Clean Air/Congestion Charging set to be introduced by 2030

I need a car to get to work because buses are practically non-existing. At night, then we've the last bus at 11:30, weekends you'd barely get a taxi. Even my previous job, I wouldn't have had that if i didn't have my own transport. Transport needs to be stepped up quite a bit before taxes are shoved down people's throat under the misguided view of save the planet.

Everyone uses these yes, but they're given no other choice as it's these corporations that actively lobbied against and continue to lobby against greener energy production. They have most of big powerful world leaders and parties under their thumbs.

It's these same companies and their rich and wealthy shareholders that avoid paying their fair share of taxes and would only love for all these extra "Climate taxes" to be pushed onto the people. You think these guys are going to cut down their meat intake and opt for insects, or to give up their private jets and other transport? Not a chance!

I drove in and out of town (Dublin) on the motorcycle today, got in fairly quick and out quick(ish). It's been a while since I commuted in rush hour on the motorcycle. If I do go in it's usually before 7am and leave around 3pm to avoid traffic. I went in on Howth Road and out on N1(M1) as far as swords

My Observations:
1: Light Sequences are rubbish, they seem deliberately poor
2: There are to many Taxi's in the bus lanes. On the N1 outbound, the bus lane was blocked by cars (all taxis) from Drumcondra to Whitehall. It's obvious that the taxi's are bringing people to the Airport. The solution here is to allow the taxi's to use the tunnel for free (Or cheap) if they have a fair. Fairview also had a lot of taxi's but I had to split off up towards Ballybough.
3: People cannot drive cars ← I genuinely believe this is the biggest issue of all.
4: There aren't actually that many cars, it's just everything is moving so slowly. (I was able to filter through fast, did 12k in approx 20 mins)
5: Pedestrians are careless. They walk out into traffic, I don't get that. I got the Luas from Stephens Green to Parnell St and back again. Mostly blocked and held up by Pedestrians on Nassau St and Delivery vehicles like Vans etc (again on Nassau Street)
6: Tara St is a joke, Councils handing over a Lane of traffic (and a Bus Lane at that) to developers is completely unacceptable.

Caveats: Kids are off school.

I know more about Dublin and it's transport systems than you, if you knew anything you'd realise that the overcrowding as you point out is due to the success of public transport and proves we need to keep making public transport more efficient, and a congestion charge will contribute to that success.

The solution to mobility includes private motor vehicles, but not when there's gridlock caused by overreliance on private transport, even you would agree that faster and cheaper public transport is far more desirable than gridlock.

We are going around in circles. I drive because public transport is not reliable and to trust that you'd miss out on appointments and being late for work. I'm only against congestion charges if infrastructure and public transport is not sorted out first and of course it needs to be proportional to a person's wages because a €50 charge to a low wageworker costs much more than €50 does to someone on €100,000+. The Green Party lives in a bubble, Not everyone can afford to pay massive amounts of money to retrofit their home or buy new cars with lower emissions, but they'll be saddled with all the charges and taxes.

Some people need their cars to get to work, as the public transport is a load of crap. Still not right to bring them in first while Transport infrastructure is not in place. It's not progressive if the charge costs the same for everyone, Should be adjusted for wages otherwise it's a poor tax and making the roads only for the wealthy enough people with money to spare.

I'm not sure if you know this but the congestion zones will be in core city areas where 136 Dublin bus routes go through, plus numerous private busses, Luas, Dart.. there's the option of renting "Go-Car", there's Dublin bikes, Moby bikes..

Only workers I know that get free parking in Dublin city centre are civil servants, everyone else pays at least €200 per month privately…

So you claim, but your post genuinely smacks of Marie Antoinette's "let them eat cake" vibes. I was at the coalface of what passed for public transport in Dublin for the best part of a decade. It was a nightmare then and it's probably worse now:

I've seen people passing out on the DART because overcrowding was so severe.
I've been on buses, Luases and taxis that were stuck for half an hour in a bus-traffic-jam trying to get through the College Street pinch-point, the latter being made worse, not better, by the Luas Cross City.
I've also struggled to find a place to stand on a Luas tram leaving SSG towards Cherrywood.
I was at a public information session for the Dublin Metro and one consultant I was speaking to said he have to be on a train before 7AM (Hazelhatch line) to get a seat.

The poster you replied to was entirely correct to suggest that public transport in Dublin is not adequate. Not by a large margin. As to your query:

Dublin Bus has 136 routes going through the city, add in Luas, Dart, Suburban rail, private bus companies just how much more "sorting out" would you like?

Here's my list as a bare minimum:

1. Dublin MetroLink as currently planned
2. A reactivation of the Southern half of the Metro plan: The Green Line Luas is no longer fit for purpose.
3. A reactivation of the DART Underground plan.
4. Massive improvements in capacity on all the existing DART + Commuter lines.

As to how this might be funded, AFAIK transport funding including capital investment has never taken more than 3% of exchequer funding in any year. There's definitely room for capital spending on transport.

This is the thread about bringing in a city centre congestion charge, and for someone who never/rarely goes anywhere remotely near the core city centre to offer up anecdotal evidence that Dublin's public transport system is a "nightmare" is laughable..

What's even worse is the tactic of saying that if people are to avoid paying congestion charges to clog up the streets with their private cars then you want a €9.5 billion euro metrolink plus a couple of gold-plated multi-year multi-billion Euro transport projects before you and the what's the figure again 3.3 million people with driving licences? Will think about paying a charge to drive into the city? Sure next you'll be asking for a flying taxi…!

https://www.newstalk.com/news/congestion-charge-obvious-solution-to-dublin-intolerable-traffic-jams-1712362

I think unless there was nothing less than a Japanese style bullet train outside your place of residence to take you into Dublin in 10 minutes flat then you'd still want to use your private motor vehicle (which is fine, just cough up for the part of the congestion you're causing whilst visiting our city).. So good luck!

Badly!
Like VERY badly.

Slows up impatient drivers as they race between red lights.

Traffic complaining about traffic.