MAG MAKES CASE FOR NO MOTORCYCLE TOLLS
AT NRA HEARING
Tuesday 12 March

Karen Kiely, MAG's Campaigns Officer, and Herb Finnegan (former chairman) attended the NRA hearing into the M1 Toll Plaza Scheme in the vicinity of Drogheda and made the case for motorcyces to be excluded from the proposed toll-charging scheme.

The inspector gave the first part of the meeting to the NRA to present their 'evidence'. This included various documents, the more important of which were: Traffic Studies, Toll Plaza Planning & Design, Tolling - Context and Strategy, and Responses to Lodged Objections. This material was read through and took from 1.30 to 1.15pm, when we broke for lunch.

In the afternoon, there was opportunity for the objectors to 'cross-examine' the NRA and to make oral statements. The principal oobjectors were MAG Ireland, Drogheda Chamber of Commerce, Drogheda Traders Association, Mayor of Drogheda, three Drogheda Corporation members (who are also on Louth County Council), one Louth County Council member (from Dundalk), and various other individuals. Though cross-examination was to take place before oral statements, many objectors combined both.

MAG Ireland asked the following questions by way of cross-examination:

Q1. Motorcycles are not mentioned in the Traffic Studies, Toll Plaza Planning & Design documents. Why were motorcycles not included in the study?
A1. They are included in the 'light vehicles' category in the documents.

Q2. The Tolling - Context and Strategy document proposes a €.60 toll for motorcycles. On what basis has this charge been determined?
A2. It is in line with the current charge on West and East Link bridges.

Q3. Is NRA aware of the congestion/delay causing effect of motorcycles as they negotiate toll booths and was this considered in the various documents and studies?
A3. Not specifically, but the experience of the West and East link bridges applies.

Q4. Motorcycle toll revenue from motorcycles is insignificant. Has any study been done as to the effect on business plans should those revenues be taken out? This is in the especial context that motorcycles do not cause congestion and they do not damage infrastructure?
A4. Motorcyclists are considered road users who benefit from the provisio of a superior facility and therefore should pay.

Q5. The deadline for PPP tenders was 28 September, 2001. How many applications have been received and has one been selected.
A5. This is deemed outside the scope of the inquiry. However, we can say that the selection process is ongoing in parallel and when all the statutory requirements have been fulfilled, the NRA will assign the various elements of the PPP to those selected.

After a short break, it was MAG's opportunity to make an oral statement. As it happens, we were last. This was extremely beneficial in that the previous hours were has and re-hash of the primary objections. MAG's was an entirely different presentation and caught the attention of the inspector and the NRA attendees.  Following the statement, the inspector asked if there were instances in the EU of motorcycles obtaining concessions against charging.  We cited Bristol and the M4, and that there were other European examples of a growing understanding by the authorities in other countries of the contribution that motorcycles make to traffic management.

The full orall statement is reproduced here.

The Irish Motorcyclists’ Action Group (MAG Ireland, or MAG) represents 30,000 motorcyclists in Ireland.  MAG works on issues that affect motorcyclists in the areas of insurance, safety, training, roads, legislation, and transportation generally.  Most recently, MAG was instrumental in setting up a successful government-aided organisation to train motorcycle instructors.

MAG takes the view that motorcycles should be recognised by the National Roads Authority as an environmentally friendly mode of transport, the increased use of which would vastly reduce damage to the infrastructure and congestion, generally.  Motorcycles are high-occupancy vehicles. As such, motorcycling should be encouraged by total exemption from any tolls that are implemented.  However, MAG opposes any general use of road tolls in this country however implemented believing them to be an anachronistic inefficient means of financing road building and maintenance, detrimental to traffic flow, and fundamentally unacceptable to road users. 

MAG believes that the definition of a highway as a route on which all persons, rich or poor, can use to pass as often and whenever they wish without hindrance or charge should remain the norm and that there should not be any significant erosion of or departure from this principle for national primary roads.

MAG believes that road pricing is detrimental to the economy in that it distorts well established work patterns in key sectors of the economy and victimises those people whose work involves them in an above average amount of road travel, such as couriers and sales representatives, and commuters who are effectively forced to use tolled roadways because the alternative is not viable.  MAG further takes the view that road pricing would be self-defeating as the most likely effect would be a redistribution of traffic volume onto the roads least able to cope with an increase, resulting in heavier road damage in the long run together with increased risk to most road user groups.

Where new highways, tunnels and bridges are concerned MAG accepts that there may be a case for these to be built specifically to carry toll-paying traffic provided all reasonable public consultation is carried out and general public acceptance obtained in the specific geographical areas and user groups concerned, and provided that such roads tunnels and bridges will attract sufficient tolls to finance them on the basis of their own merits and only then to discharge the debt and not as a profit-making scheme.  MAG opposes any attempt to improve the viability of attractiveness of such schemes by imposing artificial limitations on the existing network, running it down, failing to maintain or otherwise dealing with it in such a way as to render it less attractive than toll-roads.

Electronic tagging of vehicles whilst being workable for cars, where the tag can be fixed on the interior of the car, is less practical for motorcycles.  Motorcycles have no enclosed space where such a tag could be safely located.  Theft of motorcycle tax discs is rife and it is the experience of many motorcyclists using pay and display car parks that their stickers are simply stolen. It is difficult to envisage a different situation with an even more valuable tag.  Further, electronic tags for motorcycles do not effectively reduce the amount of time it takes for a motorcyclist to negotiate a toll gate.

While motorcycles reduce congestion in normal traffic situations, they can cause congestion at toll plazas.  This is because a motorcyclist, in negotiating the toll booth, must stop, engage neutral, put foot down, take off gloves, find money (or Easy-Pass tag), pay, get change, put change in pocket, put gloves back on, engage gear, move off.  We paint a picture of 100 or more motorcyclists arriving at a toll plaza and going through one-by-one, while queues of motorists develop behind them.  What if they took the next motorway exit and presented themselves in the same fashion in the other direction.  An amusing, yet potential situation.

National Toll Roads, and any other operator that would operate future tolls, obtain insignificant revenue from motorcycles – especially when you consider the delay that motorcycles cause at toll booths.  We also highlight that congestion is an epidemic in Ireland today and that the new road schemes, with tolls, will not solve the problem in and of themselves.  MAG takes a broader view that motorcycles are environmentally friendly, do not cause congestion and do not damage the infrastructure and their use should be encouraged.

MAG Ireland suggests to this hearing that charging a toll for motorcycles is impractical and not cost-beneficial and that motorcycles, therefore, should not be charged.  MAG further requests that a study be done on the specific impacts of motorcycle users on the schemes.

Finally, we have received various NRA reports today.  These were not conveyed to us in advance of the hearing and MAG Ireland wishes it placed on record that we have been disadvantaged through this failure of openness, which is supposed to be a hallmark of modern administration.  We request the facility to make written submissions to the inspector after this hearing, to give us an opportunity to study and respond to the NRA evidence.