The findings of the study are due to be published at the end of next month. The economic rationale for road pricing is to change usage patterns by charging motorists for the use of road space. It is grounded in the fact that every driver using the roads in congested conditions imposes delays on everyone else, and these delays have a cost not taken into account in his or her personal choices. According to Mr Pierre Laconte, external affairs adviser to the International Union of Public Transport, the area taken up by a private car for a five-kilometre journey in normal conditions ranges from 30 square metres per hour for short shopping trips, to 90 square metres per hour for home to work trips, including parking space at work. Given the huge volume of cars now using the roads in Dublin during peak periods, congestion is the inevitable consequence.
Road pricing has obvious potential in helping to achieve better traffic management.
It was pioneered in 1975 in Singapore, where charging tolls to enter the city centre is now fully automated. Electronic surveillance cameras monitor compliance as the tolls are deducted from pre-paid cash cards in units fixed to the dashboards of all cars. Combined with the provision of an efficient public transport system, this has reduced traffic levels in Singapore by 17 per cent and raised the average speed at peak periods to an astonishing 60 k.p.h. Singapore is far from the front rank of democratic countries and its people are well used to restrictions on their freedom. However, European cities are moving to follow its example, on road pricing at least.