Drivers in Dublin can waste up to nine entire days sitting in traffic each year, as the city’s congestion rate rose by 3% in 2019.

That’s according to the TomTom Traffic Index for 2019, which lists Dublin as the 17th most congested city globally, out of the 416 cities surveyed, and the sixth worst congested in Europe. 

Among western Europe’s cities it is the worst congested, ahead of Edinburgh, Paris, Rome, Brussels and London.

At 48%, Dublin’s congestion level is way worse than Cork’s or Limerick’s (33% and 31%) which rank at number 75 and 118 in the world respectively.

The Tom Tom report highlights how congestion can lower productivity — that’s the 213 ‘working’ hours spent stuck in traffic annually — and increase the use of fossil fuels.

In Association with

As the Green Party launched its transport policy, its general election candidate in Dublin South Central highlighted the Tom Tom results and their effects.

Councillor Patrick Costello said: “We’ve seen that the terrible traffic situation in Ireland’s capital is getting worse, not better. We’ve had a transport minister for the past three years with no interest in doing anything about it, bar building more roads. 

“What’s needed is a radical rebalancing of priorities, towards supporting lots of different ways of getting about the city, to rewarding and making safe and affordable cycling, walking, public transport and other options that will help people get off our roads when they can.”

According to the Green Party, congestion is costing millions of euros every year and will rise to over €2 billion without action to curb it. Its policy emphasis is on public transport and “shared transport options that use less energy than individual cars or other vehicles and improve the well-being of commuters”.

In particular, in office the party would “redress the imbalance” in the national transport budget away from road schemes and towards the public network.

Green Party leader Eamon Ryan (pictured) stated: “Commuters are deterred from using public or active transport options through frustration at delays and long journey times, or in the case of cycling through personal safety concerns, and are pushed back into private car use.

“The only way to do this is to redress the imbalance in how we spend our transport budget. Project Ireland 2040 commits a staggering €5.7 billion being spent on national road schemes, including the €0.9 billion Cork to Limerick motorway, as well a further €4.5 billion on local and regional roads.

“A spend of this magnitude on further expanding motorways at the expense expanding public transport options is completely counter-intuitive when we consider the significant cost of the penalties we are already incurring as a direct result of our failure to reduce our emissions in line with international agreements.”

E-Mobility

The party would double investment in public transport, with 10% of the capital transport budget to be devoted to promoting and facilitating walking, with a similar 10% going to measures to increase cycling.

In addition, it would promote e-mobility, including the use of electric scooters, and implement a series of reforms of the National Transport Authority, the Department of Transport, and all planning authorities to ensure an integrated and multi-disciplinary approach to transport.

This would include a reversal of what the party calls “car-centric urban sprawl”, the growing trend of ever-longer car-dependent commutes to city centres from housing estates built without requisite services. 

Ryan added: “The next 10 years presents an opportunity to deliver affordable, high-quality homes close to public transport, to rebalance development away from Dublin, and to create the kinds of villages, towns and cities where people look forward to coming home in the evening. 

“To do this, we need to review Ireland’s spatial planning framework to make it  t for a vibrant, growing country that will achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.”

Pic: Rolingnews.ie