The Irish Government should remove ‘outdated’ toll booths such as the M7\/M8 plaza in Laois because they cause delays, accidents and increase pollution, according to\u00a0EU Transport Committee MEP, Cynthia N\u00ed Mhurch\u00fa.<\/p>\n
With dust settling on the fuel protests, the Ireland South representative described as “archaic” booths that force trucks, buses, and cars to stop, queue and pay at the plazas in Laois and the rest of the country each day.<\/p>\n
The Transport Committee MEP claimed Ireland is also behind our EU counterparts who are moving to free-flow toll systems such as operates on the M50. She cited the A13\u2013A14 motorway corridor between Paris and Normandy as a recent French example of a primary motorway<\/a> in France that has completely removed barriers, opting for tag and remote payment.<\/p>\n She said toll booths were outdated concepts that cause traffic delays, minor accidents, millions of euros in wasted diesel and millions of tonnes of carbon emissions because traffic has to queue, stop, start, and idle at toll booths.<\/p>\n After meeting the Irish Road Haulage Association (IRHA), which is led by Rosenallis<\/a> man Ger Hyland, the MEP said toll stops are costing \u20ac26 million in wasted diesel\u00a0 on roads<\/a> each year for HGVs.<\/p>\n She claimed each truck start-up burns up to two litres of fuel – around 5.08kg of CO\u2082,<\/p>\n “With 24,264 HGVs passing our toll booths daily, this amounts to roughly 45,000 tonnes of emissions annually – from heavy goods vehicles alone,” said the Fianna F\u00e1il MEP in a statement.<\/p>\n Ms N\u00ed Mhurch\u00fa says she is open to proposing legislation at EU level, in the EU Transport Committee, that would require EU authorities to ensure \u201cfree-flow\u201d tolling within a reasonable timeframe.<\/p>\n READ NEXT:\u00a0Major road upgrade planned for rocky street in Tidy Town champion Laois town<\/a><\/p>\n She described the benefits of free moving traffic.<\/p>\n \u201cMillions of cars, buses, and HGVs stop at our toll booths every year, causing minor accidents, inconvenience, traffic delays, wasted fuel costs and generating millions in carbon emissions. We must work with our toll operators to move towards barrier free tolling, as we have on the M50. Traffic should be allowed to move freely through our toll points without stopping \u2013 either paying with a tag or through a website,” she said.<\/p>\n Ms N\u00ed Mhurch\u00fa described toll plazas as a safety hazard as drivers get distracted rummaging for coins or bank cards to tap, seeking receipts for expenses records and changing lanes at the last minute. She cited the warnings of a coroner in Cork about the dangers that toll plazas pose to motorists<\/a> following a fatal accident at a Cork toll plaza in 2012.<\/p>\n