One of the less-celebrated joys of working for yourself is not having to do the daily commute. This daily grind can be a true purgatory. Not having to do it is a much under-estimated luxury, which is only truly understood when you are stuck in a traffic jam, infuriated and anxious.
Yesterday, I was in a taxi heading to Heuston Station to get the 9am train to Cork and I experienced the sad reality of the clogged N11 at 8am. As the taxi whizzed up the bus lane, bracketed by buses moving equally swiftly, we passed thousands of motorists stuck in the jam.
They do this every morning, and they choose to do it.
But more worrying for the city is the fact that traffic congestion is back up to boom-time levels. All you have to do is listen to the remarkable Dublin City FM either in the morning or the evening to get a sense of the chaos on the capital’s roads.
We hear similar reports on national radio about debilitating tailbacks in Cork, Galway and Limerick.
This will get worse because car sales are rocketing and the more cars on the same roads, mean less space for all of us.
Traffic poses huge costs on the economy in terms of the enormous amount of time wasted in traffic, the massive amount of our disposable income spent on petrol and, obviously, road building and road repairs, not to mention the cash forked out on cars themselves.
We tend to think of traffic as a fact of life, like taxes.
But it’s not a fact of life; or at least it doesn’t have to be.
But before we talk about potential logical, economics-based solutions, let’s examine why traffic is so insidious. At the core of macroeconomics is this counter-intuitive idea that what is good for the individual is not always good for the collective.
When I jump in my car because I couldn’t be bothered getting the bus, I feel more comfortable initially, but my action adds a tiny bit to the traffic problem.
So when you add up all the people like me who choose the car over public transport or car-pooling, we all make sure that together we make the outcome worse for all of us. But we can’t see that or cost that when we make the decision to drive.
So had I decided to drive to Heuston and added one more car to the sheer weight of traffic, I would probably have added fractionally to the misery of my fellow drivers by adding a few extra seconds to their individual commutes. When you add all this up, the total cost of the misery is significant.
However, like lots of things in economics, we can never really assess the overall impact of our individual decisions, so we don’t worry about them too much.
So how do you solve it?
At the heart of the problem is that everyone wants to use the road from 7am to 10am and then again in the afternoon at rush hour to come home. Apart from that, the roads are relatively empty.
It’s a space problem. At rush hour, road space is too cheap so there is no reason not to drive. So make it more expensive when everyone wants it, and cheap when everyone doesn’t.
So the economist would say it’s an incentive problem. Charge the punters who choose to drive and we might make some progress. Given that we can do almost anything now with automatic tolls such as the M50, we could just charge the people who choose to drive alone, taking up space.
You could add it to their phone bill, for example. If the charge was steep enough, only die-hard rush-hour commuters would choose to drive in the most expensive times. This should free up the road for car-pooling or buses or the Luas or whatever more efficient method there is.
But there would be howls from the car lobby suggesting that the driver is already crippled with taxes and now here’s another one. This is an understandable view, and one that’s hard to argue with even though you are simply protecting drivers from themselves.
Those who choose to pay the tax are rewarded with much swifter and enjoyable commutes to work, less fuel bills and less time wasted in the car.
But we could go one further. Maybe we could introduce choice into the game so it isn’t seen as an exercise in crime and punishment.
Paul Krugman, the Nobel prize-winning economist, discussed this notion many years ago. He compared roads to houses with views of the sea. Take, for example, the view of Dublin Bay: it is restricted because there are only so many properties that can have this view, so they are more expensive to reflect the fact that people want to wake up looking at the sea.
The problem with the roads is that there are no higher prices on the road to reflect when demand to use them is high.
What about creating ‘rush hour coupons’ and include them in the price of every car sold in the Dublin area? Each coupon would be worth, let’s say, a tenner. Then people who take the bus and leave their car at home could trade the coupons for cash.
They could then be rewarded for their ‘good’ collective behaviour. In contrast, people who still wanted to drive would have to buy the coupon and they would pay for the pleasure, but they would get the uncluttered commute.
The people who don’t use the car can use the cash for whatever they want.
Could this work? Of course it could.
The more you use, the more you pay. We could save huge sums due to the cost of traffic and maybe we have a few more chilled people coming into work first thing in the morning who haven’t suffered from a bout of road rage.
That can’t be a bad thing, surely?
Late start lads, early bird catches the worm.
Morning, 7.27am here, 27 degrees C in the shade.
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A car is a very personal space that can be accessed at any time 24 hours a day, every day.
This super convenience and flexibility is most difficult for Public Transport to compete with.
However, they must try.
The long term solution perhaps is private helicopters?
In time that would breed its own congestion and dangers.
Perhaps David’s suggestion is the right one and leave the citizen to choose the solution that best suits them, even though expensive.
Is this and different to the congestion charge in London?
It keeps the roads available for the elite.
Great article David – thought provoking and progressive.
This is gridlock – Antigua Style.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4OC4sef9964
Check the guy at the end of the short video – in the yellow t-shirt.
‘Oh mon, it’s total gridlock!’.
On a more serious note, I would NEVER ‘commute’ (that’s the sanitized word) to a job.
Wasting the one and only life I have away for hours a day so I can sell my labour at a massive loss to make money for some other arsehole?!
Forget that!
People are mad – life is too short for that sort of carry on.
In Dublin the issue is poor transport planning within the Dublin area, unless a journey a straight into and out of town on the same route is very difficult to use public transport to get around Dublin. In addition transport planning appears to focus on getting commuters in and out from the extended commuter belt and not facilitating journeys to several parts of the city ie. Try getting to four industrial estates around the city by public transport in a day. Until somebody bites the bullet and creates a real comprehensive transport plan which includes a sensible well planned underground… Read more »
This approach attacks the symptom and not the disease, and would be if implemented be simply another form of taxation on many the people who have no choice but to use a car and cannot evade the charge. The disease is a history of poor urban and spatial planning, allied with a cultural mentality that can’t see past an agrarian past and consequentially has deeply ingrained prejudices against many of the basics concessions required to make a modern successfully functioning city. I mean, we all know and enjoy them when we visit them; take Berlin for example, or Amsterdam. Amsterdam… Read more »
public transport needs to be improved before you charge more for using your car. I’m not anti public transport, I happily used it in London and despise using it in Dublin. There are numerous problems, it’s not frequent enough, bus timetables are irrelevant, journeys take too long, for some odd reason there are no maps on the bus stops leading people to guess where the bus will stop between harolds cross and the city centre. Also the bus drivers are possibly the most miserable people on the planet who will purposely go out of their way not to accomodate people.… Read more »
Most people do not chose to commute at dawn and dusk David; they are obliged to by the socio-economic system we all live in.
Personally I think the taxation or tolling solution is just another layer of regressive finance capital economics.
The solutions to serious social issues lie beyond the realm and ken of finance capital…which always seeks a solution that involves enriching itself.
David,
Try catching the 145 to Heuston(or town as I do every morning) between 7 and 10am at Cabinteely on N11. We actually need a functioning public transport system before we start imposing penalties on people for not using it.
David,I hate to say it but this is the biggest load of tripe you have ever written! As a tax paying motorist of the highest class 1600 euros PA [on a 1995 2.8 Mitsubishi current value about 1000 euros,simply like many other people I cant afford ridicilously over priced,under equipped in comparison to their EU counter parts new car.I’m already pissed off immensely that I an financing somone better off to be able to drive an newer mosdel and more eco friendly vechicle with my road tax. I am paying tax on diesel,tax on tyres ,on spare parts and labour… Read more »
David, you are finally ready for politics. You sound like a finance minister who has thought of a brilliant new way to tax people. Charging commuters for urban road use will only do one thing – make workers demand higher wages. This might cause some new businesses to set up outside Dublin, but not many. Existing businesses won’t go to the trouble of moving, they’ll just end up paying more for staff. Higher wages will decrease our international competitiveness. The idea that a significant number of commuters will switch to public transport because of a charge is nonsense. Most people… Read more »
Got a problem, tax it. Never met a problem I couldn’t fix by taxing it! Alternative,flexible hours for the work place would work better. Open the work day to 24 hours and let people decide how to fill their day. Most workers are not required to be a part of a machine that must start at 8 am and finish at 4 pm to be shut down the rest of the time. Some currently prefer the night shift and drive to work in serenity. I prefer not to work at all, live on an island with no traffic lights, yet… Read more »
OR, David you could do an engineering based, win win analysis. A couple of examples. Extend the Luas from Cherrywood to Bray. This would relieve some of the traffic congestion on the M50. Run the oft mentioned spur from the Dart to Dublin Airport. This would relieve traffic on both the M50 and the N11. Both those infrastructural upgrades would also open up building land that is well provided with public transport. Provide more, MUCH moe park and ride facilities. Bray has become a giant parking lot, eg Bray Wanderers are doing very nicely thank you. Bottomline stop treating cars… Read more »
Did the Indo actually publish this nonsense?
It reads like the kind of tripe I’d expect from Newstalk’s Shane Coleman (who has just come on the radio – time to switch over).
This is a good read while you’r stuck in a traffic jam on the beltway and beats listening to the local disk jockey.
http://davidstockmanscontracorner.com/anything-trumps-hillary/
Recounts the unmitigated disaster that is espoused by the likes of Clinton.
Perhaps Trump with a non interventionist attitude will allow others to live their own lives without being told how and where to do so.
Quote of the day on lemetropolecafe.com
“This is one race of people for whom psychoanalysis is of no use whatsoever.” … Sigmund Freud on the Irish
“Globalist mercantilism is an authoritarian curse that removes choices from people’s lives and substitutes regulation. It is funded and driven by central banking – and by financiers – not by NATO.
Monopoly central banking was basically founded in London and to a large degree London financial “City” remains its seat of power.”
http://www.thedailybell.com/news-analysis/what-brexit-supporters-have-wrong-about-the-origins-of-the-eu/
Something else to read while stuck on public transit.
And just like that the Government-Corporate machine deftly ignores one of the most significant democratizing events in Irish and European history. An event that possibly deserves recognition in the archives of great civil rights victories…ignored. The victory of the Irish people having been secured, against the will of 99% of the nation’s political institutions, against the sustained and co-ordinated onslaught of every major media outlet in the country, against security force surveillance, intimidation and interference, against years of preceding IMF, EU demoralising austerity measures, their attacks on the community, and their war on the people through material and psychological means… Read more »
Good one mike. But I do no even attempt to fly first class as the lay down seats are too narrow and hurt my bony elbows. i enjoy my 20 year old E320 Merc for the comfort and the gismos included. Not the least of which is the “climate control” and the air filter ensures I avoid the foul exhaust of others. sometimes I enjoyed it enough to allow me to relax between appointments and did not mind being a little late.{:-)
What kind of an impact would there be if public transport was free during rush hours?
Yep, what about the Luas drivers demanindg 50% plus payrises, who are in effect driving up the costs and investment needed to make public transport in Dublin.
Dublin – how not to run a city.
The morons in DCC do not inspire any confidence. They had a proposal to reduce traffic speed to 16mph in central Dublin.
I have a better solution.
Remove VAT from broadband. And scrap that idiotic proposal to force through another Irish Water styel quango tax on internet connections.
Thereby letting people stay in the suburbs and avoid the key bottlenecks.
Want to get to grips with gridlock? Make horses more expensive?
Try a post enlightenment solution, e.g. Create more suitable, ‘competitive’, forms of transport.
You are missing the point Mike. Reducing the size of cars will make little or no difference to congestion. Perhaps only in the likes of a huge metropolis with huge car jams.
https://firstordercondition.wordpress.com/2011/03/07/how-many-roads-should-a-car-consume-to-carry-people-to-their-workplace/
Create roof top gardens and ride the horse to work. Using a horse is faster than grid lock and the horse manure will be valued and scooped up to fertilize all those city roof top gardens I read about.
All you need is a hitching rail and a small bag of oats and a pail of water.A good horse can trot at 12-15 miles per hour. Faster in Km’s
Ride ’em cowboy!!
Another well paced & very readable & thought-provoking article from David. However, I would not agree with his proposed solution ; Reasons for rejecting his proposal include : 1. It is another unfair tax 2. There are superior [ more effective, & more efficient, & more economical, for the users inter alia ] options per the “plain old non-rail land transport network” to : a] greatly reduce the occurrence of the stated causes b] greatly reduce the impact of the stated causes. Indeed, David’s proposal would most likely result in only negligible reduction in traffic volume at the intended periods.… Read more »
Economists never cease to amaze me with their almost total lack of ability to predict much more than tomorrow’s date. Increase the cost of driving? Really? That’s it? The expert advice from the our, very expensive, leaders and nobel prize winners? There are too many cars on the road so increase the cost of driving? It’s so pathetic it’s difficult to know where to start. There’s a bit of meme at the moment, describing our world as having entered into the ‘post Enlightenment’. Is this an example of post enlightenment economics? Economics drawn from little more than a form of… Read more »
Here is the real gridlock. The right to free speech curtailed.
Tolerance is preached by those with no tolerance for those they deem intolerant.
Oxymoronic and oafish.
The US is now subjected to its own version of Arab spring with protest organized, funded and promoted by the new world Order. We should be very afraid as our freedoms are stripped by the rent a mob yobbos. Look carefully under the veil, behind the curtain and the money meisters will be seen.
http://www.gopusa.com/?p=9320?omhide=true
Freedom is never attained , it must constantly be fought for. The battles of old still rage today.
https://youtu.be/-Vd4Yo-m58o
Trump supporter kicked and hit by rent a mob
All thing go in cycles What goes around , comes around. GREAT TRUTHS ABOUT SUCCESS At age 4 success is . . . . Not piddling in your pants. At age 12 success is . . . . Having friends. At age 17 success is . . . . Having a driver’s license. At age 35 success is . . . . Having money. At age 50 success is . . . . Having money. At age 70 success is . . . . Having a drivers license. At age 75 success is . . . . Having friends. At… Read more »
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jHPOzQzk9Qo
Looking on the bright side
BC Lumberjack
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQOMxz-O7Sc
David Icke- Wake up Tour
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NmY7aP6Jbgo
Every would-be politician & existing politician is afraid of trying to emulate Ron Paul.
That is a pity.
But, understandable ;
Because, there is a short-term price & a long-term price to pay by Ron Paul for having the temerity to challenge the dreadful few.
Meanwhile, back on centre-stage ;
While he would be better than Hell-ary, Trump is also a Shill for the dreadful few.
And, get a load of this from Aanirfan.blogspot.com ;
http://www.aanirfan.blogspot.com/2016/04/trump-is-neocon-warhawk.html
http://www.aanirfan.blogspot.com/2016/02/trumps-foreign-policy-trump-and-child.html
http://www.aanirfan.blogspot.com/2016/04/trump-rape-wayne-madsen-mike-rivero.html
Obviously if u have been scholarly enough, u would understand that the Bankster Scam Bundle [ BS Bundle ] is the ultimate cause of the “plain old non-rail land transport network” Gridlock ; And, here is the greatest authority on the BS Bundle ; vis. Mr. Eustace Mullins ; Author of “The Secrets of the Federal Reserve” which G. Edward Griffin : plagiarized performed a damage-limitation exercise on for the benefit of the Rothschilds, as “The Creature from Jekyll Island” published so as to take from Mullins’s livelihood. Another very informative & easy & witty listening lecture from Eustace Mullins… Read more »
@ Grzegorz Tonight I was speaking with an very knowledgeable industrialist from continental Europe, & he privy to the inside track that u would never uncover from the main stream media nor the internet. He assured me that even in Netherlands the unions are playing games against the public in regard to the punctuality of the state transport system [ buses, & trams ]. This has been going on for a very long time. Thus, versus the corrupt transport system of the Netherlands, Dublin Bus & Luas are so corrupt that even the Netherlands’s transport system looks virtuous. Another important… Read more »
Dublin & Cork should seriously consider having an “elevated rapid transit system” ; e.g. Vancouver, Canada https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SkyTrain_(Vancouver) Bangkok, Thailand https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BTS_Skytrain Politicians — if NOT using own personal monies — allowed to inspect the Literature & Exhibits & Virtual Reality ONLY ; No Junkets. Same for the Civil Servants other than the top relevant Engineers. Recruit the know-how from the Thai if more smart to do so overall ; They surely would have soaked up as much as possible from the foreign input into their projects. Consider accessing know-how from Japan & China, & other industrious nations. Anyway, practise the best… Read more »