A new survey finds Irish parents spend longer in traffic than many other Europeans. It confirms the frustration and stress shared by Irish Times' readers in the Commuter Belt and Traffic Gripes columns on these pages in recent months. As the columns conclude, Sylvia Thompson asks what - if anything - is being done to solve the traffic problems?
Long queues for the M50 tollbridge and exits, bottlenecks on the Dublin-Belfast road and the Dublin-Kildare section of the N7, crowded and delayed DART trains, unsanitary conditions and extended delays on main-line trains and hazardous daily commutes for cyclists.
This is just a sample of the issues which commuters raised, both in the Commuter Belt column and the accompanying Traffic Gripes which were sent in to The Irish Times from stressed-out, irate and downright fed-up individuals travelling to and from their workplace every day.
However, the overriding impression from commuters over the 10 months the column appeared was of resignation to long, and sometimes stressful, commutes. This impression was confirmed last week in a European survey which found that Irish parents spend longer in traffic than their counterparts in other European countries and that the most important factor in domestic happiness was the length of parents' commuting time and working hours.
The same survey (Fathers and Mothers: Dilemmas for the Work-Life balance - A Comparative Study in Four European Countries) also found that countries with quality public transport are also those with a better quality of life for families.
Traffic problems are worst in the Dublin area - where commuters can spend up to four hours in total travelling to and from work. The recent development of housing estates in the counties surrounding the capital has extended those problems to a wider radius. The absence of park 'n' ride facilities at public transport points close to the city boundaries hasn't helped.
Many of the traffic gripers who wrote in believe their long commutes are caused by bad traffic management and some specifically requested that we forward their gripes to the director of traffic in Dublin City Council.
Owen Keegan, director of traffic in Dublin City Council, respondsto their criticisms: "The real issue for us is to get 'modal changes' at peak times; i.e. to encourage motorists to take public transport, cycle or walk to work rather than take their cars. The problem is that most people think it is someone else who has to make the change. It hasn't dawned on them that how you get to work and how your children get to school is the issue. In Dublin City Council, we are moving more and more towards prioritising buses, pedestrians and cyclists," explains Keegan.
He is keen to highlight ongoing work on cycling lanes, pleads guilty for earlier poor efforts in this area and stresses the impact that the restrictions on heavy good vehicles from the city streets (once the Dublin Port Tunnel is completed in 2004) will have. "We are working with the Dublin Cycling Campaign and going through the network cycle-lane by lane and improving the standard. In terms of HGVs [heavy goods vehicles\], of course pedestrians and cyclists want the change now, but we see the completion of the port tunnel as an opportune time to impose restrictions to the city centre network," he says.
One huge impediment to the Dublin City Council's efforts to discourage cars (with limited-time parking meters, clamping, etc) is the free parking spaces provided by city-centre employers, Keegan adds. "Employees should have to pay for car spaces provided for them by their companies. It is a huge incentive operated by employers which isn't subject to benefit-in-kind," he argues.
The Dublin Transport Office, whose brief it is to plan and to develop an integrated transport system for Dublin by 2016, also believes the continued emphasis on commuting to work by car is not the way forward. "The idea is that when you give a quality service, people will make the choice to use it and you won't have to make it awkward for the car," says Peter Cluskey from the DTO office. One of the foundation stones in the DTO's Platform for Change document is the emphasis on providing for everyone in the city public transport within 10 minutes' walking distance of their homes. It plans to achieve this with an integrated public transport system which includes the LUAS, Metro (underground/overground rail) and the upgrading of bus routes.
However, the Campaign for Sensible Transport, a voluntary group promoting integrated public and private transport policies, is not impressed with the new Government's plans for transport. The recent Programme for Government stated it would fully implement the national roads programme provided for in the National Development Plan, introduce the two lines of LUAS, upgrade the DART and outer suburban lines in Dublin and proceed with the Metro on a public/private partnership basis.
"The new Government's policies are basically road policies with plans to build motorways and bypasses. They won't have an effect on reducing traffic in the regions or in Dublin. In fact, the new motorways will bring more traffic into the M50 belt," says Gary Fitzgerald of CaST.
"There is no thought of what will happen to Dublin traffic if you build five new motorways into the city. There is very little money going towards regional rail and public transport. For all those commuters to Dublin from the regions, life will get worse."
Some of the traffic gripers who wrote in to The Irish Times felt park 'n' ride facilities would provide a solution for commuters to Dublin from the surrounding counties, but it seems unclear whether they will ever materialise.
The Dublin Transport Office's document, A Platform for Change, states park 'n' ride facilities should be provided at locations where the national road network meets the public transport networks. Recommendations on a pilot bus-based park 'n' ride study are expected by the DTO in September.
However, Owen Keegan is not very optimistic about such initiatives. "Dublin City Council has tried to promote a number of sites and the problem is residents don't want them on their streets because of the extra traffic they generate. They are also very expensive in terms of land acquisition. It doesn't represent the optimum use of scarce cash." Of the improvised park 'n' ride system, whereby motorists park in suburban areas and get a bus into town, Keegan adds, "It works and it doesn't cause a problem".
But, Conor Faughnan of the AA says: "I believe those who live one to two miles from a quality bus corridor would drive to a park 'n' ride facility and get out of their cars to hop on a bus that would get them into town quicker than by car." Faughnan believes the improvised park 'n' ride which happens around the city represents "suppressed demand". He also believes carpooling should be promoted, with carpoolers given access to bus lanes.
One major problem, the congestion at the Westlink Bridge, (where many motorists face the longest regular delays in their commute) could be solved by raising the toll barriers during the morning and evening peak periods, believes Faughnan.
"At the moment, there is an artificial tailback for 20 to 25 minutes in both directions between 7 a.m. and 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. and 7 p.m. There are plans for the doubling of the bridge's capacity to be completed in a year's time but meanwhile, raising the barriers during the peak periods would get rid of the tailback."
Improving the lot for commuting cyclists continues to be an uphill struggle. "The main issues for cyclists arethe lack of good parking facilities at public transport interchanges and at workplaces, and safety. We want cycling priority measures," says David Maher of the Dublin Cycling Campaign. "A National Road Authority survey found that in uncongested urban areas, 95 per cent of cars break the speed limit.
"Consider that in an accident, cyclists have a 95 per cent of surviving if the car is going at 20 miles per hour, but a 15 per cent of surviving if the car is being driven at 40 miles per hour," points out Maher. But, he adds: "By cycling to work every day, I remain healthier and arrive in work on time."
Turning Dublin city and other major urban centres into places where people commute to work on foot, by bicycle or by public transport seems to be the only answer to our ongoing traffic problems. But a much higher level of public spending by the newly created Department of Transport and greater political will be needed to make this happen.
