Irish Election are pleased to announce our collection of Irish 
Making Road Safety an Election Issue
Read more about: Road Safety
First, a plug. If you haven’t seen it yet, please give RoadSafetyBlog.com a visit. The site is co-ordinating a campaign among Irish bloggers to get people across the Island involved in the development of the next Road Safety Strategy, and to get young people in particular thinking and talking about road safety.
The campaign is asking bloggers, and readers of the blogs, to put their suggestions for improving the situation on our roads. These suggestions will then be collated, debated further, and put together as a document which will be submitted to the Road Safety Authority, The Minister for Transport, The Taoiseach, The Irish Insurance Federation, and every member of the Oireachtas.
RoadSafetyBlog.com and DamienBlake.com have listings of the sites taking place, and there is now a Bebo site, roadsafety.bebo.com, which should help reach younger people. If you can contribute, or help in any way, please do.
What does this have to do with IrishElection.com?
Damien Mulley recently asked a series of Irish bloggers to list the questions they would want politicians to answer on the doors. There are some very interesting answers, but little mention of the emerging national crisis on the roads.
This is not the first time, not even the first time this year, that Ireland has been caught up in discussion of road carnage. Every time we start, it lasts a week or two and then falls off the agenda.
Approaching four hundred people dead on the roads this year is not something we should forget. Here’s what I’m asking: for every voter, ask every politician that you meet what they have done, and will do, to improve the situation. For every politician, do everything you can, no matter how minor or major, to improve the situation. If we had four hundred people dying in plane crashes every year, we would not let it pass without action. For my part, I will committ to do everything I can to help the situation. I’m a very insignificant politician, but if everyone does their bit there is no limit to what we can achieve.
As a councillor, a young driver, chairman of a Joint Policing Committee, a blogger and as a member of my local community, there are opportunities every day to impact the road safety situation. Most of them come from maintaining a proper awareness and driving responsibly, which is not much to ask I’m not going to let this issue rest. Sorry if I sound like a broken record on this issue. Normal programming will resume next week.
Constructive Taxation is the most effective method of exercising positive disciplines in standard practices, such as road usage. The tax yield from Road Users is more than sufficient to reorganise the infrastructures in Ireland.
Regrettably, successive Ministers of Finance have used this tax to subsidise wasteful social programmes - many of them to solicit votes.
However, it should be possible to exercise a certain amount of positive disciplines by a re-arrangement of VRT.
The rate of VRT should be arranged to maximise efficiencies of road usage; space and CO2 emissions, benefitting the country in three distinctive ways and collecting the same amount of taxation.
For instance, a 1 litre car, not more than average length or height, might attract VRT of, say, 2.5%.
A large SUV or similar, and 2.5 litre upwards might attract a VRT rate of, say, 200%.
It should be possible to arrange the areas in between these two poles.
The tax yield from Road Users should be allocated to a Road/Public Transport Account, and used exclusively for that purpose, until all systems are working to optimum efficiency.
The loss of the use of this revenue should be counter-balanced by a reduction of waste in the bloated Public Sector & social programmes of little commercial benefit - of which there are many.
A few practical suggestions:
1. Provisional drivers to get 3 months to pass test or lose licence.
2. All lenders, including motor dealers, to be advised, by the Minister of Transport, to restrict lending to 20% of the cost of any vehicle, including motor cycles.
3. Lending of funds to pay motor insurance to be prohibited.
4. Schools to start at 10.00hrs & end at 16.30hrs. Scheduled homework, to be initialled by parents, to replace the 2 hours of desk time. Allocate school children free travel on public transport between 10.00 hrs & 16.30 hrs.
5. Reduce road tax for drivers who offer to carry extra passengers. A different coloured registration plate might be used, as is presently the system in Cuba. They might use the QBC.
6. Allow free parking to prevent constant moving.
7. Levy a fee, say €25 per week, on cars & motor cycles entering defined centre city zones. This should also be paid by public servants and TDs.
8. Extend the one-way systems into city centres. Say, for instance, one way from Goatstown in to the city centre in the morning until 10.00 hrs. One way out from the city centre through Leeson Street & Donnybrook to Stillorgan. Or some modification to be devised by the AA or similar expert group.
There is no panacea for the sloppy planning that produced the mess that is Dublin roads. It has been stated that the motor car popualation is lower than EU averages, but this refers to the entire country. The problem is in Dublin & Greater Dublin and the motor car poulation, relative to the human adult popuation ius unbalalnced & far in excess of present capacity.
SOS, could please explain what the effect you think some of your suggestions would have? Because they seem to be all over the place
1. Provisional drivers to get 3 months to pass test or lose licence.
What is the propose of this? how many lessons and hours practising do you reasonably expect someone who is working to get during the 3 month period?
2. All lenders, including motor dealers, to be advised, by the Minister of Transport, to restrict lending to 20% of the cost of any vehicle, including motor cycles.
Interesting you suggest that cars are only for the rich, and how do you think yougng will get to the jobs they need to do in order to save the 80% for their car and insurance?
3. Lending of funds to pay motor insurance to be prohibited.
4. Schools to start at 10.00hrs & end at 16.30hrs. Scheduled homework, to be initialled by parents, to replace the 2 hours of desk time. Allocate school children free travel on public transport between 10.00 hrs & 16.30 hrs.
If school starts at 10.00hrs but so does the free travel for school children and it ends at 1630hrs just before they leave school then aren’t you encouraging mitching?
5. Reduce road tax for drivers who offer to carry extra passengers. A different coloured registration plate might be used, as is presently the system in Cuba. They might use the QBC.
extra passengers to what, their usual load or just more than themselves? And how would you arrange for them to picked up and dropped?
6. Allow free parking to prevent constant moving.
It is free parking that creates half the congestion in the centre of Dublin, if the public services workers in the departments had to pay for parking the bus service might have improved years ago.
7. Levy a fee, say €25 per week, on cars & motor cycles entering defined centre city zones. This should also be paid by public servants and TDs.
So you want them to pay to come in but parking should be free?
8. Extend the one-way systems into city centres. Say, for instance, one way from Goatstown in to the city centre in the morning until 10.00 hrs. One way out from the city centre through Leeson Street & Donnybrook to Stillorgan. Or some modification to be devised by the AA or similar expert group.
Actually, the French do something similar and it would be worth trying so long as the judges are told in advance and we do a decent job on the signs.
1. The driving test is like any other examination. if you fail, you cannot practice until you pass. Would you care to be treated for a killer disease by a failed medical student?
2. Use public transport. That is its purpose.
3. Point stands.
4. You have missed the point. School goers don’t need to compete with business people for road space. One has only to note the reduction of gridlock during school holidays. Watch the fall tomorrow, 1st November - a School holiday.
5. It has been observed, by the AA & other interested parties, that motor occupancy averages 1.3 persons per vehicle in the greater Dublin area, the main focus of the argument. Carrying a passenger should improve that ratio to 2 plus. Motor cars with the appropriate plate could be flagged down, in the same manner as one flags down a taxi.
6. If one parks in a 1 hour slot, it becomes necessary to move. That creates unnecessary, extra traffic movement.
7. If you levy a charge - and there should no exceptions, other than essential services; ambulance; fire service; police - TDs could hardly be called essential - it would be improper to additionally charge for parking (unless one regards parking fees as Revenue).
Increase the levy, if it upsets your social conscience, but concentrate on what is necessary to reduce traffic.
8. Point remains.
Over & out.
1. The driving test is like any other examination. if you fail, you cannot practice until you pass. Would you care to be treated for a killer disease by a failed medical student?
A driving test is not like any other exam. You’re talking about people not being allowed to learn to drive on the roads. That would be somewhat sensible if you proposed spending money on off road learning centres but you don’t.
2. Use public transport. That is its purpose.
A) we would need to provide more public transpot, sometime I favour but you’ve not suggested that.
B) that still allows the rich to drive while not anyone else.
3. Point stands.
4. You have missed the point. School goers don’t need to compete with business people for road space. One has only to note the reduction of gridlock during school holidays. Watch the fall tomorrow, 1st November - a School holiday.
If public transport is free after 10.00 but they have to pay before when travelling to school then how are you going to get them out of cars and onto the buses? this point really shows how little thought you’ve given any of the ideas here.
5. It has been observed, by the AA & other interested parties, that motor occupancy averages 1.3 persons per vehicle in the greater Dublin area, the main focus of the argument. Carrying a passenger should improve that ratio to 2 plus. Motor cars with the appropriate plate could be flagged down, in the same manner as one flags down a taxi.
Car pooling is a good idea, but suggesting that people pull in on busy roads will simply create more congestion in cities.
6. If one parks in a 1 hour slot, it becomes necessary to move. That creates unnecessary, extra traffic movement.
The one hour slots are to discourage people from driving into town and leaving their car in a prime spot all day. Yet you want to encourage people to drive in giving them free parking.
7. If you levy a charge - and there should no exceptions, other than essential services; ambulance; fire service; police - TDs could hardly be called essential - it would be improper to additionally charge for parking (unless one regards parking fees as Revenue).
Increase the levy, if it upsets your social conscience, but concentrate on what is necessary to reduce traffic.
You’re encouraging commuter traffic by giving people free parking.
8. Point remains.