The Department of Transport has published its latest draft national transport policy, and while nothing is yet enshrined in law, and while the Department says that the proposed programme “does not contain a prescriptive series of actions” it looks very much as if congestion charging is on the way for Ireland.
Car-dependent culture
The new draft policy, 'Moving Together: A Strategic Approach to Improving the Efficiency of Ireland's Transport System,' aims to alleviate the economic and social costs of congestion and car dependence in tandem with investment and scale-up in public transport, active travel and EV infrastructure. The aim is to reduce congestion and provide a national transport system that works for all.
The draft plan calls for “road space reallocation, progressive taxation, freight efficiency, or behavioural incentives” to encourage people to reduce their use of private cars and move to public transport and active travel as much as possible. The Department appears to recognise that this will be easier to do at first in the major urban areas. In spite of recent investment in local rural public transport schemes, rural areas will have to wait.
While the draft plan is very much aimed at curbing car use and encouraging more public transport use, the Department says that it does recognise that: “the car will remain the dominant mode of transport for many people for a variety of reasons, particularly in more rural areas. It is also mindful of the needs of people for whom the car is the only viable transport choice - called ‘captive car-users’.” As such, the plan is more about encouragement at this stage, especially when many of the major public transport plans have yet to reach fruition.
Congestion costs
Mind you, the Department also says that none of those plans, nor the benefits of them, can reach fruition if we have to live with the current levels of traffic congestion. “Heavy traffic makes public transport less reliable, often discouraging people from using it, and makes the environment for vulnerable road users, such as pedestrians and cyclists, less safe, again leading people away from using active travel, particularly for shorter journeys” says the Department’s statement.
According to the Department, a recent OECD report shows Ireland’s transport system requires systemic transformation to reverse a car-centric model which has dominated planning and settlement patterns for decades (at least there seems to be a recognition there that peoples’ car usage doesn’t happen in a vacuum - it’s been driven over the years by planning policy as much as anything). The recent National Household Travel Survey 2022 (NHTS) reported that almost seven in ten (69 per cent) journeys in Ireland are made by car, with trips of less than three kilometres accounting for over a third (35 per cent) of all journeys nationally.
The draft plan sets out 35 recommendations, which include more transport demand management; creating a ‘polluter pays’ taxation principle - which definitely sounds like a flag pointing to congestion charges for city driving; giving local authorities the ability to tailor plans to their specific needs; creating a more efficient freight and haulage sector - which includes phasing out tax-claim-back on diesel fuels; and working with sectors from business to sports to help mould the demand management side of things.
Congestion charging has proven successful in other parts of the world, especially London where - whatever its effect on traffic levels has been (such levels are apparently only down by 8.7 per cent compared to pre-charge levels) - it has raked in cash for the government, topping €1 billion per year. That would certainly help balance the Exchequer’s books as motor tax starts to decrease, as would an equalising of taxes on petrol and diesel — another recommendation in the draft. Beyond that, a working group is being established in the Department of Finance to figure out replacement taxes for the motoring sector, including a potential weight-based tax.
Individual towns and cities will be allowed to implement congestion charges as they see fit, but in order that it is not seen as a tax which could decimate city centres, plans are also afoot to bring in parking levies for out-of-town shopping centres. At current rates, congestion is predicted to cost the economy € 2 billion annually by 2040.
Meanwhile, there are also recommendations about insurance - including lower premiums for lower mileage drivers, and cheaper insurance products for local car-pooling services, as well as a potential for an increased reliance on ‘black box’ driver monitors - although the draft plan does note that there are significant privacy and data issues with such devices.
Urban planning
Speaking at the launch of the new draft policy, Minister for Transport Eamon Ryan said: “Ireland, like many countries, embraced the car, particularly over the past four decades, as our main way to get around our country. The number of licenced vehicles in the country increased by 215 per cent from 1985 to 2021, with a massive increase of over 1.5 million private cars over that time frame. To accommodate this, we systematically re-allocated space to the car through our urban planning and road-building programmes.
“But, instead of giving us freedom and saving us time, too many cars on the road has brought about the very opposite effect. Instead of giving us reliability and getting to our destinations quickly, we are wasting hours sitting in traffic. Congestion is not working for anyone. It’s not working for car users. It’s not working for people reliant on public transport. It’s not working for people who want to walk or cycle. It’s not working for the environment.
“This strategy is a critical piece in the decarbonising jigsaw for transport, but its benefits are much wider than climate. It is about re-imagining and re-allocating our use of space, and about putting people, rather than cars, at the centre of our urban and transport planning, ensuring better and more liveable towns and cities. This does not mean that cars will not continue to be a vital part of our transport mix - for many people, particularly in rural or isolated areas, they will continue to be critical. However, what this strategy is about is finding new approaches to making travel, by whatever means, more efficient and pleasant for everybody.”
The draft plans will be brought to cabinet shortly, and a public consultation will open in April.