A proposal to charge motorists a £3 "congestion tax" for driving into the centre of Dublin at peak periods has been described by the Automobile Association as utterly ridiculous and a further attempt to victimise car users.
The charge is among the principal recommendations of a study commissioned by the Department of the Environment from British transport consultants Oscar Faber. Their report is to be considered by the Cabinet today. For the past year, the consultants have been assessing the potential for introducing road pricing in Dublin to deal with what they called "the growing gap between travel demand and transport supply". Their report is to be published shortly.
However, there is nothing imminent about imposing a £3 charge for crossing the canal cordon, according to Mr John Henry, director of the Dublin Transportation Office.
"We must have a big improvement in public transport before it could be justified," he said.
Road pricing was a means of curtailing car traffic so that traffic levels in the city became more sustainable, Mr Henry explained. "It can only be introduced if we are able to offer motorists the alternative of better public transport, so that they have a real choice."
It is understood the Oscar Faber report proposes a £3 charge for each car on major congested roads leading into the city centre or on the M50, where recent figures show car commuters, usually one person per vehicle, account for 70 per cent of peak traffic.
Tolls would be collected electronically, using smart card technology.
A "loop" in the road surface would automatically deduct the £3 charge from electronic units on a car's dashboard - similar to an upgraded road-pricing system now operating in Singapore. According to Mr Henry, the need for such a system would have to be considered in Dublin after motorists had been offered the option of using much-enhanced public transport services - because, even then, there would still be a residual congestion problem.
"Charging motorists £3 to enter the city during congested peak periods is not just a punitive measure," he said. "It is intended to bring home to them the real cost of their travel decisions, but it can only be done in the context of giving them a choice about how they travel."
Mr Conor Faughnan, public affairs manager of the AA, said Dublin's traffic problems "are not caused by cars, but by bad public transport".
It was "an act of moral cowardice to put the blame on the car user for the Government's failure to sort out the transport system".
The Government's attempts so far were "little short of pathetic", with no integrated ticketing, not a single park-and-ride site in the city and Luas construction not yet under way. Planning problems had also held up the Port Tunnel and the completion of the M50.
In Britain, following publication in July 1998 of the government's White Paper, A New Deal for Transport, it is estimated the income from road pricing would exceed £1 billion by 2005, with this revenue being used to fund improvements to public transport.
