Tolled roads or old roads.....

Grimreaper666

...that is the question, if the number or tolled roads keeps increasing will you keep shelling out for them or will you start using the old roads again? If someone could add a poll to this it would be great, thanks. It would be interesting to see the result.

VinnyTGM

Start using??
I never pay the M50 toll, I prefer to sit in traffic in the city centre.

jimmycrackcorm

When I have the time I tend to skip my journey via the m50 and m1 tolls.

shedweller

I would go out of my way to avoid them. To "stick it to the man":rolleyes:
You see, if we all lie down and take this nonsense then it will only get worse. Is anybody going to do anything about this plague?

R.O.R

Excellent.

If the rest of you keep off the roads, I'll save even more time and money while you all fritter away (expensively taxed) fuel and precious time.

-Corkie-

Oh god. Another toll thread. Jock101 will be delighted. Wheres Anan when you want him...:)

kippy

It depends I suppose.
There are those out there who could have the option of using tolls every day and may find them expensive, then there are those like me who have the opportunity to use the tolled roads pretty irregularly.
Due to this, I alway prefer to go via the tolled roads.
Two weekends ago I went Galway - Belfast. less than 3.5 hours on a hassle free journey. Cost a tenner or so each way but I was:
Less tired, felt safer and was in the pub faster.

Same to Dublin whenever I have to go there.

frank gooding

In the van tolls aren't an issue lucky for me, but I do like when I go across the strawberry beds.

Bro lives in Enfield still very busy despite the motorway and 80kph

Any word on Navan and Dunshaughlin since the motorway open, I would say always worth the first toll at least, not so much the second one.

mrsoundie

After hearing from Mr Dempsey during September, that all road tax, Tolls, Minsters Breakfast Rolls etc would be put onto the Fuel. I believe that this is another old FF trick, slip the real option in early, wait and then give them the an unpalatable option, thus the first option is welcomed with open arms.

I await the real decision.

Then again, lets vote the incompetent gits out. :rolleyes:

shedweller

R.O.R wrote: »

Excellent.

If the rest of you keep off the roads, I'll save even more time and money while you all fritter away (expensively taxed) fuel and precious time.

-Corkie- wrote: »

Oh god. Another toll thread. Jock101 will be delighted. Wheres Anan when you want him...:)

Oh God is right. God forbid we might actually talk about this subject. Would you rather we didn't talk about it and quietly pay more tolls?
Boards is pro-toll thats for sure.
Many of the tolled roads have optional bypass routes that may take a teensy bit of extra precious time:eek::eek: but we are encouraged not to use them.
I for one would rather not hand over nearly two weeks wages to use a road. This being on top of the cost of motoring of course.
But it's a privilege to use a road isn't it. Not a right. Yeah right.
We should be thankful to be able to hand over thousands per year to use our roads that we paid to build.:rolleyes:

fryup

old roads for me, i don't mind dodging the toll by going through Borris on Ossory and Mountrath when on the M7

> the traffic is lighter on them now anyway

corktina

you wouldnt use a train for free, you'd happily pay for a ticket, why not pay to use the decent roads? it's only small change really compared to the other costs of motoring.

Grimreaper666

corktina wrote: »

you wouldnt use a train for free, you'd happily pay for a ticket, why not pay to use the decent roads? it's only small change really compared to the other costs of motoring.

Yeah but if we accept these new tolls they'll be more come after them and more after them. The more we accept without resistance the more they'll be, a halt has to be brought to them somewhere. It amazes me how willing people are to pay so much money for so little and the money that's collected is just squandered away at every turn.

mrsoundie

As far as thinking that these here roads we travel on are free, dream on.

According to the AA and their saint in residence Conor Faughnan, the Irish motorist is the most taxed of any in the EU, wish that would be reflected in the roads.

http://www.herald.ie/national-news/motorists-have-always-been-a-cash-cow-for-every-euro20-you-spend-on-petrol-euro14-goes-to-the-exchequer-2331473.html

http://www.farmersjournal.ie/2006/1118/ruralliving/countrylifestyle/feature.shtml

http://www.independent.ie/business/waiting-for-the-end-of--vrt-dont-hold-your--breath-290362.html

http://blog.aaireland.ie/?p=452

And it goes on and on. Exasperated I am indeed.

mickdw

Due to my memory of traffic tailbacks into dublin from the west on sunday evenings a few years ago, I will always pay the toll. I know on the occasions where the tail back would be starting near edgewordstown, I would have gladly paid €100 for a free flowing motorway to appear in from of me.

Meteoric

I'm from Galway and live in Co. Wexford. At the moment it costs me 2.90 on the N4 and 1.90 on the N6 to get home, then I have to get back again for work. At the moment it's worth it for the time it saves, three and a bit hours vs 4 hours ish cross country. If the changes mean more than that each way, I'm going back to cross-country with no tolls and only the odd slow driver you can't overtake.
Small change I know to those of you who commute through a toll bridge more regularly, it's only 1 to 4 times a month for me but still I'll be stopping using the toll roads. Driving there costs enough in fuel etc. without more than an added tenner for the sake of a couple hours.
The proposals will toll me on the N-M11, a couple of times on the M50 in addition to the existing tolls and no one can convince me the PPP companies will take less on their existing toll booths.

corktina

Grimreaper666 wrote: »

Yeah but if we accept these new tolls they'll be more come after them and more after them. The more we accept without resistance the more they'll be, a halt has to be brought to them somewhere. It amazes me how willing people are to pay so much money for so little and the money that's collected is just squandered away at every turn.

we dont have a lot of choice just now....we gotta raise a lot of dosh fast before the country sinks altogether, or would you rather close a hospital or two?

Viper_JB

corktina wrote: »

you wouldnt use a train for free, you'd happily pay for a ticket, why not pay to use the decent roads? it's only small change really compared to the other costs of motoring.

You'd happily pay for a ticket granted...but if you had to pay for a ticket, then pay for the fuel, then pay 60% tax on top of the fuel, and 30% tax ontop of the ticket and then have the train stop half way so you could pay a toll, then have to pay tax at 21% on top of that toll AND pay rail registration tax on a yearly or quarterly basis for using the rail lines, then being legally obliged to buy insurance with tax and a 3% government levy/tax...AND THEN get told that you're not paying enough as is and have every single one of those costs raise by 5% - you may not be so happy. There's only so much weight the motorist can carry most of our backs are already about to brake under the constint expense. I mean it is a bit mad when you think about how much money we put into it really..

Cookie_Monster

corktina wrote: »

we dont have a lot of choice just now....we gotta raise a lot of dosh fast before the country sinks altogether, or would you rather close a hospital or two?

I'd rather the ridiculous levels of welfare and PS service spending on pay were cut to reasonable levels. There's 15bn or so saved.
maybe they might even consider putting 1% of that into fixing the crumbling road infrastructure while they're at it.

Max Power1

Wouldnt pay a toll. Never have, never will. I pay enough in motor tax and duty on fuel. They can fix up the roads if they want me to pay extra on top of the taxes and duties that I (we all) pay already.

neilthefunkeone

Currently my drive to work doesn't involve a toll.. Tallaght to Leixlip(m50/N4/M4) If they do toll it id prob go out by fonthill and cut in the back there.. cant imagine it being too much longer..

Will all depend on the Price!

Heroditas

corktina wrote: »

you wouldnt use a train for free, you'd happily pay for a ticket, why not pay to use the decent roads? it's only small change really compared to the other costs of motoring.

Correct, I wouldn't expect to use a train for free. However, that's a different issue.
This "plan" to stick tolls on roads that are already built is comparable to you buying a rail ticket in advance and then when you get on the train being told you have to pay extra.

Once a toll is introduced, it can be increased.
You'll never see it decrease or be done away with.

-Chris-

Grimreaper666 wrote: »

If someone could add a poll to this it would be great, thanks. It would be interesting to see the result.

Poll Added

shedweller wrote: »

Oh God is right. God forbid we might actually talk about this subject. Would you rather we didn't talk about it and quietly pay more tolls?

I think the point is more that there are 3 or 4 other active threads about toll roads and when that happens the threads invariably start running parallel and people end up making the same point repeatedly across the various threads.

It's easier when there's one thread to address the subject.

shedweller wrote: »

Boards is pro-toll thats for sure.

Welll, let's keep an eye on the poll and see.

Is it that you think there's a boards.ie pro-toll conspiracy, or do you think that the community that posts here have weighed up their choice of time/effort vs cost and made their decision appropriately.

shedweller wrote: »

I for one would rather not hand over nearly two weeks wages to use a road.

Even on the dole that's €392 per week. Where are you going that you're racking up this kind of toll cost?
Or is this over a longer time period and you're just being sensational?

shedweller

-Chris- wrote: »

Is it that you think there's a boards.ie pro-toll conspiracy, or do you think that the community that posts here have weighed up their choice of time/effort vs cost and made their decision appropriately.

I do think its some kind of conspiracy because anyone that comes on here with differing opinions on tolls get ridiculed and sidelined.

Even on the dole that's €392 per week. Where are you going that you're racking up this kind of toll cost?
Or is this over a longer time period and you're just being sensational?

The cheapest toll on the m50 is afaik 2 euro. Twice a day, five days a week for 50 weeks, for a commuter using it to get to work spends 1000 euro per year. Thats more than an average weeks net wages.
Sorry, i wasn't clear about the year bit so i see how it looked sensational. But 1000 euro from a persons net wage is a lot and is a good bit more than the average weeks wage. I personally don't use the m50 every day and have refused a a job (back in the celtic tiger days! lol) based on both the hassle at the time to use it and the cost. I got one later that paid more and didn't involve tolls so i did ok.
That is my opinion and i'm entitled to it without being ridiculed. I'm sure there are a lot of people out there that would rather not hand over approximately 1000 euro per year.
My reason to abandon tolls and use a fuel surcharge is this: The relative few who use them pay a lot to do so. If everybody that owned a vehicle in the country paid a small fraction of that as a fuel surcharge then there would be no need for tolls (and their expensive running costs) and we could all use the motorways. Much more equitable and fair in my opinion.

I'm interested in the french thing mentioned earlier too though. I wasn't aware of the fact that they pay no motor tax etc. So this makes the toll thing easier to accept in that instance.
All our great leaders seem to do in Ireland is layer tax after tax on top of each other without any consideration for anyone other than themselves.
A bit more intelligent thought would be nice.

_Kaiser_

It all depends on where I'm going and how much of a rush I'm in..

If I was heading to Dublin I'd probably just use the M3 and pay the tolls, but if I wasn't in much of a hurry, I'd come off at Kells South, take the old road into Navan, and then rejoin the motorway having bypassed one of the tolls.

I wouldn't be using the M3 as much though if I was going up and down every day mind.. even less if I needed to go across the M50 as well.