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DUBLIN CITY COUNCIL has no plans to introduce congestion charges for cars entering the city centre, while charges for the highest emitting cars are being considered as part of a review by the Department of Transport.
Congestion charges and Low Emissions Zones (LEZs) are two forms of traffic management that are in place in cities across the world.
Congestion charges – which are in operation in the cities of London, Singapore, Stockholm and Milan, among many others – involve charging cars a daily rate for entering the city centre, with some cities charging more during peak traffic times or not charging during the weekends.
Certain cities then have an additional Low Emissions Zones (LEZ) or Ultra Low Emissions Zones (ULEZ), which charge the most polluting cars that enter them.
In London, which first introduced congestion charges in 2003, the daily rate is £15 (€17.50) for all vehicles without an exemption to drive in the congestion charge zone (CCZ). An additional charge of £12.50 (€14.60) a day applies to older petrol and diesel cars. Electric vehicles are currently exempt, though this is due to change.
City officials recently extended ULEZ to all London boroughs, despite some strong local opposition.
Negative effects of air pollution
There have been multiple calls from politicians and environmental advocates and experts for similar charges to be brought in in Ireland, particularly in Dublin City, to tackle high-level traffic and pollution.
Social Democrats TD for Dublin Central Gary Gannon told TheJournal that the introduction of a LEZ in Dublin city should be “considered strongly” for “reasons of basic health”.
“The north inner city has some of the highest levels of respiratory problems in the country,” he said.
“So I don’t think anybody has the right to pollute anybody else. I think we need to take practical solutions in terms of how we address that and Low Emissions Zones for me would be central to that. This is a matter of basic health.”
According to John Wenger, Professor of Physical and Environmental Chemistry at University College Cork, air pollution is “the largest environmental hazard that we experience, so reducing our exposure to that hazard is beneficial”.
Air pollution can have negative effects on people’s respiratory and cardiovascular health. The two main pollutants are nitrous oxide (NO2) and particulate matter. NO2 is associated mostly with emissions from vehicles, while particulate matter is associated with the burning of solid fuels.
“What we know about Nitrous Oxide in particular is that it does affect people with asthma, there is an increased incidence of asthma in places where there’s high levels of NO2,” he said.
We know that there is a connection between NO2 and asthma as well, and other negative health effects too.
Air quality in cities
The legal EU air quality limit for No2 in the atmosphere is an annual average of 40 µg/m3. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has monitoring stations set up across the country to ensure that levels of pollution aren’t exceeding the limits.
While certain monitoring stations have on occasion exceeded these limits (in 2019, St John’s Road West in Dublin near Heuston Station went above the threshold), in general the air quality in Ireland is marked by the EPA as good.
The most recent clean air report for Ireland, published last month, found that NO2 limits weren’t breached at 31 stations across the country. However, the report found a number of localised issues, including higher levels of NO2 as a result of traffic in bigger cities.
In these areas, while the legal N02 limit was not breached, the more stringent World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines of 10 µg/m3 were surpassed at a number of stations.
In its Clean Air Strategy, published earlier this year, the Government commits to moving towards meeting the WHO guidelines by 2040. Commenting last month, Dr Micheál Lehane, Director of the EPA’s Office of Radiation Protection & Environmental Monitoring, said meeting this commitment would be “challenging”.
“This highlights the immediate challenge to move towards the WHO air quality guidelines in the Clean Air Strategy,” he said.
While undoubtably challenging, the significantly positive impacts of clean air on health are clear and the report identifies some of the actions that are necessary to achieve the health-based air quality guidelines.
Meanwhile, other forms of monitoring show that the situation of NO2 pollution in Dublin city may be worse than the levels picked up by the EPA.
A recent joint initiative between Dublin City Council and Google’s Project Air View measured pollution in the city over a 16-month period. The results were published earlier this year.
In many areas, the level N02 in the atmosphere significantly exceeded legal limits. For example, at Doyle’s Corner in Phibsborough the level of NO2 was just over 55 µg/m3, with many other areas between the two canals in the city also exceeding the limits.
As well as this, as reported recently in IrishCycle.com, the National Transport Authority (NTA) published a number of environmental reports as part of its BusConnects plans, and found that NO2 limits went above the legal limits in a number of areas.
Doyle’s Corner
On rainy morning last week at Doyle’s Corner at about 8.30am, traffic pushed heavily from the North Circular Road towards the city centre and in the opposite direction towards Cabra.
Further down on Dorset Street, vehicles stretched all the way back down Drumcondra Road. An incident on Phibsborough Road had closed it off for the morning, and cars, vans and buses were bumper to bumper as they had to be diverted down Whitworth Road.
As the traffic snaked along slowly, people beeped from time to time and drivers sat in their cars – usually the sole occupant of the vehicle – and waited for the lights to change.
James Towell waited at traffic lights on his bike, cycling from to where he worked in Walkinstown, across the city. Towell said that most mornings he either drove to work on the M50 motorway, or cycled through the city centre.
“I would take public transport, but it’s very slow,” he said.
Taking a bus in is slow, but if there was a faster way to get into town, public transport would be better.
The M50 will take me about 40-50 minutes, but if I take a bus into town and a Luas out it will take me about and hour-and-a-half, so there’s no real incentive. I have no incentive for public transport.
Towell said he would support congestion charges in the city centre in general, as for most cars there should be “no need” to go into the city if they were are working elsewhere.
Government plans
In response to queries from TheJournal, a spokesperson for Dublin City Council said that congestion charges were not being considered as part of it plans to reduce traffic in the city centre, and that it did not have legal authority to introduce low emission zones.
“Dublin City is committed to reducing car use within the city by prioritising public transport walking and cycling,” they said.
“It has an ambitious City Centre plan out for consultation at the present whose aim is to deliver the changes in the city necessary to deliver this low traffic city.
Congestion charging is not currently being considered by Dublin City Council. DCC does not have the legal authority to introduce low emission zones.
Dublin City Council will fulfil the commitments made in the Dublin Region Air Quality Management plan which is envisaged will reduce air pollution levels to meet the proposed WHO standards.
A spokesperson for the Department of Transport said that it was currently working on a new National Demand Management Strategy with the aim of reducing congestion and freeing up roads.
Under the Climate Action Plan 2023, the department is committed to a 50% reduction in emissions from the transport sector and a 20% reduction in vehicle kilometres travelled by 2030.
“A wide-range of measures are being considered at this early stage to help achieve this ambition including, given the co-benefits for air quality and people, Clean Air Zones or Low Emissions Zones,” the department spokesperson said.
Implementation pathways, including the need for new or revised legislation, will also be considered as part of this process.
They also confirmed that any proposed measures will be contained in a draft strategy which will go out to a public consultation early next year, subject to government approval.
Any possible introduction of LEZs or congestion charges would likely be met with strong resistance from from a number of areas, including certain retail business owners in the city centre who state that the charges will damage their livelihoods.
According to John Wenger, however, reducing traffic going into city centres will be necessary to improve air quality and help Ireland meet its climate targets.
“All these controversial things that some people won’t like. But I think we’re at the stage where it’s not just also about the emissions that affect health, it’s the emissions that affect climate,” he said.
It’s a win win. If we reduce the number of car journeys, the number of cars, vehicles on the road, then we are going to reduce emissions to improve air quality, we’re also going to reduce emissions and help mitigate against climate change.
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Another attack on freedom and private car ownership. Motorists are already taxed prohibitively with VAT, VRT, annual motor tax, fuel duties and insurance levies. The motor tax and carbon tax on fuel are based on/aimed at reducing emissions but apparently this isn’t enough and we need an additional tax. “This is a matter of basic health” sounds more like “I know what’s good for you and by God I’m going to make you do it, whether you like it or not”
Dublin traffic used to flow better before all the bike lanes were inserted over the past three years.
Some of these bike lanes are hardly used while traffic sits backed up like never before along side the empty bike lanes
@Gregory Daniel: I’ve been saying this for years, look at the quays along the Liffey, you could fit an arctic truck in the bike lanes but barely any cyclists use them.
The bus lanes are the same, it would make more sense to only have them restricted to buses at rush hour times, between 7-10am and 4-7pm.
There’s no joined up thinking in this country from Dublin Corporation or successive governments. They say they want a greener city but all we have is tailbacks of traffic with their engines idling.
@Gregory Daniel: That’s what wokeness does to a city.
@: ‘wokeness’ haha
Go woke….don’t choke!
@Andy Felthersnatch: I think you need to take off those rise tinted glasses. The quays were always overloaded long before bike lanes. Add in a big growth in population and they’d be worse again. Cars are not a long term solution
@Tom Dillon: There you said it all by yourself I’m sorry I have no rainbow coloured lollies left to give you.
@Andy Felthersnatch: There is generally not many traffic issues between 10 and 4. Its between this time that the traffic moves freely as most people are on work. Alot of bus lanes are open to the motorists between 10 and 4 already if people read the signs they would see this.
Very few people seem to notice this through Drumcondra for example and sit in the car lane not aware they can use the bus lane.
I’ve been saying it for years. They need 10 times or even more buses on the roads between 6am and 10am and 3pm and 7pm.
I was on the road for the first time in a long time at 9.30am on a Wednesday and it was standstill on the motorway!
If buses were a lot more frequent and €1 to use the bus during peak hours it would be a lot more realistic to introduce congestion charges.
Our transport system is just so inadequate. The current system is already under strain with 100s left stranded at bus stops already during peak times.
Imagine if 100s more joined the bus queues!?
We need to tackle the transport inadequacy first.
@Rafa C: Need to go underground enough it enough, the city is choked with buses and white vans. Have a look at D’Olier st, you have four lanes of traffic buses & taxis all fighting to get in one lane at College Green that is shared with the Luas. Also they cant get the staff, the 41 near me regularly regularly doesnt show and the serves our national airport!
@Kevin O’Hara: Buses are stretched – needs to cater more to the city outer limits. The bus depots should be situated on the outskirts of the citys – take each starting point of a motorway as an example. Build park and rides. And have bus terminals sending out buses every 5 minutes between 6am and 10am for €1 travel between these times.
12 buses leaving every hour – for 4 hours
48 buses in 4 hours
And the same from the opposite end of the motorway going opposite direction.
We need 1000s of buses for rush hour traffic.
And servicing the furthest reaches of the motorways with park and ride facilities that are free.
@Rafa C: The NTA would have a heart attack reading this stop talking sense!
@Fiona Wyse: Sorry about that! ROFL
@Kevin O’Hara: Are they the white vans the people drive that work hard to build and maintain the city you live in?
@Rafa C: we are in ireland,joined up thinking is not a thing here,just look at eamonn ryan going off half cocked buying 134 electric buses at a cost of about 55 million that we have no charging infastructure for,they now are sitting in storage somewhere racking up big bills for lying idle
@Rafa C: I really don’t believe they have our best interests at heart at all, they just want your money. If we all got rid of our cars and walked or bussed it they’d just up the bus fares and charge you a walking tax.
@Lydia Mcloughlin: Yeh I know. Shoe tax would increase or something.
Dublin City centre is already struggling to survive let alone prosper. Take out tourists, and the number of people in Dublin drops hugely. There are, already, many empty retail units incl on Grafton St. A congestion charge will kill Dublin. Much of the current congestion is caused by DCC !!
Think COVID restrictions were bad?
Wait till the Climate Fanatics get their fangs into you. You’ll be afraid to breathe.
@Tommy Haze: They were great for traffic
@Tommy Haze: for people with respiratory illness they already are and it’s getting worse.
Whoever support or come up with this kind of fees and charges will not be re-elected.
It won’t be long before Dublin city centre is deserted,No people,No shops,No jobs…
I’m not saying it’s the only problem but are you telling me there is nobody out there that can synchronise the fecking traffic lights. Millions of man hours wasted unnecessarily each year because of incompetence.
And does anybody stop to think why we have so much congestion in Dublin it’s because the green party got rid of all the filter lights for turning left or right so everybody has to sit behind each other causing congestion. Its the fault of the Green party for all this mess, bringing traffic to a standstill. And then thinking the Irish people are stupid then by introducing congestion charges caused by the Green party what a mess of a country
What about the people who work in our hospitals, powerstation, firestations, garda, water treatment facilities etc that are all localised in dublin city who work shift and live outside of Dublin City? It’s not a small group of people and it is totally unfeasible for them to get public transport due to working 24/7 365.
Another way to squeeze money out of you and that’s all it is!!!
Dublin Port is routing heavy goods trucks through Northside residential road system, and planning expansion without clear service routes, due to the inadequacy of the Port Tunnel. This tunnel cannot route hazardous goods trucks,all of the higher containers, car/machinery/ prefab construction transporters.
So all these drive through Dublin alongside commuter traffic, packed bus’s, past homes, schools, churches and retail zones.
These 48tonne loads of explosive goods, deadly chemicals, etc, move through 24/7 without any separation,safety monitoring, or regard for the emissions or noise afflicted on the communities.
Meanwhile,high frequency Bus Connect is increasing city diesel traffic,whilst EV bus’s lie idle!
These defects need to be remediated urgently to improve air quality and safety.
Our costal waters are polluted . Look at the Dublin coast . You cannot swim in poo , our rivers and lakes are also polluted but the so called greens are more interested in gouging money rather than addressing actual environment issues that we can visibly see .
The first picture in the article explains the problem really well. We prioritise cars over buses (or other public transport) in our road design so they get stuck in traffic, disincentivising people from using them. Unless and until we stand up to entitled drivers when designing roads (see most of the rest of the comments), we won’t solve traffic problems in the city, with or without a congestion charge.
@Vincent Frideo:
“Entitled drivers” as you call them pay a lot of money to keep a car on the road and are penalised at every opportunity. It is those that pay nothing to use our roads that are the entitled one’s.
@Regular John: all drivers pay a lot of money to keep a car on the road, not only entitled drivers. The irony is that the money they pay goes nowhere close to paying for the roads they use even though they do by far the most damage to the infrastructure. As long as they prevent faster and more efficient modes of transport from getting priority, then not only do they create a net loss to the exchequer, they also prevent other people who do less damage to roads from getting where they want to go more quickly.
@Vincent Frideo: Yes im an ‘entitled’ driver that needs to drive as no public transport to my job in a hospital which I’ve worked at for 20 years across the city at 630am. But somehow im now ‘entitled’. It’s a joke. Sick of this constant bashing.
@Lilly Lalogue: As you’ll have read above, I differentiated between “driver” and “entitled driver”, so I’m wondering which of the following you’re identifying with when you say you’re an “entitled driver”.
Is it:
- You object to any and all attempts to prioritise public transport so that the majority of commuters can reach the centre of town quickly and predictably, even though it would ultimately take cars of the road that delay your journey to work?
- You scream whenever car parking spaces are reallocated to other uses and park anyway on the pavement because you think you’re entitled to park next to the front door of anywhere you’re visiting?
- You never stop at lights behind the advanced stopping line but regularly encroach on pedestrian crosses and bike boxes because you don’t care about intimidating anyone not in a car?
- You object to speed controls that would make residential streets safe?
- You think that although your car creates more costs to the exchequer than the motor and fuel taxes you pay, you reckon those taxes mean that no one else should ever use roads?
If you don’t engage in any of these behaviours, then I’m not sure what you think you’re an “entitled driver”. Maybe you could explain?
They can shove their congestion charges up their hoop. The absolute BRASS of it all.
@Ross O’:
Yes. As if motorists aren’t gouged enough at every opportunity already.
Warranted and necessary, but it’s unavoidably elitist. The real problem is why we all have to be commuting at exactly the same time, during the pandemic we were able to observe a much more workable system but with willful glee, we have abandoned any learnings. Yes, do the congestion charge but some thinking around the movement of people and goods would be amazing, since the massive success of the Luas nothing has happened in transport. We’re supposed to believe Ai is taking over while sitting at moronic traffic light systems invented in the 1800s ffs.
Another good reason, as if it was needed, not to visit our squallid capital.
Just close the Cities down all together. Put a “Closed for Business” sign at each entry point of our Cities. Eamon and the Cabbage heads will have loads of room for Cycling around. They might have to get off their bikes occasionally to clear the Tumble Weed. On the streets out of their way.
As always, Dubs think they live in a bubble and the rest of the country doesn’t exist.
Congestion zones. In a country with no meaningful public transport?
So just more taxes on non-Dubs who are forced to go to Dublin because our entire country is obsessed with one city.
Our little island could of been truly a Emerald Isle we where 20 odd year’s behind other countries and these current policies are not new , ulez in LDN was put out 10 or so years ago. Where we had no problems yet we followed other countries and copied their blue prints. When we we should of been looking ahead not creating the issues others had in the name of progress.
Next they will be taxing all human beings for polluting the atmosphere exhaling carbon dioxide..When will it ever end?
Havd to comment as this seems to be one of very few articals one can comment. Journal locking us out again such as Tony houlihan artical
@james dooley: agreed James…and not by chance. However when I see this at least I know that what the article is about is probably incorrectly protrayed or just plain propaganda
Ban all internal combustion vehicles in city centres, also all private cars and provide good, high density electric public transport.
Result no pollution, no congestion, car parks available for redevelopment as something useful.
This is not even hard.
@Steve O’Hara Smith.:
What a load of nonsense…
@Steve O’Hara Smith.: The part where you said provide high density electric public transport. Yeah that seems to be hard because they can’t do it. They are good at producing reports and videos and brochures. Oh and public consultations but nothing ever actually gets built.
Congestion charges are a tax plain and simple. If you don’t want cars coming into the city just ban them for people living outside the canals. Build proper Park and Rides with a proper bus service from them into the city. Just Stop Taxing The Motorist!!!!
this is NOT about health…lets be 100% honest here and stop pretending
The article argues the congestion charges should be introduced to improve air quality.
Then it states that emissions from cars is not really a problem most of the time.
The expansion of EV cars and busses is the real solution to reducing traffic emissions and that is already happening.
Did we build a metro? Either metro north as it was or metro west? Did we put in the dart underground? Did we build the numerous LUAS lines that were planned? All of these things were deemed necessary over 20 years ago and the only things that happened were 2 LUAS lines going south and a small extension north to broombridge. Given that the populations has increased dramatically since even those days and almost none of what was planned took place from an infrastructure point of view why are congestion charges even being mentioned? That is the type of thing you do when you have good alternatives for people. We don’t. We didn’t invest.
have your say