Congestion Charge's

ando

As I've heard on SkyNews, anyone entering the centre of London in a vehical has to pay a £5 fine (congestion charge) or 7.48euro for the plesure of driving in the city centre. I can't believe this is the only solution. It will hit the hardest on the people that need to get into the city to work on a daily basis.

So, how long until Dublin gets the same charges? How long will it be until charges are applied to drive near the stiffy beside the liffy? My bet is that we'll have 'Plans' for dublin congestion charges in less than 6months if not sooner.

This thing would really pis$ me off, I have to get into city centre on most days to work in a company van

seamus

It's a good idea in theory. But it requires a lot of administration. The people you want to charge are those who are in the city centre, in a vehicle, when they don't necessarily have to be. So, you should give passes to company cars, goods vehicles, residents, and anyone else who absolutely must drive into the city centre at any time. Lot of hassle, but I don't know much about the London system.

It couldn't possibly function in Dublin, because there are no other viable alternatives in place. If you charge people for driving through the city centre, then the routes around the city centre will be jammed up with people avoiding the tax. If they attempted to bring it in, there would be riots. I seriously doubt they would.

Redshift

It's all part of the Government plan to get people out or their cars by levying penalties on Motorists for using their cars for which they already pay a small fortune in Tax and Insurance. It would be Interesting to see what would happen if people were forced to use Public transport al-la the Government wishes, I could see it quickly collapsing under the load any anybody who get's a train or bus in the morning knows what I'm talking about. People rapidly get hacked off with watching full busses and trains sail past them already over capicity. I'm sick to death of the Goverment harping on about how these new restrictions and bus lanes ect, have worked in other Countries, Sure they work but those Countries have installed Park and Ride facilites and made sure that the Public transport service is efficient and easily acessed before imposing restictions and more charges. Ireland is as usual putting the cart before the horse.

Red

Blitzkrieger

I think it's fooking awful. It seems the British and Irish goverment's solution to traffic congestion is to raise the cost of motoring until no1 can afford it. The truth is none of the politicians have a ****ing clue, and can't stand for people to learn this. Livingston will probably clap himself on the back for this.......until businesses in the city centre start losing loads of money.

Chimaera

Ok, I think it should be made quite clear at this stage that the Irish government have no plans to put a system like this in palce yet. They are I believe looking closely at the situation in the UK, and may introduce a similiar scheme at some point, but right now, they're not, and I don't think there's any point getting too worked up about it for the moment.

From the public transport point of view, the London transport authority have introduced an extra 300 buses, which should help somewhat, though they haven't done anything to increase capacity on the tube, which could be a disaster for them.

At the end of the day, I don't particularly like the idea of congestion charging, but I reckon only a fool would bet against it coming in at some stage in the next ten years.

Ba$tard

Why dont we get rid of all the phony directors on the FAI board who do absolutely NOTHING and use their fat salaries to pay for a fly-over for Kinsale & Sarsfield roundabout instead.


F\/cking retarted inefficent corrupt government ba$tards


Sorry...had to vent...

lemondrop

Anything for the government to get a bit of extra cash.....15c per bag, well thats not going to pay for their new planes!!!!!!

RoadRunner

does that fine effect motorbikes ?

seamus

Originally posted by RoadRunner
does that fine effect motorbikes ?

Not in London. But the Irish Government tend to consider motorbikes as another vehicle on the road :mad: instead of a cleaner, traffic reducing machine.

Only time will tell.

Victor

Is it me or are the main people who would be affected by the congestion charge, those people who drive around in flashy silver Merc.s and shop in Brown Thomas? "Poor" people don't park in the Stephen's Green Shopping Centre. Personally, I would fully support the area from Stephen's Green to Parnell Square and from Westland Row to Christchurch (the inner ring route) becoming very car unfriendly.

Dublin business group opposes congestion charge
From:ireland.com
Wednesday, 2nd April, 2003
16:39:36:

The Dublin City Business Association (DCBA) has rejected calls for the introduction of a London-style congestion charge for the capital.

Mr Derek Turner, London's transport director said last night that Dublin's "dire traffic problems" could be alleviated by introducing a congestion charge similar to London's.

Addressing members of the Statistical and Social Inquiry Society of Ireland in Dublin, he said the imposition of a £5 per day charge on motorists in central London had dramatically reduced traffic congestion.

Despite widespread scepticism about the effectiveness of the new charge, which was introduced on February 17th, Mr Turner said it had worked "far better than we thought" by reducing the volume of traffic on London's streets by 18-20 per cent.

But in a statement today the DCBA said congestion charging was "a tax on low income citizens and a cancer that will undermine job creation and economic development in the Dublin Region."

The Association points out that the London experience of a reduction of 20 per cent in congestion had already been achieved in Dublin City Centre as a result of "intelligent management policies without any wasteful investment in road charging".

"Irish investment in public transport will produce even better results than wasting taxpayer's money on spurious technology and consultant's reports," the statement adds.

Comments by Director of Traffic here: http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?s=&threadid=89723

Borzoi

Originally posted by Victor

as a result of "intelligent management policies without any wasteful investment in road charging".

"Irish investment in public transport will produce even better results than wasting taxpayer's money on spurious technology and consultant's reports," the statement adds.

I think this story was supposed to go out on 1/4

sceptre

The Association points out that the London experience of a reduction of 20 per cent in congestion had already been achieved in Dublin City Centre as a result of "intelligent management policies without any wasteful investment in road charging".

Likely to be the best laugh I'll have all day and it's not 10 yet.