Summary of ideas submitted in the Transport category…

• Offer free Park and Ride facilities to move people onto public transport.
• On the assumption that Garda cars (and Ministers’ cars, Army cars etc) are under a fleet management contract, the terms of these agreements should be increased from whatever term they are currently on by an extra one to two years.
• On the major routes to all cities and towns put in place toll booths. Decrease charges if there is more than one occupant in the car.
• Open bus lanes for car pools that have three or more passengers during peak hours
• Open up Dublin Port Tunnel at a nominal charge. The tunnel is currently at less than 10% capacity.
• Paths and cycle tracks do not necessarily have to be by the roadside. By relocating these provisions cycling/walking as a means of transport may appear more attractive and healthy.
• Pay for motor tax through petrol consumption. Add up all the motor tax generated in one year and divide this into a litre of petrol. Those employed in motor tax should be moved to social welfare to speed up queues. Higher consumption cars will pay more tax.
• Personalised registration for cars.
• Personalised registration for cars. (There were several similar ideas submitted)
• Plant trees to improve the quality of life in residential areas.
• Private buses should be allowed to operate on routes which Bus Eireann has secured for itself.
• Privatise Baldonnel Airport and open it to the public.
• Privatise Dublin Bus and Bus Eireann.
• Privatise some Dublin Bus routes for a number of years. This would generate immediate income.
• Privatise the public bus service.
• Promote and design a tunnel system connecting Ireland to the UK, Europe and North America.
• Promote Shannon as a hub of European travel to the United States. Have a supersonic train between Dublin and Shannon capable of doing the journey in less then 40 minutes.
• Provide free public transport funded by a levy on fuel and urban car charge on private cars. Results would be less traffic, less carbon emissions and the opportunity for transport to expand and create more jobs.
• Provide free travel to people on jobseekers allowance on off-peak times to enable them to go to interviews. In turn, cut their allowance by €40.
• Public transport should be made more user friendly.
• Public transport should be more frequent to colleges. There should also be a better service to the airport.
• Public transport should have integrated ticketing for bus, Luas and trains.
• Publish the costs of each month’s accidents. Let people realise how much it costs the tax payer for accidents
• Rail freight connections should be provided between major ports and the operation of the service should be tendered.
• Rail services between major towns and transport hubs such as ports, airports etc should be improved.
• Reduce all public transport to €1.
• Reduce fuel costs etc.
• Reduce taxes on fuel for haulers.
• Reduce the costs of tolls. This would prevent hauliers using roads that are not able for such large vehicles.
• Reduce the number of traffic lights and ensure that those traffic lights in place are synchronised. Also replace the traffic light pedestrian crossings with old fashioned zebra crossings.
• Reduce the pay and display to €1 a day for Park and Ride, encourage people to use public transport.
• Reduce traffic flows by developing large, efficient Park and Ride facilities along M1. The ride being a shuttle bus that utilises the tunnel to connect with Luas red line at Point/O2 and city southside (e.g. Tara Street Dart).
• Reform the motor tax system based on CO2 emissions (old and new). Have an NCT on car emissions and tax accordingly.
• Regulations regarding driving a foreign registered car in Ireland should be enforced properly. Too many people are avoiding VRT by failing to register the car properly.
• Reintroduce a scrappage scheme for old cars to incentivise people to trade up