Charges related to traffic congestion, levies on workplace parking and subsidies to employers who buy bicycles for their staff are among the options being considered by the Dublin Transportation Office to reduce traffic congestion in the capital.
The DTO is inviting submissions from members of the public about what they think should be done to deal with the rapid increase in travel demand in the Greater Dublin Area as a result of increased prosperity in recent years.
New car registrations in the GDA (which includes Meath, Kildare and Wicklow) tripled between 1994 and 2000 and, though this trend has slowed down over the past two years, close to 60 per cent of commuters continue to use cars to get to work.
Further pressure on the road network has been generated by a 240 per cent increase in Dublin Airport's passenger numbers since 1994 and by the expanded fleet of trucks using Dublin Port, where freight volumes reached 22 million tonnes in 2002.
In a leaflet on its GDA travel demand management study, the DTO says the challenge is how to manage the demand for travel without undermining the fundamental "drivers" of the economy by encouraging motorists to switch to other modes.
Existing initiatives include the development of bus corridors and a strategic cycle-way network as well as traffic management schemes and parking policies. But the DTO says a a range of other measures is needed to manage travel demand.
The leaflet stresses that measures such as London-style congestion charging and levies on workplace parking are "under consideration only".
Options under consideration for such congestion charging include having motorists pay a fixed fee for unlimited travel between 7 a.m. and 6.30 p.m. on weekdays to and from a designated area, such as the city centre.
