Road charging in Dublin must be resisted

Road charging - the controversial system of paying to enter a designated area within a city - operates in Oslo and Singapore and is due to be introduced in London in the near future. John Loughran asks: could Dublin be next on the list?

The notion of paying for the privilege to drive into Dublin city seems absolutely absurd, doesn't it. It is bureaucracy gone crazy. Just imagine having to pay in excess of £5 every time you enter a ring around O'Connell Street bounded by the M50 and the canals.

Crazy as the idea seems, it is being considered by Transport Minister Seamus Brennan as a method of alleviating chronic traffic congestion in the capital. The logic behind this controversial proposal is simple.
If motorists are charged for the privilege of entering the capital, they may switch to an alternative form of transport rather than pay the toll. The steeper the charge the more motorists will switch or so the thinking goes. Those who are willing to pay the charge would be rewarded with less delays and shorter travel times.

Truckers reading this with no more than a passing interest should sit up and take notice. Road charging if it ever comes to pass will be applied to commercial vehicles of all sizes as well as the general motoring public.
From a road haulage perspective road charging would be perceived as yet another layer of tax on the industry. It would add to most hauliers’ operating costs and there is no guarantee that it could be recouped from the customer.

Some time ago the Government commissioned Oscar Faber Consultants to examine the possibility of road charging as a means of alleviating traffic gridlock in the capital. In their report the consultants recommended a fixed charge for motorists entering an area inside the M50 and the canals. The report claimed delays could be cut by up to 25 per cent, while travel times could be shortened by up to 17 per cent.
To facilitate road charging 18 tollbooths on bridges and access roads could be put in place, the report suggested.

The concept of road charging in the capital is fundamentally flawed for a number of very obvious reasons. Leaving the HGV issue aside for the moment, the lack of viable alternatives to the private car means that most motorists have very little choice in how they get into and out of the city.

The DART is already full to overflowing. Dublin's bus service is still unreliable. Despite deregulation it is still hard to get a taxi and the LUAS line won’t be completed for at least another 18 months. There are always the healthy alternatives of walking or cycling into the city. In a nutshell, Dublin's public transport system just isn't up to scratch.
For the concept of road charging to work, there must be a realistic alternative for the private motorist. In the absence of a real alternative, motorists will be forced to use their cars to go about their business. To charge them for the privilege just adds salt to the wounds.

Oslo, Singapore and London all have efficient public transport systems, which lend themselves to the notion of road charging. Dublin does not and until such time as Dublin has a modern, efficient and effective public transport system, the consultants' report should be put back on the shelf to gather dust.
If the road charging debate ever gathers pace, the road haulage community should oppose it at every juncture. The road haulage community pays countless millions to the exchequer in the form of "road tax" every year. This tax goes into general coffers and only a small percentage actually ends up in roads.
To add another layer of tax for the privilege of driving on ill kept, badly designed and over-congested roads in the capital is an affront to the industry. It smacks of "penalise those smelly truckers and keep them out of our city".

When completed, the Dublin Port Tunnel will take a huge number of HGV's out of the city. It could have taken even more, if the road haulage industry had been consulted at the design stage, but that is an issue for another day. The bottom line is that truckers operating in Dublin have a legitimate reason for being there and should not be penalised because of the inadequacies of the capital's infrastructure.
Road charging - from the haulier's point of view - is actually a tax on distribution and should be thwarted at every possible opportunity. If it ever saw the light of day in Dublin, it wouldn't be long until it was introduced in every urban centre in the country.

The introduction of such a tax would also have a negative impact on Ireland's competitive position and organisations such as IBEC, the SFA, ISME and the IFA would not doubt oppose it.
The road charging debate reared its ugly head at a major transport conference organised by Dublin City Council recently. Transport Minister Seamus Brennan said he would examine the option of road charging if gridlock in the capital worsened.

However, he said his first priority is to invest more in road infrastrutucure and public transport, before visiting the road charging issue. Let us all hope he is a man of his word.