ROAD TAXES should be abolished and replaced by a system of charges based on vehicle emissions, miles travelled and time of travel, Comhar, the Sustainable Development Council, will tell the Government today.
In its submission to the Government’s sustainable travel and transport action plan, Comhar suggests that vehicle registration tax and road tax be replaced by charges which would encourage people to buy more fuel-efficient, clean vehicles and to drive less.
Dr Lisa Ryan, director of research for Comhar, said that a road pricing scheme was “the only way forward”. The money raised by the scheme would then be ring-fenced for investment in public transport.
She said that the Netherlands had recently approved the phased introduction of such a scheme. Sophisticated technologies would calculate road pricing and it would take about five years to introduce such a scheme, she added.
“The Department of Transport should initiate a feasibility study immediately to investigate how road pricing could work in Ireland,” Dr Ryan said.
She explained that the pricing scheme would have to be drawn up in a way which did not penalise people in rural areas with no other transport options. Higher charges for people travelling in congested areas would be one way of doing this, she said. The submission also calls for a national rural transport policy to address the lack of public transport in rural areas.
Other proposals include the immediate introduction of integrated ticketing on bus and rail services and a review of the amount and design of motorways being built or planned.
Comhar is also seeking an assessment of the potential for electric plug-in vehicles to reduce transport greenhouse gas emissions. It calls for greater Government investment in walking, cycling and public transport, particularly in city-centres.
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