Beijing's car solution

[MOH]

Anyone see that article yesterday about Beijing banning odd/even numbered cars on alternate days? They reckon an extra 30% used public transport over four days.

Imagine that happening here? There'd be chaos!

[Mark Gleeson]

Within about a month people would have simply ensured they owned both even and odd reg plated cars

[constellation]

Within about a month people would have simply ensured they owned both even and odd reg plated cars

Buy a car with a reg ending in 6 or 9. And adjust as necessary...

[ccos]

How about a 0 :D

[MrX]

Paris tried this for a while. It didn't work in the long term as it was too difficult to enforce.

[MOH]

I couldn't see the DART coping too well with an extra 30% commuting to work every day.

[Mark Gleeson]

I couldn't see the DART coping too well with an extra 30% commuting to work every day.
Well if the 21% of coaches where are out of service where in service you would be suprised, that 21% doesn't include the normal few spares you need

[dermo88]

Athens tried this, Singapore tried this, but the fact of the matter is that you need a high quality transit system before even considering this.

In the case of Athens, Greece, there was no high quality transit system in place when they attempted the odd/even numberplate scam. It was a 3rd world country, and when they attempted this, all they had was a minus DART, in other words, an electrified version of what we had on one line, with wooden coaches. Dublin is not in the position to do that now. about 5 or 6 key projects need to be completed before both congestion charging, and odd/even plates are considered, and even then, only within the boundaries of the Canals. As follows:

Interconnector.
Airport connected....(AKA Metro North, but DART would suffice)
Northside Luas, now Metro North, should be enough.
Metro West, to get traffic off the M50
Lucan Luas.
Clonsilla to Navan.

Reformed ticketing for the Dublin area.....whenever (rolls eyes)

Beijing is different. Population wise, its 3 times the size of Ireland. China are making efforts to improve their environmental record, but they have certain strengths in being able to enforce this. I cannot begin to start on how crazy the pace of change is in China right now. Nothing can describe it. They are admittedly, applying the carrot before the stick, but their motives are keeping people, rich and poor alike away from cars, and in the long term, saving them environmentally and economically. I have no problem with cars in rural areas. I have no problem with people hiring cars at railway stations at key end points, but I do have a problem with cars in densely populated urban areas where the taxpayer has forked out for a good quality mode of transportation, and in the circumstances that apply in many Asian cities, car usage has to be discouraged.

Oh.....for the chinese, Dublin is a city which gets the odd express, and its the only one on our rock. Cork and Belfast are towns which get bypassed by expresses, and everything else....is a village. Waterford, Tralee and Sligo would'nt even qualify as an end point of an FOBL (Freight Only Branch Line).

But P11 know that. I just keep reminding myself of that to keep things in perspective in case excessive proposals pop up.