The cost of travelling to work is becoming unsustainable

ted1

_Kaiser_ wrote: »

You're joking right? Coolock to Rush on a bike?

I know this forum is obsessed with cycling anyway, but it's not actually the solution for every trip!

Why am i joking ? For ten years I was driving 50km a year, 2.5 years ago I changed jobs and am now office based, I have a 40km commute each day (20km each way) in Jan it'll increase to 70km each day or 1 hour 25 each way.

I'm 16 stone in my late 30s. Cycling is a very legitimate form of transport

end of the road

ted1 wrote: »

Because if your not working you don't need to be anywhere.

says who. based on what.

_Kaiser_

ted1 wrote: »

Why am i joking ? For ten years I was driving 50km a year, 2.5 years ago I changed jobs and am now office based, I have a 40km commute each day (20km each way) in Jan it'll increase to 70km each day or 1 hour 25 each way.

I'm 16 stone in my late 30s. Cycling is a very legitimate form of transport

I suggest you check out both locations on Google Maps if you haven't already and then imagine doing that trip over the coming months. You'd be insane.

Maybe the more "hardened cyclist" might attempt it but I can't see it being a trip most would want to undertake.. especially if they have an alternative!

Cycling is fine for getting around the city centre or to/from the suburbs, but the journey in question is a little further out on very different roads.

elperello

ted1 wrote: »

Because if your not working you don't need to be anywhere.

You might be going to a hospital appointment, to visit and help out with a sick relative while someone else goes to work, to volunteer with a charity, taking kids to school etc. etc.

ted1

elperello wrote: »

You might be going to a hospital appointment, to visit and help out with a sick relative while someone else goes to work, to volunteer with a charity, taking kids to school etc. etc.

So those people aren't available for work and shouldn't receive JSA. Hospital have staff and the relative can generally cope for an hour.

If someone is volunteering for a charity why should they be getting free travel , should they not be working ? I've no problem with people volunteering but if they are getting free travel then that's a charity donation and I'd rather select what charity my taxes go to

end of the road

ted1 wrote: »

Hospital have staff

yes, i should think they have. we haven't got a staffless health service quite yet. either way if someone has to be at an appointment then they have to be there and that's it.

ted1 wrote: »

the relative can generally cope for an hour.

based on?


i'm afraid it's not other people's job to change everything so you can get a seat on the train/bus/whatever. public transport is for the people.

Chuchote

If we had a decent government, they would have changed three things: Dublin would be building a serious network of broad separate and protected cycleways, rent would be capped, and the State would be building homes.

Cycleways because 40% of all journeys in the city are under 4km - a 10-minute cycle; there's rarely a reason such a journey has to be done by private car. And getting all those travellers out of cars would free the roads for good public transport.

They've done this in Vancouver and it's changed the city very much for the better:

https://vimeo.com/183441272

Rent cap because it would stop people buying houses to rent them out for profit, and allow renters to make a permanent home in their house or apartment.

The trouble is that the Dail is packed full of private landlords; they're not going to make laws that don't serve their own interests.

And the State should be building homes for two reasons: council houses have always been built to a high standard of materials and construction; and a good supply of council houses would stick a pin in the rapidly expanding balloon of house prices.

They don't have to be ghettoes for the poor, either: Simon Coveney's point that mixed housing is what's needed is very true.

Council housing is a huge cost..... folks commuting to work will pay for it but don't benefit from it.

Also no doubt people want go be in D4 council houses rather than ones in Cavan.

Excuse the extremes for purposes of an example.

Chuchote

Augeo wrote: »

Council housing is a huge cost..... folks commuting to work will pay for it but don't benefit from it.

Also no doubt people want go be in D4 council houses rather than ones in Cavan.

Excuse the extremes for purposes of an example.

People who rent council houses also work.

Others gain from council housing because a good supply of well-built council housing prevents a price bubble caused by undersupply of places to live.

Of course people want houses in Dublin; the idea that it's good national policy for great herds of people to be using polluting private cars to bring them from the far geographical reaches to work in Dublin is insane. It's much better value to bring down the price of housing in Dublin, and build good cycleways so people can whizz around the city instead of sitting in polluting gridlock.

Annasopra

Augeo wrote: »

My point referred to the last 5 years, not the present moment.

You can't say government policy is not reponsible for now

Annasopra

hatrickpatrick wrote: »

Why is everybody focusing on the car tax aspect of the OP? The cost of a DART ticket has gone up massively since the beginning of the recession. It now costs almost €5 on leap and more than €5 with a ticket to commute to and from work in the city centre from Dun Laoghaire or any of its nearby stations. That is ludicrous. I believe the fare is €2.70 each way on the bus - also ludicrous. Now, if you work full time you can avail of tax saver tickets which save a little - people who are commuting to and from college and working part time jobs get doubly f*cked over.

It's ridiculous. With regard to the DART, the service has declined massively in quality (every 15 minutes even at rush hour? Feckin' hell.) while becoming more and more expensive - and yet IE complains of falling passenger numbers?

It's €11 return from Greystones. Total rip off.

Annasopra

ted1 wrote: »

Because if your not working you don't need to be anywhere.

The example just given was hospital appointments so yes you often do.

Annasopra

Augeo wrote: »

Council housing is a huge cost..... folks commuting to work will pay for it but don't benefit from it.

I know lots of workers living in council houses!!!!!

reni10

I don't understand why all new companies especially tech ones are setting up in Dublin?

Then the majority of people working in those companies ends up being non nationals who have relocated to Dublin so they usually have to rent accommodation.

They then realise that it is far too expensive to rent near where they work so need to move farther out and either drive to work on packed traffic jammed roads or get inadequate or overpriced public transport.

So why are these companies not locating in other parts of the country that has capacity?

Everyone needs to face it that Dublin is FULL and do something else instead of trying to fit more and more in until everything just bursts again!

Joeytheparrot

Joeytheparrot wrote: »

I know lots of workers living in council houses!!!!!

That's half the reason we are short of council housing.
Many of the occupants wouldn't get one based on their current situation...... why build more when many end up as a perk off the state.

Joeytheparrot

Joeytheparrot wrote: »

You can't say government policy is not reponsible for now

Which government?

How is the current one responsible?

Chuchote

reni10 wrote: »

I don't understand why all new companies especially tech ones are setting up in Dublin?

Then the majority of people working in those companies ends up being non nationals who have relocated to Dublin so they usually have to rent accommodation.

They then realise that it is far too expensive to rent near where they work so need to move farther out and either drive to work on packed traffic jammed roads or get inadequate or overpriced public transport.

So why are these companies not locating in other parts of the country that has capacity?

Everyone needs to face it that Dublin is FULL and do something else instead of trying to fit more and more in until everything just bursts again!

Well… one transnational company I know of has bought several houses and rents them out for a fair price to its foreign employees. It's been doing that since the 1990s at least.

Augeo wrote: »

That's half the reason we are short of council housing.
Many of the occupants wouldn't get one based on their current situation...... why build more when many end up as a perk off the state.

I don't think you are familiar with council housing. It's not a perk; you pay rent aligned to your salary; the rents finance the building of more houses; the fact that the council provides housing puts a damper on the developers making a fortune from building ticky-tacky boxes.

Most people in council housing aspire to buying their own home, many are saving to do so and succeed in it, freeing the council house or apartment for someone else to rent.

Sam Kade

Nomis21 wrote: »

In 2007 I lived in Carrickmacross, Co Monaghan and I found a job very easily:

I drove a commuter bus taking workers to Dublin every morning and bringing home at night. The bus left about 6.00am and took about 3 hours each way due to traffic congestion. The bus got back at night around 9.00pm.

I have driven buses for 30 years in many countries, but the people on that bus were the most miserable people I ever saw in my whole career as a bus driver.

Shouldn't you be keeping your eyes on the road not looking at your passengers

Annasopra

Augeo wrote: »

That's half the reason we are short of council housing.
Many of the occupants wouldn't get one based on their current situation...... why build more when many end up as a perk off the state.

Right ok.

You want to create ghettos of unemployed and extreme poor where people shouldn't be encouraged to better themselves or find employment.

Annasopra

Augeo wrote: »

Which government?

How is the current one responsible?

So you want absolve FG of all responsibility despite the fact they have governed since 2011.

Chuchote

People should be able to live in Dublin if they work in Dublin; the AA's latest statistics found that the average price of running a car is €11,000 a year; you could save for a house deposit in three years by ditching the car and cycling (not to mention other advantages - as the lady in this video says, "Would you rather cycle too, Reszö?"

Emme

Emme wrote: »

I am sick of being screwed for my hard earned salary by all and sundry. Sick of trying to find a seat on a train in the morning full of people who don't pay anything to travel and could more than likely travel on a later train if they wished. Sick of racketeering extortionist borderline criminal car park operators who make the Kray twins look like amateurs.

Are you the only worker who pays train fare or are you having a pop at those who may be genuinely unable to either work or get work?

However, I DO agree that they should only be allowed travel offpeak or like the UK system, only within a certain radius of their home. Should they need to travel at peak times or outside this radius, they should be able to claim pack a portion of their travel costs.

Sitting on ones backside on the dole is torture for one used to and willing to work.

ted1

reni10 wrote: »

I don't understand why all new companies especially tech ones are setting up in Dublin?

Then the majority of people working in those companies ends up being non nationals who have relocated to Dublin so they usually have to rent accommodation.

They then realise that it is far too expensive to rent near where they work so need to move farther out and either drive to work on packed traffic jammed roads or get inadequate or overpriced public transport.

So why are these companies not locating in other parts of the country that has capacity?

Everyone needs to face it that Dublin is FULL and do something else instead of trying to fit more and more in until everything just bursts again!

Because they can't get staff, the staff want to be in Dublin.

reni10

ted1 wrote: »

Because they can't get staff, the staff want to be in Dublin.

So the staff want to pay really expensive prices for accommodation or sit in traffic for hours every day???

Chuchote

It's odd; I don't see a lot of people with free travel getting on the trains at rush hour trains, but do see them at other times. Is this a bit of a makey-uppy?

reni10 wrote: »

So the staff want to pay really expensive prices for accommodation or sit in traffic for hours every day???

And if we had good cycleways like the lowlands countries and the Scandinavian countries and Germany, this would not be a problem.

We need good cycleways and good public transport, and we need to put a foot down hard on the rising cost of rents; this is economic sense.

Ave Sodalis

I am curious as to how some posters know that people are on the dole when on public transport. Is there some sort of badge people have to wear? Is it because they don't wear a suit?

sup_dude

sup_dude wrote: »

I am curious as to how some posters know that people are on the dole when on public transport. Is there some sort of badge people have to wear? Is it because they don't wear a suit?

You don't get free travel on the dole. Only if you are an OAP, disabled or a carer for either.

hannible the cannible

sup_dude wrote: »

I am curious as to how some posters know that people are on the dole when on public transport. Is there some sort of badge people have to wear? Is it because they don't wear a suit?

I was wondering the same . I also wondered what an unemployed person would be doing taking the train to Dublin every day

Ave Sodalis

Deleted User wrote:

You don't get free travel on the dole. Only if you are an OAP, disabled or a carer for either.

So basically the OP thinks it's easier to be disabled or old so as to avail of free transport, than being younger and healthy and able to work. I'm not sure about anyone else, but I don't think all the free travel in the world would make me want to be disabled or old, and I certainly don't envy carers their job. Therefore, I don't see how free travel in an incentive to not work, when simply not working won't get you free travel.

But then, we don't have public transport in our area so I guess I just don't see the benefits.

Solomon Pleasant

There's one possible solution OP - Emigrate.