Introducing a congestion charge would be a “big first step” towards cutting journey times, the Dublin Commuter Coalition has argued.
Commuters into the capital increasingly find that congestion has reduced their journey into work into an agonising crawl each morning.
A congestion charge has been credited with cutting traffic in London and the Dublin Commuter Coalition believes the Irish capital would benefit from one too.
On The Hard Shoulder, Dublin Commuter Coalition spokesperson Jason Cullen described Dublin is “one of the worst cities in the world for congestion”.
“Right now, we are tolling people to do the behaviours that we want them to do - which is to avoid the city,” he said.
“That's the M50 toll and the East Link toll bridge and obviously the Port Tunnel toll as well.
“Those bypass roads, we put fees on them and that financially encourages people to go through the city.
“Taking away those tolls would actually be a big first step to pull traffic out of the city that doesn’t necessarily need to be there.”
Traffic in Dublin. Picture by: Leah Farrell/ RollingNews.ie.Mr Cullen added that any congestion charge should be introduced alongside new public transport alternatives.
“Delivery of the Dart West, Dart South West, Metro, obviously, the Luas extensions - many of which have been pushed [on the long finger] by the current Minister for Transport and Government,” he said.
“The reason that congestion is building and building and building is because Government will not deliver the projects that they've already committed to.”
Mr Cullen concluded that if the Government delivered those public transport then commuters’ woes would be “eased significantly”.
Also on the programme, Dublin Town CEO Richard Guiney said he was “very frustrated” by congestion but disagreed with the idea of a congestion charge.
“I think a congestion charge on the city centre alone - without looking at the totality of the greater Dublin areas - in my view, wouldn't work,” he predicted.
“You've mentioned the M50 and I think if you have a congestion charge on the entry points into the city centre, you'd be encouraging people to basically drive their cars further distances, increasing emissions.”
Main image: Severe traffic delays on the South Quays in Dublin city centre. Picture by: Sam Boal/Rollingnews.ie
