Ireland's two million motorists have had a bad week. Already facing VAT, VRT, excise duty, and road tax, last week's publications of greenhouse gas emissions mean they are now likely facing a new carbon tax. Tim O'Brienreports.
With average speeds in our cities having dropped to about 13km/h (10 mph), clamping, fines, tolls and penalty points mean there is little pleasure left in owning a car. Even the rain now seemingly stops traffic.
So, with the general election and giveaways in the air, we ask: 'What is in it for two million motorists?'
Green Party
Green Party transport spokesman EAMON RYAN doesn't own a car,
but he cycles a Trek 700 21-speed mountain bike
Eamon Ryan, perhaps surprisingly, said he wanted to see a return to the 'golden age' of motoring. An occasional driver of his father's Toyota Prius, he points out that he has no more interest in driving on congested streets than anyone else. His mode of transport of choice is his Trek 700 bicycle, "a real babe magnet", he laughed.
Green Party proposals are aimed at eliminating congestion, halving the current number of road deaths and reducing pollution.
The party would reform VRT and motor tax systems in a fiscally neutral manner to reflect the level of emissions from vehicles. It would replace existing toll systems with variable charges to manage demand. Such tolls would be set at zero when roads are free flowing but would be raised at peak time to reduce traffic volumes and resultant gridlock.
The Green Party would instruct the National Roads Authority to set a new policy where priority is given to road safety and environmental and urban planning measures rather than providing for projected increases in road capacity.
Progressive Democrats
The PD's transport spokesman, TOM MORRISSEY drives a Mercedes
E280D
Tom Morrissey obviously likes driving - his conveyance of choice is a Mercedes E280D, a newer, more modern and more powerful version of the standard Mercedes E240D traditionally enjoyed by Cabinet ministers.
"I tell certain people I am not disappointed when I don't get the State car," he quipped before explaining that PD motorist policy was most things the Green Party policy is not.
"We will complete the motorways anyway," he said, "which is something they wouldn't do."
Morrissey was speaking before his party leader Michael McDowell also criticised the Greens for their attitude to the State's roads programme, saying interference with the roads programme would deter regional investment and development.
Morrissey told Motors the PD proposals were already well established as the party subscribed to the Government's 10-year, national strategy Transport 21.
That is major investment in public transport particularly in Dublin, the completion of the inter-urban motorway programme, followed by the Atlantic corridor linking Donegal, via Galway, Limerick and Cork.
Labour
Labour's RÓISÍN SHORTALL drives a Ford
Focus 1.4
Róisín Shortall's policy document Getting Dublin Moving deals primarily with public transport issues, but she said Labour would seek to renegotiate the agreement with National Toll Roads in respect of the West-Link toll bridge. Barriers would be lifted at times of heavy congestion and varying tolls at different hours implemented.
Labour Party research claims the morning peak journey from Stepaside to Dublin city centre takes 64 minutes; from Dunshaughlin 75 minutes; from Loughlinstown roundabout 76 minutes; from Kill 86 minutes; and from Saggart Village 99 minutes.
With 195,000 vehicles crossing the M50 during the morning peak she gets little chance to use her Ford Focus 1.4 to get to work from her home in northwest Dublin.
Motorists really need park and ride sites, and bus transfers, she says. Six park and ride sites would be commissioned immediately.
She would prioritise road safety, implementing her policy paper Driving for Life: Labour Party Proposals on Driver Education and Licensing. The party aims to reduce commuting times, travel costs and carbon emissions.
Motorists would also benefit from a home buying scheme aimed at cutting commuting distances. "One of the reasons why so many people are dependent on their cars to get to and from work is that they are forced to buy homes far away from their place of work. Our scheme would help people to buy a home nearer to their place of work," she said.
Fine Gael
Fine Gael's OLIVIA MITCHELL also drives a Ford Focus 1.4
The modest Ford Focus 1.4 owned by Olivia Mitchell is, according to herself, "rusting in the drive" because of the lack of opportunity to take it for a run.
She goes to work by tram.
Among her pre-election promises were: no new private tolls on the motorways and just one toll on any inter-urban motorway; an assurance that "the State would never again lose control of a major piece of infrastructure like the M50", and an immediate move to barrier-free tolling on the route.
In Government, the party would remove all excise duty on biofuels produced from all renewable energy crops.
She also promised a full-time version of operation freeflow and safety package including driver education, a national crash investigation unit, a register of qualified instructors, additional driving-testers and a reformed driving test.
Also in the Fine Gael manifesto is the creation of a market for biofuels.
VRT would be reformed through the establishment of a system of energy labelling for motor vehicles.
She also sees the recruitment and training of civilian road traffic officers and the rapid roll out of speed cameras as essential supports for the Garda Traffic Corps.
Once the five new motorways to the regional cities and the Border have been completed, the onus would be on improving and upgrading secondary roads, according to Mitchell.
Fianna Fáil
The Minister for Transport, MARTIN CULLEN, has the use of a
ministerial car - a Mercedes E240D
Transport Minister Martin Cullen's advisers did not respond to the question, "what is in the manifesto for two million motorists?" However, as the man charged with implementing Transport 21, he has made his position clear on a number of occasions.
Over the next 10 years his Transport 21 proposals will see the motorway network rolled out between Dublin and the regional cities - the second crossing of the Suir in his own constituency will reduce congestion in Waterford, while similar improvements are expected in Limerick with the Shannon Tunnel.
The plan also envisages links between the regional cities themselves, along the Atlantic Corridor, and the major public transport proposals, particularly in Dublin, through the extensive deployment of trams and the metro.
Government policy also includes the creation of a biofuels industry with an obligation on the transport fuel market to provide fuel which is at least 5.75 per cent plant oil by 2009, while Minister for Environment Dick Roche has promised reform of the car tax system, to reflect the levels of carbon emissions the vehicles create, from next year.
Three items which are policy but which were not included in Transport 21 were the Luas from Rathfarnham and Terenure; the outer orbital motorway around Dublin and the Eastern Bypass of Dublin. Completing the C-ring M50 motorway to an O-ring motorway is something in which Cullen personally believes. After all, who ever heard of a C-ring?