Soaring car ownership means there are now more cars than households in the Dublin area. And the number of cars is expected to increase by a further 150,000 over the next few years.
Mr John Henry, Director of the Dublin Transportation Office, told the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Public Enterprise and Transport yesterday that car ownership - now at 350 per 1,000 population in Dublin - was still below the EU average of 450 per 1,000.
He said that up to 20 per cent of traffic during the morning peak period was due to parents dropping their children to school by car. In nearly half of these cases, two trips are involved, because the parent is returning home, often against the flow of traffic.
Mr Conor McCarthy, former chairman of Ryan Hotels, who took over as the DTO's Chairman last December, told the committee that if school runs were reduced by half "it would make a bigger impact [on traffic levels in Dublin] than introducing LUAS.
However, Mr Henry pointed out that this could be done only if parents' safety fears were overcome by providing children with safe cycling and walking routes to schools. This is one element of the 180-kilometre cycle-way network being planned by the DTO.
He said that if 20 per cent of Dublin's car commuters were to switch to alternative modes of transport - walking, cycling or using public transport - it would be "enough to solve the problem on its own". But this would only come about with a change in attitudes.
Mr Henry conceded that most of the major infrastructure projects - the completion of the M50, the Dublin Port Tunnel and the LUAS light rail system - had been delayed by periods of up to three years, mainly because of the amount of public consultation involved.
He complained that the process of consultation, even on small projects such as cycle-ways, "provides a forum for objectors and never brings supporters out".
Mr Henry also revealed that the forthcoming strategic planning guidelines for the greater Dublin area were likely to propose major upgrading of the rail network, though this would have to include eliminating conflicts between the DART and the Belfast Enterprise service.
Though 150 new buses had been ordered by CIE, in line with the DTO's short-term action plan, he said there was a need for better buses, such as the articulated vehicle unveiled by Dublin Bus last week. This would help overcome any perception of buses as "the poor relation".
Mr Henry denied that the DTO was, as Mr Dick Roche TD (FF Wicklow) claimed, "going to war" with motorists. "They can buy as many cars as they like. Our issue is how these cars are used and whether they're driven into the city centre to be parked all day."
It was in this context that revised plans for the Eastern Bypass motorway would have to be "evaluated very carefully". If it was to bring more car commuters into the city centre, it "would be a problem" because of the inherent conflict with the DTO strategy.
In response to Mr Ivan Yates, the FG spokesman on Public Enterprise, Mr McCarthy said the Malahide Rd bus lane had cut bus commuting times by more than 20 per cent in the morning peak - though he conceded that its installation had slowed down other traffic.
However, in what he admitted was a "controversial view" on which he had yet to convince colleagues, he suggested that more car parking should be provided in office zones - but only for commuters who drove in before 7 a.m. and set out for home by 4 p.m., to avoid the peaks.
