It would be in the national interest for the M50 upgrade to continue at night and at weekends, writes Feargal Quinn
Immobilised on the M50 the other day, I began thinking about the cost of this gridlock on a daily basis.
I am not talking here about the intangible costs that result from people being stuck in a traffic jam - the anger and frustration of being trapped against your will, the desperation that results from experiencing the same scenario day after day. These are, indeed, real emotions, and real costs, but since they are not quantifiable it is hardly reasonable for public policy to take them into account (though perhaps politicians ignore such costs at their peril).
Yet moving into the only world that accountants will acknowledge as having any relevance, there are also monetary costs that arise from this daily gridlock on the M50. Among these are:
• the cost of the petrol and diesel that is consumed by vehicles that are standing still;
• the environmental cost of the carbon emissions that come from these vehicles;
• the costs of the delay experienced by delivery vehicles in a country where the costs of distribution are already high;
• the costs from loss of output by people who are on their way to work and who are sitting in their cars;
• the cost to national competitiveness of a situation in which appointments are missed and meetings delayed by the uncertainties arising from people not being able to use our road network in the way it was intended.
If we focus only on these quantifiable costs, and disregard the equally important softer factors that resist easy measurement, we soon realise that in monetary terms the daily cost of gridlock on the M50 is considerable.
So, on the assumption that any waste of money is a bad thing, it would seem to make sense that we should strive to reduce the cost of this gridlock. There is one obvious way to do this that we are ignoring.
The present upgrading work on the M50 holds out the prospect of considerable improvement in the traffic flows. Completing it will not see the end of our problems, but it will mark an important step along the way.
It is one of the wishes of every driver and passenger who is immobilised on the M50 that these works should be completed as soon as possible. However, the works are not proceeding as fast as they could.
As is clear to anyone who ventures on to the M50 at night or at the weekend, the upgrading work does not continue around the clock. It happens only during normal working hours on weekdays. The rest of the time the works lie idle.
Consider the fact that there are 168 hours in every week. Then consider the fact that the M50 upgrading takes place for only about one-quarter of that time.
Of course, carrying out the upgrade work on a 24/7 basis would cost more money. That is presumably the response that will be trotted out by those responsible. But how much more? And has anyone calculated how that extra amount relates to the costs incurred by those who suffer the daily gridlock?
I am confident that if the right sums were done, we could actually save money from a national perspective by moving the upgrade work to a 24/7 basis. Yet realising that is very difficult for people who operate in a closed cocoon and refuse to take into account anything for which they are not directly responsible.
An increase in the cost of upgrading the M50 would have to come out of the budget of the Department of Transport. The corresponding benefits from doing it that way would not show up in that department's budget, but, of course, would be widely dispersed among hundreds of thousands of people and companies. Therein lies the problem.
It will take an act of political leadership to rise above such narrow considerations and view the issue from the national standpoint. Looked at from the point of view of the national interest, the sums do indeed add up.
And what are our leaders for except to be able to rise above sectional perspectives and make those things happen that are in the national interest?
In considering the matter they might also look again at the intangible costs involved in the gridlock. The present situation is certainly making a very large number of people increasingly angry, which is surely a dangerous thing for a Government on the brink of a general election.
Feargal Quinn is an Independent member of Seanad Éireann