An end to free parking?

And the ones who have no choice and are already faced with the nosebleed costs of owning a car in this country.....what about them? They'll just have to take it, will they? They're acceptable collateral damage as long as a few who could get the bus, but don't, are forced into doing so, are they? Or those who work outside the hrs suitable for PT? Just suck it up, eh?

"Hey, we know you can't get public transport because there's none out your way, and you're already paying through the fcuking nose for the car, VRT, NOX, fuel, maintenance, tax and insurance.....so here's an extra tax bill on €5k BIK that we just pulled out of our asses. Never mind that the country's biggest transport provider CIE charge €3.50 per day for parking, we'll use the most expensive parking meters in the country as our barometer for how much it costs."

Even those with access to trains etc are hampered by the crappy service. Need to commute along the Waterford line? Enjoy getting up at 5am. Or have to travel from Gorey because the housing situation is FUBAR?** The only train that arrives (in Heuston, remember) before 9.30 leaves Gorey before 6am. So that's minimum 2.5hrs travel each way by PT (and that's excluding the time taken to get to/from the train station) vs 1h 15mins by car, if you're lucky enough to get a parking spot. Then, you are lucky enough to get back to Gorey for 7.30pm.

This BS is the just the Govt. passing the buck in the exact same way they did with the housing situation, pawning off responsibility to those who are already trapped in the clusterfcuk. Ask anyone who has to drive across the capital to get to/from work and I'd wager the vast, vast, VAST majority would change if they could.

The whole thing smacks of begrudgery, again......same as the extra half hr everyone was forced to work and same as the FEMPI legislation which weren't classed as pay cuts when they were being introduced but all-of-a-sudden counted as raises when being restored. Divide and conquer - "Get them fighting amongst each other and they'll forget it's us they should be angry at."

Interested to see your maths on this and how you came to that conclusion, instead of relaying on ill-informed speculation, which is the norm on Boards to be fair.

1. How many Civil/public servants are there in Dublin, and how many of them drive?
2. How many private sector workers are there in Dublin, and how many of THEM drive?
3. How many private car parking spaces are there in the capital vs the number of ones reserved for use by the PS?
4. If you don't know the above, how can you make the claim that it will affect one side more than the other?

**I've known at least ten people in this kind of situation in each of my last 3 jobs in the PS. At least 10. In one place there were so many coming from the same county they ended up organising a private coach each day, it was that much cheaper.

Its about demand management. Simply put, there is a greater demand for the road space than there is capacity if everyone drives so you can either go the route of the US where they built major multi-lane roads right through the center if the cities (which was only a short term fix and just led to congestion on those routes) or you can do the same as everywhere else, and introduce measures to quench the demand for space for the least efficient mode and prioritise the more efficient modes in terms of investment and access.

Are there viable alternatives everywhere? Nope and thats down to under-investment for decades and prioritising the car, but thats not a reason not to do it, its a reason to put even more investment into those alternatives. Measures such as the parking levy which just increase the volume of those demanding viable alternatives