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Taxi's and Port Tunnel

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    #32
    monument
    Moderators, Motoring & Transport Moderators Posts: 14,073 Mod ✭✭✭✭monument


    RuggieBear wrote: »
    i see it as public transport...with a very high fare.

    I can live without owning a car as i can get buses/trains for most of my journeys and get the occasional taxi for those that i can't.

    By giving taxi some of these privileges it encourages me not to add to the gridlock by getting my own car and using it for pointless little trips which public transport can accommodate.

    That's just how i see it.

    The thing is, when you or others want or have to do such you should be treated like car users who want to have to do such.

    The idea behind buses getting to go for free in the tunnel (and having bus lanes etc) is giving concessions to bulk carrying* public transport, not just public transport.

    (* as said above this is done by seat numbers, not the amount of people on board)


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    #33
    Ham'nd'egger
    Registered Users Posts: 3,025 ✭✭✭Ham'nd'egger


    Terrontress wrote: »
    I'd definitely stump up for a taxi license then for my missus and I travelling to work in Donnybrook from Donabate each day. She could be the passenger. Use bus lanes and tunnel the whole way. Hopefully they would make the East Link free too. Weekly train ticket is €25, times 2 is €50. €2.5k per year. Free road tax on a taxi as well as free tunnel. It would pay off the costs in no time and you'd have a quick journey into town. And if you're skint, go out and work a few taxi hours.

    Have you a PSV licence to allow you to drive a taxi were you to do this?:)


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    #34
    Capri
    Registered Users Posts: 4,499 ✭✭✭Capri


    Took my cousin from Donnybrook to the Airport via EastLink and PortTunnel, 14.30 on a Friday. Drove back via Drumcondra / Matt Talbot bridge / Leeson St. 4mins and .75km in the difference! Not worth paying €6 -€12 extra on taxi fare for ?


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    #35
    Terrontress
    Registered Users Posts: 3,888 ✭✭✭Terrontress


    Hamndegger wrote: »
    Have you a PSV licence to allow you to drive a taxi were you to do this?:)

    No, I don't although I understand, from reading here, that it is remarkably easy to get one. You can buy the answers for the test in the Herald, pay someone else to sit it for you or else pretend to be from a minority and get a lowered pass rate.

    Then all I need is a banger, a meter and a roof sign and I am good to go.

    As for the road tax issue, I'm sure that not all taxi drivers use their car for taxi work alone. There must be loads of people who ferry their family around and don't inform the authorities. And if I have my missus in the passenger seat, I am taxiing. Meter will show the maximum fare. I will offer a 100% discount to my number one customer.

    It's an idea that can't fail. The only drawback I can think of is the increased insurance. But I'll get rid of my current car, just use the banger.

    That and the fact that taxis won't get free port tunnel.


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    #36
    Ham'nd'egger
    Registered Users Posts: 3,025 ✭✭✭Ham'nd'egger


    To give a flat fare, you would need your wife to sign a waiver every time she travels with you or you can sue her for non payment if the meter is running :) Oh, and you won't be able to speak to her as she has the right to a "quiet journey" ;)
    Terrontress wrote: »
    No, I don't although I understand, from reading here, that it is remarkably easy to get one. You can buy the answers for the test in the Herald, pay someone else to sit it for you or else pretend to be from a minority and get a lowered pass rate.

    Then all I need is a banger, a meter and a roof sign and I am good to go.

    As for the road tax issue, I'm sure that not all taxi drivers use their car for taxi work alone. There must be loads of people who ferry their family around and don't inform the authorities. And if I have my missus in the passenger seat, I am taxiing. Meter will show the maximum fare. I will offer a 100% discount to my number one customer.

    It's an idea that can't fail. The only drawback I can think of is the increased insurance. But I'll get rid of my current car, just use the banger.

    That and the fact that taxis won't get free port tunnel.


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    #37
    Terrontress
    Registered Users Posts: 3,888 ✭✭✭Terrontress


    I'd say she'd love an enforced quiet journey and she could fill in the waiver on the way in to work.

    If you get to the end of a journey, it's 10.50 and the taxi driver says "make it a tenner" does that require a waiver?


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    #38
    Ham'nd'egger
    Registered Users Posts: 3,025 ✭✭✭Ham'nd'egger


    Terrontress wrote: »
    I'd say she'd love an enforced quiet journey and she could fill in the waiver on the way in to work.

    If you get to the end of a journey, it's 10.50 and the taxi driver says "make it a tenner" does that require a waiver?

    No but it does requires a discount to be written onto the receipt as indeed does a tip. Equally, if the meter says €10.10 and €10 is charged and the 10 cent omitted, the receipt must show same or a driver risks a fixed fine. The waiver covers your absolving the legal obligation of a taxi driver to charge you as per the meter but it then puts into place the obligation to agree to a fixed fare prior to commencement of a trip.


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    #39
    Victor
    Registered Users Posts: 78,298 ✭✭✭✭Victor


    Hamndegger wrote: »
    Oh, and you won't be able to speak to her as she has the right to a "quiet journey" ;)
    Have her drive. :)


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    #40
    loyatemu
    Registered Users Posts: 14,802 ✭✭✭✭loyatemu


    going back to the issue of the tolls - they still haven't got the pricing right...

    I went to the airport yesterday, €3 each way via the tunnel (+ 2 eastlink tolls). It was virtually empty - a handful of cars and literally no lorries. Meanwhile Drumcondra and the City centre were probably quite busy.

    There's no point spending ~€1billion on a tunnel and then having it lying virtually idle. It should be €1 on bank holidays and in the middle of the night, if not free.

    Oh - and our good friends the Gardai had the speed gun out at the southern entrance - good work there guys, I'm sure thats a real accident blackspot (not too mention the fact that the tunnel has it's own cameras).


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    #41
    Ham'nd'egger
    Registered Users Posts: 3,025 ✭✭✭Ham'nd'egger


    loyatemu wrote: »
    going back to the issue of the tolls - they still haven't got the pricing right...

    I went to the airport yesterday, €3 each way via the tunnel (+ 2 eastlink tolls). It was virtually empty - a handful of cars and literally no lorries. Meanwhile Drumcondra and the City centre were probably quite busy.

    There's no point spending ~€1billion on a tunnel and then having it lying virtually idle. It should be €1 on bank holidays and in the middle of the night, if not free.

    Oh - and our good friends the Gardai had the speed gun out at the southern entrance - good work there guys, I'm sure thats a real accident blackspot (not too mention the fact that the tunnel has it's own cameras).

    But here is the thing; the tunnel is intended for trucks and large vehicles to access the port quickly and is deliberately tolled high to help keep cars and small vans out of it. Lower the tolls and you fill it with cars and the trucks can't exit the port quickly. The tunnel is discounted at night and weekends but the truth is that the tunnel isn't much use unless you are traveling to the Port or IFSC or towards the east suburbs so discounting further it doesn't do a lot.

    As for the speed cameras, I can tell you that I have used the tunnel and have been passed out by trucks many a time when I have been doing over 100 (It's an 80 zone) so don't say the guns aren't needed.


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    #42
    Victor
    Registered Users Posts: 78,298 ✭✭✭✭Victor


    loyatemu wrote: »
    There's no point spending ~€1billion on a tunnel and then having it lying virtually idle. It should be €1 on bank holidays and in the middle of the night, if not free.
    Whatever about midnight on a bank holiday, there is a huge advantage to truckers and others that they know the tunnel will be uncongested.

    Also, if it was full, people would be saying it needs to be widened. :)
    Oh - and our good friends the Gardai had the speed gun out at the southern entrance - good work there guys, I'm sure thats a real accident blackspot (not too mention the fact that the tunnel has it's own cameras).
    The tunnel cameras can't be used for issuing fines.


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    #43
    loyatemu
    Registered Users Posts: 14,802 ✭✭✭✭loyatemu


    the tunnel will be uncongested in the middle of the night even if it is free, it would then save people time and petrol and make the streets of Dublin safer. there has to be a point between full and congested at which we are making use of the tunnel that we have spent a billion euros on. The current toll structure suggests they haven't found that point.

    as for the speed check - can anyone seriously suggest that the run-in to the tunnel is a accident blackspot. Apart from the fact that hardly anyone uses it, theres no pedestrians or cyclists and its fully segregated. The reason they were there is because its a big road with a 50km/h limit on it and therefore easy pickings.


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    #44
    markpb
    Registered Users Posts: 9,256 ✭✭✭markpb


    Victor wrote: »
    Whatever about midnight on a bank holiday, there is a huge advantage to truckers and others that they know the tunnel will be uncongested.

    I think the main reason they're so careful to limit the numbers of vehicles in the tunnel is to do with the HVAC system. If memory serves the operating limit for the HVAC is lower than the operating limit for the tunnel. I could be horribly wrong though, heard that ages ago from a guy who claimed to work for the company that installed the system.
    Victor wrote: »
    The tunnel cameras can't be used for issuing fines.

    Apparently they have been measuring the speed through the tunnel (end to end rather than at any one point) and so many vehicles were over the limit that they're examining the possibility of using them to issue fines.


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    #45
    Victor
    Registered Users Posts: 78,298 ✭✭✭✭Victor


    loyatemu wrote: »
    as for the speed check - can anyone seriously suggest that the run-in to the tunnel is a accident blackspot. Apart from the fact that hardly anyone uses it, theres no pedestrians or cyclists and its fully segregated. The reason they were there is because its a big road with a 50km/h limit on it and therefore easy pickings.
    The problem is the severity of an accident in a tunnel is much greater than one on an ordinary road, so I think your "easy pickings" is akin to a cheaters charter.


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    #46
    Fratton Fred
    Closed Accounts Posts: 26,567 ✭✭✭✭Fratton Fred


    If the toll charges fitted in with ferry arrivals and departures then i could understand it, but they just seem to be there to maximise revenue.

    There's no point having it free at night though, its never bloody open when I try and use it and if it is, drivers need an e-toll because the booths are unmanned half the time.

    I know its for lorries and buses, but it is criminally under utilised which is why i think allowing taxis to use it foc would be a good idea. get them off the main routes and save their passengers a couple of quid on fares or tolls.

    I also think that anyone driving to or from a ferry should get a vastly reduced rate as well. maybe this could be ordered at the time of booking or given out on the ferry.


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    #47
    RuggieBear
    Registered Users Posts: 17,958 ✭✭✭✭RuggieBear


    Fratton Fred wrote: »
    If the toll charges fitted in with ferry arrivals and departures then i could understand it, but they just seem to be there to maximise revenue.

    There's no point having it free at night though, its never bloody open when I try and use it and if it is, drivers need an e-toll because the booths are unmanned half the time.

    I know its for lorries and buses, but it is criminally under utilised which is why i think allowing taxis to use it foc would be a good idea. get them off the main routes and save their passengers a couple of quid on fares or tolls.

    I also think that anyone driving to or from a ferry should get a vastly reduced rate as well. maybe this could be ordered at the time of booking or given out on the ferry.

    i heard a rumour that it was closed at weekend nights due to joy riding....that could be complete BS by the way.


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