Daily Dublin commute up by 30 minutes

Some 84 per cent of Dublin business people who drive to and from work have seen their travel times increase in the last six months, typically by half an hour, a new survey shows.

Dublin Chamber of Commerce says its members also want priority given to better traffic management and to the completion of the outer ring road.

The survey, which polled a representative 290 Chamber of Commerce members, showed that 86 per cent of respondents had experienced delays in securing a taxi in the last three months.

The president of the Chamber, Mr Jim Ruane, said businesses knew they could not afford to wait for projects such as the LUAS and the O-ring to be completed, and needed a series of short-term measures to ease traffic congestion.

"It is not that we are talking about an insuperable problem - 10 or 15 per cent of traffic goes out of the city in August and you can see an immediate improvement - it is about tackling it, and tackling it quickly," he said.

More than 90 per cent of those surveyed said they saw traffic management and enforcement as the key to resolving the problem. Almost all said additional resources should be made available so that the Garda traffic corps could maintain a presence at key junctions throughout the year.

The Chamber of Commerce has already called on Dublin Corporation to install a modern, computerised traffic management system, arguing that the system would cost £10 million to install. It would reduce traffic jams by 20 per cent and save up to £240 million a year in lost time.

Mr Ruane said Dublin Corporation's reluctance to licence an adequate number of taxis was contributing to the traffic problem. He said that while people already in the taxi business should be compensated fairly, the industry should now be deregulated.

"This is a cosy cartel," he added. "If people felt they could get a taxi in town, they wouldn't be so attached to their cars."

Mr Ciaran Conlon, the research executive who compiled the survey, said Dublin had no central traffic authority, adding that he had had to contact 23 separate organisations, each with a legitimate role.

Calling for the appointment of such an authority, Mr Conlon said: "This is certainly a case of too many Indians - who all think they are chiefs - and no big chief."

The survey showed that 54 per cent of commuters believed they had benefited from "Operation Freeflow"; 93 per cent said the Garda traffic corps should be maintained at these levels.

Some 86 per cent said clamping was "an effective way to control illegal parking", and 84 per cent said it was good for the city. Almost half wanted it extended to the suburbs.

"We all feel we are `local people' - in other words we feel we have the right to drive down to the local shops and park outside that shop," said Mr Ruane.

The Chamber of Commerce said around four out of five businesses wanted the outer ringroad and the Dublin Port tunnel completed as a matter of urgency.