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A CUBAN SOLUTION TO THE IRISH TRAFFIC PROBLEMS.
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On a visit to Cuba some years ago, I became aware of a system they employed when registering motor cars.
Basically they use three different registration plates. One is for government & police vehicles; one is for private vehicles.And there is a third category, which might solve some of the problems that seem to induce inertia in Minister Cullen.
In Cuba, a motor car owner is allowed generous motor tax relief by agreeing to take passengers in his motor. A distinctive plate is issued and anyone can flag down such cars, the driver of which is obliged, under the terms & conditions of registration, to carry that passenger, free of charge, if there is room.
Dublin experiences gridlock almost daily; a significant number of cars have one occupant, so, it must surely be possible to adapt such a system & permit such registered vehicles to use the Bus Lanes.
em I don’t think anyone would use that. You would have no idea who would get into your car. Also people will just pretend they saw no one flagging them.
What Simon says; it’s a pretty novel idea but one that wouldn’t really fly..
People in this country don’t really carpool with people they know, what you’re basically doing with this is allowing anyone to become a Taxi driver without any regulation.
I feel unsafe getting into certain cabs with supposedly legit drivers, I certainly wouldn’t do something that is effectively hitch-hike on a daily basis.
Sadly I think it would work, in precisely the places its least needed;
1) Rural ireland
2) small towns
Dublin areas have patches of community trust (some of which are in wealthy suburbs with good public transport) though, dare i say it, some sense of community ethos may be required to make it work. (IMHO)
I thought we used to call it hitching? or thmubing a lift?
I hadn’t heard of that scheme before. It actually makes perfect sense from a socialist point of view. Indeed, if people are being so selfish as to not share while driving their car, why not use taxation to help them change their minds? There is no principled reason why a socialist could be opposed to that.
Well, Fidel would have us all believe that Cuba is a socialist state and Bertie had a Pauline conversion on the way to the CORI “Bleeding Hearts Love In” at Inchidorney - with the Beards & Sandals Brotherhood - and is now a fully-paid-up Socialist.
And, of course, Cuba is the favoured model of IRA/Sinn Fein for their vision of the New Marxist State of Ireland. (Mind you, Fidel’s vision of equality might be regarded as a little lob-sided, to judge from the junketeers I saw on a first-class Air France flight from Paris to Havana - all six of them very white; very well dressed & enjoying their champagne cocktails.).
I can feel resistance from the responses so far, but if they were to throw in free 24-hour parking in Dublin, it might sweeten the deal - and remove the detested clampers.
As for pretending not to see the thumbs; it would give the gardai an extra use for their cameras.
AS wulfbeorn suggests, i have no principled objection to that programme.
How would this work with regard to kerbcrawling and such like?
Dan,
It would very much depend on the driver. If she was a Kristin Scott-Thomas lookalike, I think you should accept her offer.