Peak-time traffic in Dublin could be reduced by 20 per cent if companies encouraged employees to use alternatives to driving alone to and from work, the promoters of a pilot study have suggested. The alternatives include car pooling, incentives to use public transport, and company transport.
The details of the pilot project aimed at promoting these initiatives were announced by the Irish Energy Centre and the Dublin Transportation Office yesterday. To make their point, their press conference was held amid the noise and fumes on a traffic island in the city centre between the IFSC, Busaras and the Customs House.
Mr David Taylor, director of the Irish Energy Centre, said the realistic options available to reduce traffic congestion, fuel consumption and the associated CO 2 emissions needed to be explored.
"We want to find a solution to meet people's needs and one of the integral parts is to find out how people get to work, what their preferences are and then propose solutions," he said.
Companies were at the heart of the scheme - the sustainable mobility plans - particularly those with a large number of employees. The options were for companies to provide cycle facilities, connections to public transport, or transport of their own.
Car pooling was also an option but sometimes that was difficult to set up and inflexible, he said. They were looking into how car pooling could be made more flexible. Journeys to and from work accounted for almost a quarter of all miles driven by car or van, he added.
In a recent study it was estimated that a conservative figure for the costs of traffic congestion to the economy was £742,500,000. It was also revealed that the total external cost of road transport to the economy was £2.2 billion per year. This figure was based on the cumulative costs including accidents, pollution, noise, congestion and other environmental effects.
According to the Irish Energy Centre and DTO, this figure was as large as the Irish transport fuel bill, and both could be reduced on an annual basis by 20 per cent through the widespread adoption of the sustainable mobility plans, Mr Taylor said.
Ms Marian Wilson, senior transportation planner with the DTO, said it was currently talking to large employers and Government agencies to encourage them to play their role.
Yesterday, the DTO and Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council launched a number of cycling initiatives, including a new cycle track on the Upper Kilmacud Road, a new "Safe Routes to Schools" project and Bike 'n' Ride facilities at Dun Laoghaire railway station.