More multipoint tolling on the chronic M50 is the best way to relieve congestion, a transport expert has suggested. 

The motorway has been described as “officially maxed out” with an average of 160,000 vehicles using it on a daily basis. 

It all means that the M50 is slow at the best of times and even minor accidents can trigger significant delays. 

On Newstalk Breakfast, Trinity Professor Brian Caufield cautioned that adding extra lanes would solve the problem in the long-term. 

“As soon as we finished the M50, the first thing we did was widen in,” he explained. 

“That resulted in congestion; about 10 years ago, there was a report published by TII that said the best way to alleviate congestion on that road was to do multipoint tolling. 

“In terms of building another road, the two options that are being floated around are an outer orbital. There is some merit to having some strategic link, say, between the M4 and the N3 - that might alleviate some of the congestion. 

“The other one was to build the eastern bypass, which would be a motorway that would essentially go under Dublin Bay.” 

An exit road at Junction 12 of the M50 with heavy traffic. Picture by: RollingNews.ie. 

Professor Caufield added that building extra lanes or another motorway would simply mean “kicking the can down the road a couple of years”. 

“Over time, people see this road is quicker,” he said. 

“People then move their trips and people move houses as well because they can live further away and they can travel at the same time. 

“Over a number of years, the demand for the road increases to such a point that the congestion is often worse than it was prior to the new road.” 

The only solution, Professor Caufield continued, is to build more public transport infrastructure. 

“We do need to build public transport,” he said. 

“And the plan that came out there last week, cancelled or pushed along a lot of public transport projects that would alleviate the congestion on the M50 further down the road.” 

The M50 motorway in Dublin. Picture by: Peter Cavanagh / Alamy Stock Photo.

In the meantime, Professor Caulfield noted there are a number of short-term remedies that could help commuters. 

“A couple of the solutions will be to have more accident patrols on the M50 because when an accident happens, we have knock-on impacts and that can last for a large amount of time,” he said. 

“The second thing we could do is have bus based park and rides; so, look at where people are travelling into the city. 

“The other option, which they looked at a decade ago, is to have multipoint tolling. 

“Currently on the M50, less than 40% of people that use it actually pay for it on that toll. 

“What a multipoint toll would do would spread the… toll[s] across right across the M50 and in their modelling, it shows it would reduce the amount of congestion on the M50.” 

Professor Caulfield added that more incentives to work from home would also reduce congestion. 

Main image: A man collects toll payments on the M50. Picture by: Mark Stedman/RollingNews.ie.