Department of Transport Opens Public Consultation on New Strategy to Manage and Reduce Congestion

The Department of Transport has today opened a public consultation on the draft Strategy Moving Together: A Strategic Approach to Improving the Efficiency of Ireland’s Transport System . The Strategy aims to manage and reduce congestion, making the country’s transport system work better for everyone.

The draft Strategy, which was approved by Government for public consultation and published on Wednesday 27 March, encourages an urban-first approach to rolling out measures where other travel options exist.

It aims to improve journey times for car drivers, public transport users, business and freight, leading to improvements in local air quality and reduced stress with associated health benefits for drivers and non-drivers alike.

It does not contain a prescriptive series of actions. Instead, it provides a firm policy direction and suite of options - such as road space reallocation, progressive taxation, freight efficiency, or behavioural incentives - that can be taken at national, regional and local levels to bring about the system changes needed.

It is also intended that the Strategy will provide guidance needed for local authorities and local council representatives to develop plans for their own areas that suit their own communities’ needs best.

Demand management in transport is about putting in place the strategies and policies needed to increase the efficiency of transport systems by reducing travel demand or redistributing that demand across a variety of modes or time.

Moving Together forms a key part of the Government’s decarbonisation pathway for the transport sector and goes hand-in-hand with the extensive range of Government investment and supports already in place or planned for public transport, walking, cycling and electric vehicles.

The public consultation on the draft Strategy and associated Implementation Plan will be open for a period of three months.

The Government wants to hear and listen to the views of the public and industry stakeholders, good and bad, on the key recommendations proposed including the overall level of ambition.

The public consultation can be found here. While the consultation is currently live, the Irish version of the draft is still being finalised. As such, the public consultation will run for three months from the publication of the Irish version of the Strategy. It is anticipated that the consultation will close not before the end of July.