There has been a muted public response, thus far at least, to the proposed introduction of wheel-clamping on the streets of Dublin from next May. The wheel clamps are part of a tough new parking regime being introduced by the corporation's director of traffic, Mr Owen Keegan. Dublin motorists who park on double yellow lines or stay too long at parking meters, can expect to pay a fine of £65. It appears that the system will be modelled on the regime in London, with a private wheel-clamping company sharing its revenues with the corporation. The corporation - which will shortly take over control of parking enforcement in Dublin from the Garda - plans a series of other measures to curb illegal parking and ease the current gridlock. It plans to eliminate all remaining free on-street car-parking spaces in and around the city's main commercial districts as part of its efforts to persuade motorists to switch to public transport. There are even proposals for so-called "fast-response units" of traffic wardens who will, apparently, cycle around the city penalising offending motorists. By Irish standards, these are radical, even draconian, proposals. But there is no alternative; as Mr Keegan has observed, road capacity is now a very scarce resource in Dublin. It can no longer be allocated in a random, "first come first served" basis.
In many respects, we are making up for lost time. Proposals of the type mooted by the corporation form an integral part of traffic management policy in most major cities. In Dublin, by contrast, there has been a relaxed approach towards traffic management; a £15 fine for illegal parking and a certain confidence among motorists that they could escape the attention of the traffic wardens does not represent any kind of effective sanction. This is especially so, when a large proportion of parking fines are unpaid, because of pressure on Garda time and resources.
Wheel clamping is welcome if it denotes a new, concentrated effort to address the problem of illegal parking and if it forms part of a coherent strategy designed to make commuters switch from cars to public transport. But there are few signs that such a strategy is being assembled. Indeed, there is no little irony in the corporation endeavouring to clear the city streets when another arm of the State gives tax breaks for city centre multi-storey car-parks, many of them used by commuters for all-day parking. It also makes little sense for the corporation to eliminate free car parking in the area within the canals when government departments and agencies - including the corporation - actually encourage their employees to drive into the city by providing ample free car parking. Instead of tinkering with the problem, it might be useful to examine the feasibility of some of the initiatives taken elsewhere, including the Australian approach in which a free, city-centre car-parking space is taxed as a benefit-in-kind. But Government has a responsibility not just to dole out some tough medicine; it must also, as the Green Party pointed out yesterday, ensure that a good, speedy and reliable public transport system is in place. Public attitudes must also change in order to free up the city's streets. Commuting by car, in Mr Keegan's words, is a sunset industry.