Car free day my This post will be deleted if not edited to remove bad language!!!

Re: Car free day

the entire journey from Rathfarnham to Clontarf that takes the hour (Rathfarnham to Sandymount by car
Click to expand...
OK - The DTO planner gets me from Rathfarnham SC to East Point in 50 minutes by bike, so 10 minutes extra in bed!

OK - I know everyone wouldn't want to face this journey every morning (& I confess to talking the car instead of walking when I see a RainyDay ahead) - but Brendan is right, there are other real options out there - and as long as ye all stay wedded to the car culture, you are going to find yerselves stuck on the M50 for 10% of your waking hours for a few years to come.
 
Re: Car free day

The DTO planner gets me from Rathfarnham SC to East Point in 50 minutes by bike, so 10 minutes extra in bed!

They're all valid points rainy...especially what Brendan and yourself are saying about alternative means of transportation - namely bikes. The difficulty is enticing people onto their bike.
Personally I'd rather spend up to two hours in a car than cycle for 50 minutes every morning to Clontarf. That mightn't be the right attitude but I don't think I'd be the only person with that attitude.
Realistically I might use the LUAS to go from Tallght to Connolly and then the DART to Clontarf when I move as I'll be closer to the LUAS then. I still need to get to the LUAS first though so I need to figure that out. The LUAS is also expensive so I need to work out if I'd be saving money or spending more by doing this.
 
Re: Car free day

Piggy - I know it is a moot point (since you won't be leaving from Rathfarnham for long) but once you have got to Sandymount you are only a stones throw from East Point anyway. Just go over the toll bridge and you're there.

The detour that the DART takes through town makes the trip sound longer.

z
 
Re: Car free day

Hi Zag,

I know I'm very close to East Point. Unfortunately it's parking out here that's the issue. We only moved out here a few months back (well about 6 actually) but we only have a limited number of parking spaces and there's usually a big scrap to see who gets them. Not worth my while. If you know of any free parking in Clontarf I'd love to know actually?
I'm not actually moving far from Rathfarnham so I could still keep the same journey in the morning. It'd only really add an extra 6-7 minutes on in theory.
 
Re: Car free day

piggy - I meant you are near enough to keep cycling

z
 
Re: Car free day

I meant you are near enough to keep cycling

Yes...I should have seen what you were saying. Did rainyday not say the whole journey would take 50 mins though? Maybe I should leave a bike in Sandymount for myself...or even walk it from there!!! I must check out how long that might take. Cheers.
 
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Maybe I should leave a bike in Sandymount for myself

I wouldn't do that, it'll either get busted or stolen.
 
.

"The DTO journey planner reckons you can cycle from Rathfarnham Shopping Centre to Sandymount Green in 40 minutes."

- Would you not be extremely sweaty & smelly after cycling for 40 minutes?
 
Re: .

I certainly would be, but I really don't think we want to discuss my personal hygiene habits here.

But many companies now have showers/lockers/changing rooms to accomodate such commuters.
 
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But many companies now have showers/lockers/changing rooms to accommodate such commuters.

You'd be liable for BIK on the use of such facilities.

If companies provide such facilities, their corporation tax should be reduced to compensate.
 
...

I agree that there should be big incentives to companies that provide decent washing and changing facilities to encourage cycling.

I cycle from Firhouse to Sandyford and have my shower and get changed in work. It means that when I'm in for 9am I back the bag the night before and neatly fold clothes, wake up at 7.50 am, and am washed and dried and ready for work in plenty time. Its the only way to do it and I dont really need wet gear cos I'm gonna be having a shower at the other end anyways....its the poxy wind on a night like tonight that makes me dread it sometimes but as I cruise by all the suckers in their chariots stuck in traffic I have to laugh
 
Re: ...

You'd be liable for BIK on the use of such facilities.
Click to expand...
Please provide some evidence to support this view? How could such facilities be BIK'ed when parking spaces are not? If you are going to BIK the showers, why not BIK the toilets? and the coffee bar?
 
Re: ...

Hi rainy,

I think samantha is being a little playful here ;)

However if you ever under went a revenue audit you would realise that they do ask questions about all sorts of surprising things.

One man's shower is another man's turkish steam bath!

ajapale
 
Re: ...

Isn't (is ?) one of the tests for this type of thing to see whether the facility is available to all staff equally, or restricted to an individual or group of individuals ?

Fleet car - available to all staff, anyone can (in theory) use it
Company car - available to individual staff member - BIK

Staff resto serving subsidised meals - available to all staff
Meals served to (or bought for) executives daily - BIK.

In this instance, as long as the showers were available to all (and not a sauna for the executives and cold tap for the rest) they should be OK.

Could be wrong.

z
 
Cycle

I used to love cycling until I had 3 bikes stolen from me - one in Galway and 2 in Dublin. Now I haven't cycled in years.
We had a car free day here in Tullamore and traffic was chronic. I think the rain was to blame here though. From what I saw on the news Sligo seem to have had success with the car free day by having parades and free buses all day.
Paris did not have a car free day due to chronic traffic problems on this day last year! And they have a very decent metro!
 
BIK

Except where there are specific statutory valuation rules (please refer to Chapters 5 to 9), the amount of the taxable benefit (i.e. the notional pay) which will be liable to PAYE and PRSI will be the higher of

- the expense incurred by the employer in
connection with the provision of the benefit to the
employee, or

- the value realisable by the employee for the
benefit in money or money’s worth
less any amount made good to the employer by the
employee.
Click to expand...

So to calculate BIK for showers, you would have to find out how much it cost your employer to provide the service.

You do not have to pay BIK on car parking, because this would mean all the civil servants having to pay this BIK. They mention that you don't have to pay BIK on car parking.

10.11 Car parking facilities provided by an employer to employees are not treated as giving rise to a taxable benefit.
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How convenient.
 
biking

------------
Personally I'd rather spend up to two hours in a car than cycle for 50 minutes every morning to Clontarf. That mightn't be the right attitude but I don't think I'd be the only person with that attitude.
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I used to think this too, in the days when I was firmly welded to the car. Until everywhere got to be disc parking and I had to give up driving. I found cycling, once I got over my resentment, brilliant. A much better way of putting space between work and personal life. I was more cheerful, and got much fitter. Carrying the rain gear is sometimes a pain, but it makes you realise how little you actually need the whole lot. And there's nothing like it in summer!

As for having bikes stolen, this has never happened to me. Maybe it's because I get my bikes secondhand, and maybe it's because I'm punctilious about locking it. Wheel to frame to immovable object. But if it did go, I wouldn't be too upset - its last valuation was E60. The only difficulty now is being able to find 2nd hand bikes!
 
Re: biking

Hi Gordanus,

Yeah...I did cycle into town a few times a few years back when I worked there. It's certainly good for you alright.
As a previous poster pointed out I'd get very sweaty cycling for 50 minutes. Unfortunately we have no shower facilities in here so that's a no no for me. I wouldn't feel comfortable reeking all day.
Then there's the danger of cycling. I barely trust other drivers when I'm in a car. That's a whole different argument though.

I don't think cycling is the right answer for everyone though. A 50 minute cycle is not really feasible for most people.

Listening to Martin Cullen on the Last Word last night, he seems to think it's up to us to have a car free day! I tend to believe we have an inadequate public transport system myself.

An old gripe of mine is the LUAS. I know it helps matters...but really I honestly believe this government should have some serious foresight and design an underground system that could be expanded to encompass the entire city. I want to see the day where people are complaining about the number of underground stops (ie too many of them) and where you can travel from one side of Dublin to the other in 20 minutes. I'm not just talking about a line or two. I'm talking about a system where no matter where in Dublin you are you can get to pretty much anywhere else on the underground in a very short period of time.
Yes..the expense would be huge...perhaps less though if the government didn't get involved. If we can spend a billion on LUAS I think we could possibly afford more on a system such as this.

Oh...and I want it to be cheap too!!

Of course, now that we actually have invested so much in the LUAS it's doubtful that this dream of mine will come to pass in my lifetime.
 
biking

talk of cycling is all well and good if you live near your work. I live 30 miles from the dublin city centre where i work and standard hours are 8:00-5:00 or 9:00-6:00. first train from wicklow gets me in by 9:00 and there is one train back after six. this might be ok if you're a civil servant or some sort of unionised employee but i cant demand that i leave at 6 every evening irrelevant of what is going on at work. and how do i get home if ive missed the one and only train? feck that, i'll be driving for a long time to come.
 
No Incentive

"The standard return ticket is €3.80 (Sandyford to the Green) whereas the 7 day ticket is €16.00. So even if you only use it for 5 days, you are still saving money - and you can use it at the weekends if you like. What's the problem?"
Hi Rainyday, I take issue with the combined cost of the bus and Luas. My journey would end at Bus Aras and then I would get the Luas to Smithfield and take the return journey in the evening. At a cost of €10.80 per day there is no incentive to take public transport it is cheaper to take the car. (We have parking). Many people like myself have no use of the Luas at the weekend. Also I feel the combined tickets should be available and would have been if Bus Eireann et al were privatised.
 
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