Vehicles avoiding tolls are ‘turning Dunshaughlin into a car park’

Ten thousand vehicles leave the M3 at Pace everyday and a similar number access the motorway at Junction 6, just north of Dunshaughlin, Meath Co Council heard last week.

Cllr Gerry O'Connor said these figures from the NTA show that huge volumes of traffic including HGVs were driving through Dunshaughlin to avoid tolls.

He was speaking on a motion by Cllr Ronan Moore which called on Meath Co Council to consider the deployment of traffic sensors (LIDAR, RADAR, inductive loops) or other available technologies to monitor and track traffic patterns on roads subject to potential toll avoidance.”

Cllr O'Connor who seconded the motion, said that the traffic avoiding tolls was turning Dunshaughlin into a car park.

"We are sticking out heads in the sand if we don't do anything about it," he said. "I would welcome a system to track it."

Cllr Moore called for the deployment of technology to track avoidance and in a separate motion called on the council to “write to the Minister for Transport requesting data on the level of toll avoidance nationwide, specifically by heavy-articulated vehicles; and calling on the Minister to identify measures to counteract such toll avoidance.”

"Due to our location we have a big problem with toll avoidance. We have four motorways in the county and a lot of through traffic," he said.

"The technology would help track toll avoidance and what could be done to avoid it. The toll operators might have to be compensated, but it would be a major benefit," he said.

Cllr Brian Fitzgerald pointed out that by law, there must be an alternative free route to the tolled route.

Cllr Moore said the Minister to provide means and measures so that it would make more sense to stay on the motorways.

Councillors were told that while matters relating to the day to day operations regarding national roads, including toll roads, are within the remit of Transport Infrastructure Ireland, the council has undertaken some work in connection with Slane Bypass and Public Realm Improvement as well as the Dunboyne and Environs Transport Study that considered toll avoidance on the M1 and M3. "We note that is not always straightforward to distinguish between trips that may be avoiding tolls and those that are legitimate trips on alternative routes that are open for road users to take. It is also a specialised and expensive task to capture and analyse the traffic data over a wide area to determine this," according to information supplied in response to the motion.

The meeting heard that the Road Management Office (RMO) is developing a traffic module to collate and track road traffic data that local authorities hold on regional and local roads through the country.

"This could be used as a baseline to compare and store future traffic count information and spot trends in traffic volumes over time on particular roads, although the reasons for any changes could be multi-faceted. "An update on progress on the development of this traffic module is due to be given to local authorities by the RMO in the coming weeks and a further update can be provided to councillors on its development in due course."