.

whisky_galore

Another Eamonn Ryan brainfart, all sticks and no carrots. Let's punish people and not give them viable alternatives anyway.

He's not passing up the Paddy's Day junket either, do as I say, not as I do seems to be his mantra.

magicbastarder

it's pretty much just kite-flying at the moment, a 'these are possible options open to us'.

i probably could look it up, but i wonder how many people drive their private car into the city centre anymore. it'd affect them (and since nothing is set in stone, it may be rush hour specific)

the problem with things like this is that the people who benefit (bus passengers, etc.) essentially have no voice. you could add ten minutes to each journey of 1,000 motorists, and in doing so save 10 minutes each of 10k PT users, and it's the motorists whose voices will be heard.

re the story of driving around donegal, i doubt the congestion charge or parking would be affected, as i believe usually when they talk about raising parking fees, it's spaces on public roads they are referring to.

namloc1980

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120320038#Comment_120320038

Every single political party in the Dail voted in favour of the Climate Act in 2021. Every single one. It passed 129-10. Every single party had climate change actions in their last manifesto for the 2020 election. Were you not paying attention for who you voted for and what they stood for? It is readily arguable that measures like these are one of the few things that all political parties actually agree on.

This was on the SF manifesto in 2020 "...much greater priority should be given to these modes [bus lanes, cycles lanes] over private car use".

CalamariFritti

If you introduce such measure before creating viable alternatives you're not only going to piss people off but you're also putting basically all city retail and gastronomy businesses out of business.

Especially when you make it unaffordable to live in the city at the same time.

I mean what's idea here? Don't live in the city but do business in the city but close all ways off to actually get there?

Thelonious Monk

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120320189#Comment_120320189

yes because people drive into dublin in the evenings to go for dinner lol. also who drives into town to go shopping these days? if you're driving you go to shopping malls with their huge car parks.

Flinty997

I think because Eamonn is a red flag to a bull for most people, any half reasonable initiative is thrown out with the dishwater..

Thelonious Monk

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120320201#Comment_120320201

we can only hope that he can get as many things as possible over the line that can't be rolled back on before the next government is formed

CalamariFritti

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120320197#Comment_120320197

But is that what we really want? I know we want to reduce individual traffic, but do we want empty cities?

Podge_irl

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120320091#Comment_120320091

If it was easier to take a bus I’d take a bus. Most people would.

The fact there is such a high proportion of car journeys that are <5km, or <2km, suggests otherwise however.

Even with current price points, a significant number of people continue to choose to drive into and around cities when there are, in fact, other options available.

Anyway, these proposals will all change but a congestion charge and parking cost increase/reduction in parking I would broadly support.

Podge_irl

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120320207#Comment_120320207

Empty of cars, as much as possible, yes.

This "turning places into ghost towns" thing is rolled out every, single time restrictions on private cars are suggested and when the restrictions go forward it is shown to be fear-mongering nonsense every single time. People massively overestimate the proportion of shoppers/diners who come via private car. Probably because we have given over so much space in our cities to them and it seems like there are more of them than there are.

Thelonious Monk

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120320207#Comment_120320207

I'm not following you at all

Kimbot

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120319888#Comment_120319888

Since your giving it away already, throw some my way :P

archermoo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120320092#Comment_120320092

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120320098#Comment_120320098

Sure, sucks to be you but at least it is better for me is an easy position to take. I mean why bother making things better for everyone?

Currently the N7 is packed every day for the commute. You'd think that people interested in getting climate change under control might be interested in getting some of them off the road. Just making it more expensive for them isn't going to get many of them off the road. Giving them a viable alternative might.

Thelonious Monk

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120320232#Comment_120320232

well there's all sorts of things in the works to improve public transport, i would imagine they're not going to impose all these new measures at once

redlough

This is a proposal

"One Fine Gael source said the suggestions are “as of now, nothing but options”.

Another said “it is modelling, not policy.”

For this to be implemented it would need to go to a vote and for the majority to approve it, so complaining about Eamonn Ryan doing his job and coming up with proposals is a bit odd.

If he wasn't coming up with option what would you say then?

The word "mandate" seems to be confusing a lot of people online. Every TD that is elected has a mandate for the people that voted them in.

The plan would see priority given to public transport, cycling and walking, as part of Government aims to give people viable alternatives to using the car for every journey.

No matter what the complaints on I think we should all agree the following should be implemented, especially in cities

Oscar_Madison

All well and good if you live within cycling or walking distance of your workplace and you have a 9-5 or even a flexi time arrangement in work, as many of the Green Party do - for the rest of the unfortunates it’s just placing even more financial burdens on to them - not everyone can afford to live close to cities and their workplaces.

This is a distraction blaming car drivers when in fact the real issue is pizz poor public transport services which couldn’t even cater for a fraction of the increased numbers if just a few left their cars at home

Macy0161

People: There's no alternative, where's the carrot?

Also People: You can't take out a few trees/ lose a bit of some peoples gardens/ put in a rail line/ take a bit of Stephen's Green for PT.

People still go on about the crusties in the Glen O'The Downs, when the most effective opposition we have in this State is the middle classes objecting to mass public transport options. And then moan about a lack of alternatives as an excuse as why they need to be able to drive.

Wildly Boaring

I still don't understand the complete lack of park and ride facilities around the M50.

I went to college over 20 years ago and in college did a course that was basically Transport 101 and on the first day was shown how park and ride facilities are a fundamental to enabling decent transport systems in cities.

In Cork the Black Ash parking is perfect for that whole side of the city and most of the centre is also walkable. 2 or 3 more identical facilites and Cork becomes very handy for a lot of peoples.

Why do the N roads into Dublin not have parking and a QBC or Luas to the city?

M7 does, just about. Nothing at all Northside (Dunboyne Train station?) that I know of. Anything Southside?

We have a very dispersed population, with little or no public transport system from most villages and a planning disaster allowing one-off houses everywhere.

We then have a city without a coordinated transport system. And every bloody route going through the city centre.

Every bus in is some sort of wanderly wagon of a journey and then get a LUAS/Bus. It's over an hour to get to anywhere beyond O'Connell Street.

A full Bus Connects with proper Spines could eliminate a lot of the messing. But where do we leave the car at the M50?

Flinty997

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120320207#Comment_120320207

We know that footfall generally increases where traffic is moved away from city centres and shopping areas.

There enough places that have done it now to know empty cities doesn't happen.

redlough

The NTA modelling, details of which were reported on Sunday by the Business Post, outlines a series of measures required for reaching the transport sector’s climate targets, including a 400 per cent increase in parking charges on 2016 levels, a €10 daily charge for driving in cities, a halving of public transport fares, and a 20 kilometre per hour reduction on all national road speed limits.

The 400% increase is based on 2016 levels. That's a bit odd, just pick a year with a nice round number on it and a large increase, so what would the increase be on current levels?

Oscar_Madison

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120320232#Comment_120320232

M7 and M4 are choc full everyday simply because there’s no viable alternative - cities like London Paris and many others have underground tubes to navigate around the city- we have nothing comparable - the Luas serves Dublin people and can barely cope now at peak times - there’s absolutely no viable alternative to the madness that is the commute on these routes

redlough

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120320265#Comment_120320265

If you are in a city, it will be cheaper to use public transport than owning and maintenance of a car.

Buses and trains run all the time, why would you need flexi time?

Why would only Green party have flexi time?

Fred Cryton

What a depressing vision for the country to have us dependent on rubbish Irish public sector led public transportation. Like worker peasants in Romania during communist times when no-one could afford a car. It's such a backwards, anti-development step that clearly reduces our standard of living and our choice about how we move around and where we move to - shooting oneself in the foot comes to mind due to green brainwashing. Honestly the Greens are worse than SF and I never thought I'd say it. At least SF are populist and therefore not massively ideological.

redlough

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120320294#Comment_120320294

More people on public transport means more investment in bus/train/luas services. I expect that is part of proposal on how to beef up these services to cater

Thelonious Monk

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120320304#Comment_120320304

lol, not needing to own a car should be seen as a massive boost to our standard of living, not the other way around

redlough

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120320304#Comment_120320304

Removing public transport like the trams and trains was the backward step Ireland made. We should have kept the infrastruture in place and now we are trying to rebuild.

Moving the population onto a good public transport system is the most forward step Ireland could ever make, we are a joke at the moment now compared to every country in the World that you can't even jump on a train from the airport