The Ideas Campaign has received ideas from as far afield as Afghanistan, China, Canada, Ethiopia, and Montserrat in the Caribbean.
The campaign also has a worldwide Twitter following, from California and Vancouver to the Netherlands, Turkey, Australia, Athens and the UK.
One tweet came in Spanish from a person in the Canary Islands saying that they could do with an Ideas Campaign there. It was followed by an email with the subject line “Fantastic Campaign and can we borrow it in Scotland?”
The latest sample of ideas received since campaign launch
Agriculture and food
A new organisation with a proposed name of PLANT. Standing for: Plant Land And New Trees.
A “can do” voluntary organisation for three categories: Ordinary environmentally concerned citizens, the same in land owners, and the same in tree nursery growers.
The latest sample of ideas received since campaign launch
Culture
It is great that Ireland can copy the “core competencies” of other developed nations (e.g. excel in “manufacturing” like Japan or the USA). However, this adds economic vulnerability, as recent times have shown, as manufacturers constantly seek lower cost countries for their new base.
Ireland should develop its own competency which cannot be outsourced. Ultimately, when everyone is done with the working day worldwide, they then seek leisure and the arts. Ireland should keep its economic diversity, but should focus on a national core competency.
The Ideas Campaign - latest sample of ideas received since campaign launch
Culture
An Ghaeilge, the Irish language, is a wholly under-utilized resource in this country today. It is under-utilized in packaging or as a “guaranteed Irish” emblem on the food and goods we produce.
It is under-utilised in the way we project our cultural image in tourism or as the key to our natural heritage and history.
The deadline for ideas submissions closed on 31 March 2009.
If you missed our deadline but still have a good idea to share, don’t forget that there are several other ongoing initiatives that broadly share the same aim as us - tapping into the people’s ideas for rebuilding the Irish economy.
These sites that are currently gathering ideas online include:
The Ideas Campaign - latest sample of ideas received since campaign launch
All island economy
My idea is for urban workers on rural farms to operate a match-making service to pair urban dwellers with rural farmers, where the dweller will receive a patch of land to grow food and will provide assistance (work, company, etc) to these farmers who live in isolation, with little prospect of handing on their business to the next generation. Kind of like a resurgence of the rural resettlement Ireland campaign of the 80s/90s.
A total of 5,284 ideas were logged on the Ideas Campaign’s website between the campaign launch on 5 March and 31 March, the deadline for this phase of the campaign. One of the ideas in particular was covered on yesterday’s Six One News on RTÉ 1.
The Ideas Campaign - latest sample of ideas received since campaign launch
All island economy
May I suggest to the Ideas Campaign that an appeal be set up nationwide to specifically help anyone financially who has lost a family home through the recession and who has to continue paying a mortgage.
To follow my late husband’s example I am very happy to pledge a donation towards such an appeal. A suitable motto could be “Is feidir linn”.
* (This idea is very long and detailed and has had to be edited for space reasons).
All island economy
I believe the government should do a review of business in Ireland and in as much as possible identify organisations that are in jeopardy of closing down. Rather than let these companies close I believe the government should allow some relief to them to continue trading.
For example the business could be allowed to forego their contribution to PAYE and/or VAT for a period of time. Naturally there has to be strict criteria defining which organisations can avail of these exemptions.
The benefits for the government are:-
1. They will continue to receive income tax from the organisations employees
2. The will not have to pay the statutory redundancy payments.
3. They will not have to pay social welfare benefits.
4. Local economies will continue to have the benefits of consumer spending.
Construction
Construction projects like metro etc. should be outsourced to international experts like Japan with the clause that they should invest and earn nearly 50% of income by running the services for nearly 5 years after completion. This may bring foreign investment, help local people to get employed in the construction projects, receive optimal project costs, enable learning from better construction firms and later will provide understanding of running services like the metro privately.
Construction
Our government pays out hundreds of millions each year on foreign aid (and rightly so), but instead of sending the money to (sometimes) dictator ran countries, why not benefit ourselves as well as the countries affected?
The idea is that out of work construction & medical workers would be given the option to move to some of the countries that we support for a limited period. Instead of us paying into a foreign account we agree to pay these workers wages to an Irish a/c. In return, the workers offer their services to the countries that badly need our help. The people on the ground are guaranteed the help they need, the risk of the funds going into their leaders back pockets is nullified and we gain by keeping this money in our economy.
Education
Attract more middle class Chinese people to travel to Ireland. The population in China is 1.3bn. If you can get 1% of people to travel to Ireland instead other European countries and make the visa process easier, this will be attractive to the Chinese. In the Chinese culture, people always buy lots of presents when they go abroad. The lovely Irish hand made craft and other designer items in the shops, will be attractive to them.
All the resources in Ireland are all ready to use, no investment is needed. The only thing needed now is to advertise in China, make them aware how lovely a country Ireland is. Lots of Chinese people love River Dance!
* (This idea is very long and detailed and has had to be edited for space reasons).
Education
Consider making the visa process easier to attract more Chinese students to carry out their higher education in Ireland. England and Ireland are really only the English speaking countries in Europe. We should use this resources to make more Chinese students come here and not England.
The one child policy still exists in China; all the parents want to give their child the best, going abroad and having an education will give the child competitive advantage for their future. No need to worry that they will never go back to China, as most young people currently living in Ireland want to go back to home after they gain a few years work experience. If you want to review this idea, simply do a survey among the young students in Ireland.
* (This idea is very long and detailed and has had to be edited for space reasons).
Education
There should be more emphasis put on science from a much earlier stage in school. If as a country we aim to be a very highly educated society then science and technology is the way forward. Getting kids interested at a young age (as in during primary school) in science is much easier than waiting to secondary school and letting kids who do not understand the scope of the choices to pick science subjects.
Having worked with kids to give a demonstration in this area I found that simple experiment like throwing a bit of sodium into water and watching it fizz and bang or showing some tricks using lasers and prisms etc really gets kids interested in the science subjects.
As a side note I believe the current system in place for children making the switch from primary to secondary school and then again from junior certificate to leaving certificate is completely wrong. Giving children the choice to pick which subjects to study is a very innovative idea and has to be commended. But I don’t believe that the children at that age are aware of the implications of their choices. It is only when it comes to looking at the CAO form in 5th or 6th year that you realise that certain college subjects require you to have certain subjects in the leaving cert. this needs to be addressed to ensure that people have an equal opportunity to do whatever college course they want and not be punished by bad choices when they are 12 years old!
I know these ideas may not help in the short term to get the economy back up and running but it will help in the long run by helping to move the economy to a science based economy with high level of education.
Green business
We have a chronic traffic problem within Dublin, with the introduction of the cycle to work scheme this provides a good basis to go on from. Cycle lanes have been a growing sight around Dublin, varying in quality. I would suggest the biggest problem facing the uptake of this is people that would be more than a couple of miles from there work and would not have locker & washing facilities at there places of business. This discourages people from cycling.
If all new business premises over a sq footage were required to provide shower facilities (planning requirement) along with a grant to retrofit existing premises this would have a three fold effect firstly encourage people to become healthier (reducing health problems), creating construction work and reduce pressure on the roads. The benefits of this are long term and localised but would be significant.
Green business
Green cones and composting. A lot of waste still goes into our bins costing bin charges and causing landfill. There is a product on the market called a ‘Green cone’ where all raw and cooked food products can be put into these cones and the green cone product which is a natural food digester reduces your waste to its natural components of water, carbon dioxide and depending on conditions a very small amount of residue.
If schools had composters and green bins, they would save on bin charges and could have free compost for their gardens while being kinder to the environment. A programme could be run in the schools and the children would help make their parents more aware.
Green cones could also be sited in apartment complexes and in green areas in estates or adjacent to recycling facilities. Companies could also be encouraged to have composters and green cones. This would help with waste disposal problems everywhere. Especially in areas that are badly affected by employment, allotments could be made available. This would help people grow their own fruit and vegetables and help disadvantaged people save money. There could be composters and green cones sited on the allotments and obviously the compost could be put to good use there.
Green business
There was a recent announcement about building projects for schools around the country. As part of the plans for these schools, solar panels should be installed on the roofs of each of the schools while they are being built. This would have many benefits for both the schools and green business around the country:
1) The schools will save on their electricity andor heating bills.
2) Green business will be further stimulated with the newly secured business.
3) The promotion of Green Energy Production can be shown to the children of the country on a direct basis.
There is also the obvious benefit to the environment from the removal of tons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Think of the possibility of having, even a quarter of, all the electricity or heating for schools being practically free!
Green Business
Rain water harvesting should be promoted in local towns within Ireland. This will hugely benefit small towns within Ireland. Regular rains within Ireland can make rain harvesting a very easy, reasonable and self-sustaining way to cater for local drinking water demands.
Innovation
We need to create jobs. Jobs that drive export revenue are valuable. Knowledge is key. Four technologies are fast-track changing our world: radio frequency identification (RFID), nano, quantum computing and wireless innovations.
My idea is simple. We scan the world for technologies at market-entry point, and via ‘license deals’ we market these technologies from Ireland to the world. Against this strategy we focus on technologies that add value to business efficiency, sustainability, energy efficiency, environmentally positive & green, health, and security. These new businesses will be flat, ethical, socially aware entities (not just profit driven), matching technology with real global and business problems. We can create thousands of new businesses quickly as we are at the start of the curve in emerging technologies. We just need to define the template so that the license deals and businesses can start immediately at low cost.
Imagine what we can do with a small team focused and driven. Ireland is just a small country to feed, the brand is so positive abroad and we have never had so much potential to drive growth and success whilst doing good.
Innovation
Mobile technology and mobile usage is one area where Ireland is actually ahead of most other countries and it therefore represents an enormous opportunity for Ireland to take a leading role in the next technology wave which is being driven by mobile technologies and the convergence of the mobile phone with the PC. Ireland consistently scores highest in text message usage as compared with other countries.
Mobile banking and mobile payment: now that the Government has a major stake in the banks, they should use this as a way to turn Ireland into the world’s leading market for mobile banking and mobile payment technologies.
The phone of the future is going to be the primary device for making all kinds of transactions and payments - why not encourage and incentivise the Irish banks to offer these services to their customers first, working with some of the key players in the Irish market who provide technology in this area.
The government could lead by example and facilitate innovation and leadership for Irish companies. By doing so they would show other companies throughout the private sector in Ireland - large brands, retailers, transport companies, SMEs, etc. - the competitive advantages they can get by integrating mobile technology into their business.
* (This idea is very long and detailed and has had to be edited for space reasons).
Innovation
Very small or new towns like Lucan, Adamstown etc. in Ireland should be setup as testing grounds for new technologies / innovations. International companies should be able to distribute their innovations like gaming consoles, laptops, food/cleaning etc products to these towns and results/feedback can be collated that will be beneficial for such companies. Companies will benefit for results from communities that are available to test such innovations. Communities will benefit from the promotions. Ireland will benefit from their provision of such a service and companies can be charged for provision to such testing grounds.
Pharmaceutical / bio pharmaceutical / medical devices
We should have a radical look at the clinical trials directive and its application to Ireland. Major drug companies have pulled out of Ireland as a clinical trial base because of bureaucratic legislation and difficulties in running such trials in Ireland. A task force should be in place to look at impediments that could be smoothed to bring back this lucrative source of income.
Policy
The Government has to raise a lot of money to meet the increasing demands. The bloodstock industry has never been taxed to date. There are huge ‘cover fees’ for stud horses. I suggest that VAT at the highest rate be introduced for this industry which has always escaped taxation. It is after all a ‘luxury’ industry.
Policy
Tax incentives should be available for companies that setup businesses in small towns like Wicklow, Wexford etc. This will help in generation of jobs in counties other than Dublin. This will create a local working culture and develop new towns within the country. It will also prompt service providers like telecom and broadband etc. to provide reasonable offerings in all counties. Additionally, it may reduce carbon footprint as people will commute shorter distances.
Policy
Small businesses - which have a turnover of under €500,000 per year, should have a VAT holiday, to enable us to get through these very difficult times. When things get better, it can be re-introduced. It would be seen as a symbolic support for small businesses and help alleviate the huge pressure.
Retail
There must be so many “riches” (shoes, clothing, handbags, hats etc) lying around idle in people’s lofts and attics or hanging idle in cupboards - all relics and products from the Celtic Tiger-boom. Items that are very often quite new and not often worn. Something should be done with those riches!
Suggestions:
1. Create the (economic) environment for the set up by private individuals of good second hand outlet-shops. Copy the way these chains are organised.
2. Create a tax / financial environment in which these individuals can set up their outlets - both from their own homes (in residential areas) and / or at affordable rates from venues in shopping malls that are currently empty. Knife cuts both ways: an active flow of low-profit commerce in 2nd hand clothes is assured, while the shopping malls do not have dreary looking empty spaces, no squatters, and no vandalism.
3. Simultaneously: set up of an awareness-campaign in the Irish media (for instance breakfast news on radio and local newspapers) that Celtic Tiger way of thinking is out. The campaign should underline that status symbols of the tiger-period are no longer seen as status symbols, that taking active part in riding the wave of recession is cool and a sensible way also in the years to come, to be kept going even after the recession will have ceased to be. People should become aware of the fact that they are not the helpless victims of the recession, but that they have a choice and be creative.
(This idea is very long and detailed and has had to be edited for space reasons).
Services (local)
Investors should be encouraged to open and run more private hospitals like Beacon to provide private maternity and other surgeries. Government should provide free land to such investors in return for a joint share of profits from such hospitals. This will help in long-term revenues, possible reduction in long waiting for surgeries and learning’s from running private hospitals may help in improving public hospital facilities or vice-versa.
Sport
I have noticed that due to negative PR in relation to the various corporate boxes that are owned by the financial institutions in Croke Park that in certain cases and specifically the Anglo Irish Bank Corporate box that they have been instructed not to use them so they now remain empty for all matches at the venue.
My idea is that all financial institutions at the insistence of the government now open these boxes to charities and disadvantaged children’s causes such as Barretstown and treat our young and disadvantaged kids to a great day out courtesy of the people of Ireland. It would make a big difference rather than the bankers “entertaining” so called clients at our expense. Who knows it might even inspire a new generation of sports stars in our country. The key here is to PR that initiative in order that everyone gets to know about it.
Tourism
Given that tourism is so important to Ireland, it is amazing how grotty the scenic parts of the country have become. Would it be possible to offer people living in designated tourist spots a free review of their property outlining how it could be made more in tune with the landscape and (in many cases) less of an eyesore? Follow this up with subsidies for renovation work and we could see construction workers back in business and rusty old corrugated sheds replaced with locally sourced stone and slate out-buildings.
Tourism
The government need to review the Cork to Swansea car ferry service. The loss of this service has a big effect on tourism in Cork and Kerry. People in these two counties are trying to collect 3 million from business people to restore this service as the government won’t pay this. If this service was up and running, lots of tourists would avail of it, and the 3 million would be back in the country in no time as tourists coming have a knock on effect for all hotels, shops, bars, restaurants, bookmakers, service stations and employment.
Phase two of the Ideas Campaign was launched this morning following a huge response by citizens to create ideas for Irish economic renewal and recovery.
A total of 5,284 ideas were submitted on our website between the campaign’s launch on 5 March and last night (31 March), the deadline for this phase of the campaign.
Traffic to the website approached almost 48,000 visits during the same period, with a typical visitor spending approximately 4.5 minutes on the site.
International interest in the campaign is also now considerable and represents 17% of traffic.
Policy, education, environmental initiatives and tourism were the top categories for ideas submitted. Three out of four ideas logged from overseas came from people born in Ireland.
Action is the theme of phase two of the campaign, which involves:
“This is the start, not the end of the Ideas Campaign, which is independent and non-political,” said Campaign Director Aileen O’Toole.
“The response we have received shows that Irish people are creative, resourceful and want to focus on solutions to the economic problems.”
An expert Advisory Group has started the process of evaluating the ideas received, while four accountancy firms (Deloitte, Ernst & Young, KPMG and PwC) are assisting the campaign team to review and evaluate the ideas submitted.
The Ideas Campaign - latest sample of ideas received since campaign launch
Construction
Allow/encourage/facilitate the construction sector to operate three 8-hour shifts per day, especially on infrastructure projects (e.g. new roads) where there will be no/minimal disturbance from noise/light pollution during evening and night shifts. This will speed up these projects, and increase employment in the short term, and might get us over the hump until things start improving. It will also see us better placed to capitalise when the recovery comes.
Culture
Consideration should be given to insist that at least 10% of all advertising revenue for the TV channels should be directed towards the development of home produced TV programmes and films. This would incentivise the TV channels to commission home produced programmes, creating employment opportunities. This country needs a TV and film industry, and some people may think we have one, but it is based on exploitation and a hand to mouth existence.
Education
My idea is one that could solve the university fee problem as well as creating employment. It would be in the form of a government run ‘third-level credit’ scheme.
For at least a year after leaving school, students would work in community-service jobs such as: visiting elderly folk, cleaning beaches and forests, and earn credits for their college fund.
They could also receive a basic living wage and would have the option of working longer hours for extra pay if they wished. They would have to build up a minimum number of credits in order to secure their place. They could also receive credits based on their performance in transition-year projects and other extra-curricular achievements throughout their second-level schooling. Jobs would be created at a supervisory and management level.
In addition to saving families the burden of having to pay large fees, students would have more time to decide what they really wanted to study (or not) and there would be a natural opt-out from those who really didn’t want to attend college in the first place.
Education
There is much talk today of the importance the teaching of foreign language at primary level education, this would be a very expensive and yet a vital introduction as Ireland is currently ranked amongst the worst in Europe at learning foreign languages. A stigma we need to change if we want to build up any sort of a reputation.
I propose that while the government is waiting to introduce it into the curriculum they should issue a recommendation to all schools to try and organise after school classes in languages such as Chinese, Spanish, and French etc. It would cost the government nothing, and all the principal or the teacher in the school would have to do is find a teacher to teach the language. The school could charge the teacher 2 euro per student per class they take. This would provide extra spending money for the school and a job for a potential unemployed person.
Green business
The generation of electricity from renewable energies, and wind energy in particular. Its biggest drawback is that the renewable energy is variable. Therefore storage and electricity interconnection to other markets are key.
I believe that the construction of several pumped storage hydro electricity plants, like Turlough Hill, would greatly increase Ireland’s security of supply and allow us to bring more wind energy onto the grid. The efficiency of these plants would be 60-70%, which would be more efficient than other alternatives such as storing the energy in a chemical form i.e. hydrogen, methane.
Innovation
In trying to set up a new business recently I experienced a delay with the Companies Registration Office of 3-4weeks to register the business name and provide documents - even if you submit new company or trading name details online. On contacting the CRO I understand that the turnaround time has been up to two months until recently. If any new business wants to open a bank account or register a .ie website they need these documents from the CRO first, so are at a virtual stand still. This does not encourage or assist new business in Ireland.
Therefore my idea to assist all new businesses setting up in Ireland is simple
Innovation
This idea aims to address the difficulty we have with innovation in Ireland and to support our small companies to become more research intensive. At the core of the idea is that we need to develop our skills in the adoption and use of new technologies (not just their development for export) and the government has a responsibility to take a lead in this.
One of the significant challenges for the creation of innovative companies in Ireland is the lack of a local market - Ireland is not, with rare exceptions, an early adopter of new technologies or services.
We should aim to unlock the expertise in the civil and public services and encourage them to act as innovation partners by procuring innovation from small companies at the cutting edge of research - e.g. have the Gardai procure research projects to develop innovative security systems, have the Dept of Education procure research to design new innovative educational technologies, have the Dept of Health procure research into new medical products…
Industry can be encouraged to participate in this scheme by allowing money spent via this mechanism to count towards an R&D tax credit.
(This idea is very long and detailed and has had to be edited for space reasons).
Manufacturing
Waste to insulation. Turn waste and recycled glass into insulation in the form of foamed glass. We currently export waste glass for recycling.
Policy
I propose that there are no more Lotto ‘roll overs’ during this recession. If there is no winner of the weekly Jackpot the money should be allocated to a specific government department to reduce budget deficit. I am sure the people of Ireland would support this.
Policy
There should be a national regulation that all energy and water monitoring systems in Irish buildings must be continuously monitored using low cost wireless technology, by 2011. This will result in a ‘live’ map of energy and water consumption in Ireland. Assuming a number of devices per building this will create a market demand which will help develop an indigenous wireless and industry in Ireland and make Ireland a leader in this field, if managed correctly.
(Ireland lead the world in trans-Atlantic wireless 100 years ago, we need another Marconi!!)
Policy
I work as a Garda. My colleagues and I spend a huge amount of time attempting to execute warrants. These arise out of unpaid fines issued in courts. The “offender” has been fined, say €100 or 5 days imprisonment in default of payment. They often ignore or forget to pay the fine and a warrant is issued.
A Garda may accept payment of the fine, or the Garda can take the offender to prison to serve the sentence stated on the warrant. People are taken to prison for sums of money less than €100. This person then spends a few days in prison for non-payment of a relatively small amount of money. Also, policy states I must take this person to prison by taxi!
I recently brought a man to prison for an unpaid fine in the region of €500. The taxi cost around €350! Never mind the cost of two Gardaí to accompany him. My suggestion is that people, on conviction, should provide their bank account details or a consent form for deductions to be made by their employer or social welfare department.
A direct debit/pay deduction at source could be consented to, which would allow that person to pay their fine at an agreeable amount over a given period. Even people in receipt of social welfare should be in a position to pay fines in a drip-feed manner. A person paying a mere €2 a week would have a €100 fine paid off within a year which is a lot quicker than many warrants in the present system. If the offender stopped payments before completion, a warrant could then issue and be executed as they are now. This would save countless Garda hours, prison places and the ridiculous scenario of using taxis to transport prisoners.
This would cost nothing to implement and could automatically eliminate tens of thousands of warrants executed by Gardaí every year. I hope this falls within the scope of your campaign. If not, please feel free to pass it on to anyone you fell may have an interest.
Retail
Encourage the removal of the copper coins, having the lowest denomination the 5 cent coin. This has to be a handling nightmare for retailers. I don’t believe their value exceeds their handling costs to both people and government. Although this might be hard to achieve because of Europe. It’s worth looking into.
Services (International)
As we cannot compete with low cost based manufacturing it is time that we look at exporting or providing business knowledge to the eastern European countries that are currently able to manufacture. What I mean by this is as follows; we set up an Irish company which hires the best minds available in every field of business from management right through to sales.
As with most eastern European companies the majority of the management skills are developed from the old soviet style working system and this is a major hindrance to there expansion and work practices. The company would then negotiate a share holding in the company and provide all the relevant experience required to build the company up, producing a higher value on the company what this in turn will achieve for the Irish company is bring in revenue which is passed on to the economy in its self creating more jobs at home with the spending available to the staff and taxes and also as the company is expanding giving it a larger presence on the international stage thus giving it the snow ball effect and over a period of time a highly valuable Irish company which has an Irish workforce but works completely outside of the island.
Services (local)
Have a system whereby loss making companies can apply to stay open by employing university students on short term work experiences in fields generally related to their course subjects/expected career area, similar to UL’s co-op programme. Only loss making companies could qualify and any excess profit made would be given to the state. Students would be able to write off this work against student fees which are inevitably going to come in. The state benefits by having the permanent workers still in work instead of paying unemployment benefit. Students benefit by getting relevant, hands on experience and potential employment prospects with these companies when the economy turns around and would pay less college fees
Technology
LED based lights present a much more efficient and cost effective solution which can not only save the public money in the long run but will also pay for the roll-out across the country. There should be an immediate ban on the purchase of any incandescent light bulbs for street lamps, if one breaks; it’s replaced with an LED based bulb instead. A program needs to be implemented to convert all street lamps to use LED bulbs.
Benefits - drastically reduced electricity costs (up to 88%) in some instances
- LED Bulbs have a much longer lifespan than incandescent bulbs
- Reduced ongoing maintenance costs (the bulbs are practically indestructible)
- Reduced carbon emissions to help us with our EU targets
Tourism
Our tourism product is in need of development and diversification in an era when Irish weather has become (even more!) unpredictable, prices are high by international standards, and low airfares and packages are available to a myriad of destinations with at least semi-guaranteed good weather.
Hotels need to be proactive and organise more themed weekends (from mystery weekends to ballroom or ceilí dancing to bridge) to tempt people away for a winter break at affordable prices. Heritage tourism and specifically-themed tourism packages need to be further developed and promoted. In general, we need a far better selection of tour products … at the moment, the only well-known options are the high-priced luxury hotel based bus tours (mostly availed of by American visitors) and the very successful Paddywagon tours which are geared mostly to backpackers.
Shorter 2 / 3 day bus tours, with good standard but more affordable accommodation, need to be developed. Or why not offer, for example, the facility to book a variety of tours of Ireland using your own car, where the supplier books you into suitable accommodation each night and provides you with a range of itineraries / options for each day (based on your stated interests) to choose from as you travel by easy stages around the country / your chosen region? For those coming from abroad, a hire car might be an optional part of the package.
Transport
The Idea: “car pooling” is famous and successful wherever it was applied. This is in practice for many other developed cities.
The solution: Provide the permission to use the bus lanes for cars which carry 3 or more adults during busy hours. How it works: Find people from the neighbourhood or on the route that has a similar destination and share the car with them. When the passengers are 3 or more they can use the bus lanes to reach their destination. This can be done creating a website for people to find their fellow passengers.
Benefits:
1. If 4 people are sharing a car, this will take 3 cars off the road during busy hours. I have noticed that 90% of the cars, using the city roads in the morning, carry a single person. When 3 cars are off the road 3 parking spaces will be created in city. Three car spaces will be created on the road. Fewer cars means less pollution to the environment. Less petrol will be used. Fewer cars on the road, means traffic will move faster.
2. Each week each person can bring the car so that they all can share the cost equally without paying to each other
3. The single parking space can be used for all four cars. The less demand for parking spaces will also bring down the parking charges and waiting time to park vehicles.
4. While travelling to city I have also noticed that the bus lanes are free most of the times. The taxi’s do take only 15 or 20 minutes to reach city in the morning. If people are allowed to use bus lanes they can reach their destination in good time, which will definitely contribute to production hours. More production means more income generation.
* (This idea is very long and detailed and has had to be edited for space reasons).
Transport
In the US, you can turn right at a red light (In our case, left). This could have the effect of freeing up traffic, shorter journey times for deliveries, and a positive impact on the environment with less stationary engines turning over.
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