Traffic jams up as jobs recover

Tailbacks and traffic congestion is set to worsen this winter and could hit the ‘bad old days’ of jams and delays that characterised towns and cities in the years of the Tiger boom, the AA has warned.

An unwanted side-effect of the recovering economy, data from the AA and the Road Safety Authority shows traffic volumes are up, with the roads set to get even busier.

“Traffic volumes are up across the road network and we are seeing that every day,” said Editor of AA Roadwatch, Arwen Foley. “September and the return of schools and colleges always marks our busiest season for traffic. In the major population centres, especially Dublin, Cork and Galway, we have seen congestion increase noticeably this year. We are expecting the months from now until Christmas to be the busiest in years.”

New car sales are up by 30% so far in 2014 and fuel sales are running about 8% or so ahead of last year. National Road Authority data for the primary road network also shows volume increases right across the country.

“Every silver lining has a cloud,” says Ms Foley. “We all welcome any sign of improvement in the economy but in fact traffic jams often come with it.”

The AA also says, based on their observations of traffic, the signs of recovery are far from evenly spread across the country with some locations noticeably busier than others.

“In terms of traffic, it is definitely Dublin and Cork and a lesser extent Galway and Limerick that are seeing the upsurge. In the other big population centres we are just not seeing the same thing.”

As the AA celebrated its 25th anniversary this week, the regular voice of the association Conor Faughnan said while jams will cause headaches, as a nation we are far better off than when the service began back in 1989.

“The last few years have been so traumatic for the country that you could easily forget how much progress has been made. The road network has improved out of all recognition. We now have modern motorways connecting Dublin to the major cities and the primary road network is of a standard that we hardly dared dream about in the 80s.”

Since the AA was founded, the volume of private cars on the road has doubled to 1.88 million vehicles.

“While this staggering level of growth is reflective of our move towards a culture of two car families’, it also highlights the shortcomings of our public transport infrastructure,” say Ms Foley. And what of the next 25 years?

“As for what the next quarter of a century holds I’d hope that we start building infrastructure again, especially public transport projects. Technology will also change: who had heard of an iPhone 25 years ago? Driverless cars have been big news of late; it’ll be fascinating to see how quickly they advance and where we’re at in terms of fuel.”