Cost of the Car; Galway and the West

1

The Atlantic Greenway Project “The Cost of the Car to Galway and The Western Region”

By Joseph Francis Kelly November 2015 1

2

This report has been created to outline the Macro and Micro costs of the Car to the County and City of Galway and additionally the Western Region.

The use of national and international sources have been exercised to demonstrate :

1. Car Usage in the Area of Concentration 2. Financial Cost of the Car to Citizen 3. Annual Expenditure of Car Usage at County and Regional Scale The conclusions of these findings will follow thereafter.

2

3

For most regions, the Irish economy has been improving since the second quarter of 2012 in comparison ot the second quarter of 2015 , however this has not been apparent in the West and Mid West Regions as both region have been recording negative values in Employment Growth , with the West Region at -0.1 and the Mid West at –1.2 in the IBEC Quarterly Index of Employment Growth 2015.

The incumbent government have set aside â‚Ź10 billion spending on transport therefore it is now a optimal time to review and plan Transport Projects which could provide economic stimuli to include Job creation and less cost to the Citizen , especially in these region which find difficulty with employment and disposable income.

The encouragement to examine Regional Service Centres such as Galway and Limerick is reinforced by the findings and projections of this report .

3

4

The Macro Financial Factors of fluctuating Oil prices and Ireland fuel importation bill have raised concerns on the direction of of Transport Infrastructure when concentrating on the ordinary citizen and the current regional economic climate . The importation of €6 billion per annum on fossil fuels (Irish Times, Feb 2015) by the Irish State is alarming when contrasted with actual long term return to the taxpayer.

Examining Galway , the Western Regional Capital and it’s current issues of Hyper Congestion , Unemployment and Shortage of Housing Supply , the monies spent annually to the Taxpayer/Citizen should be taken into account to highlight the Real Value on the Regional and National stage… Theirs is also the added incentive of EU Emission’s targets which have been aimed to be met by 2020 ..

All of the above concerns have been incorporated into the vital variables under examination in this report using the key statistics from the C.S.O and other sources ..

4

5

With the Average costs of Car Insurance , Tax , Fuel and Parking the Profile example of the average Galway County-South Mayo based car commuter would be an adequate profile to imagine in this case .

Counting costs without Purchase of a Car would be used , however with a Purchase of A Car included in the annual cost the example of a Volkswagen Golf 1.4 90 KW Trendline (Or Equivalent New Car) at €26,500 would be the example vehicle taken into account. (www.numbeo.com)

Without Purchase the price of litre of Unleaded Petrol is in the range of €1.41 . With the average weekly km amount being at 200km this would see the average daily two way trip amount to €27.90 per week thus counting the Annual spend of the ordinary car commuter at €1,450 per annum. (www.numbeo.com//travel-prices/city_result.jsp?country=Ireland&city=Galway) The first figure we extract to use is: Annual Fuel Spend per Profile Car Commuter = €1,450

5

6

The average costs of Insurance have bene highlighted by the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission by the use of profiles with younger drivers being the most vulnerable to high prices ranging from €1,000 upwards. (http://www.nca.ie/costcomparisons/cs_group_motor_insurance.htm)

The average price for all profiles and vehicle types is accurate at €400 per annum , this would be the best figure to demonstrate average insurance costs per annum for the Car Commuter based in Galway .

The Second figure we extract to use is : Average Insurance Cost per Car Commuter : €400

6

7

The Motor tax is also variable via the emission count and tax band of the vehicle … in this case the Prviate Standard Car option and the average tax band relative to engine size (1.3 to 1.4 cc) is priced at an annual cost of €385 per Car .

(Rates of Duty on Motor Vehicles, Dept. of Environment, Sept 2013)

The Third Figure extracted is : Average Cost of Motor Tax per Car Commuter €385

7

With the average Parking rates being used from the profile of a fixed daily rate in a Long Term Car Park.

8

Long Term Car Parks are car parks where a daily charge of €4.00 per day applies regardless of time or duration of stay in the car park.

Long Term Car Parks are located at: 

The Greyhound Track, College Road,



Dyke Road (beside the Black Box Theatre)



Galway Cathedral Car Park

(http://www.galwaycity.ie/parking-galway-information/#3)

Taking this figure with a 5 day multiple we can then gauge the weekly ,monthly and annual figure ….

The Fourth Figure extracted is €1,040

8

9

With the annual financial figures tallied for each Car Commuter at combined annual cost of :

â‚Ź3,190 per Car Commuter The personal figures relating to average income per person , cars per household and additional figures of commuters will be highlighted in a City,County and Regional Context.

9

10

The personal figures were extracted via CSO Small Area Population , Theme 15 in under the layers of County , City and Regional Authority.

The average Income per household in the Galway Area is counted at â‚Ź18,264 per person as per the CSO Theme 15 highlighted the amount of cars per household ranging form 0 - 4 plus , counting the figure at 1 car per household with the additional amount multiple thereafter returned the count of cars per households in the County ,City and Region.

Galway County Cars per Household Total : 92,017 Galway City Car per Household Total : 31,961 West Regional Cars per Household Total : 335,758

10

11

The accumulated expenditure amount of the City and County of Galway on the Car amounts to the addition of both County and City figures which is totals at 123,978 cars per each household using the cars added to the combined average annual cost of running a car per each car commuter the City and County figure returns at an annual cost of :

â‚Ź395,489,820 This is the combined annual expenditure of each Commuter Car. Regionally , the figures reach into a Billion , totalling at :

â‚Ź1,071,068,020

11

12

Conclusion The cost to a region with negative employment growth and weak Job Action Plans has to come under scrutiny as does the high over use of the car is the limited form of transport without provision of adequate public transport .

Introducing Sustainable Public Transport not dependent on foreign imports such as Oil to Galway as means of Job Creation , Congestion Relief and Spatial reclamation for Accommodation is an evermore viable option in this current economic climate , further more the appeasement of Carbon Emissions would be hugely helped by transport means in the form of a Tram System . The Tram system , Sólás Uirbeach Iarnród na Gaillimhe would range in the cost of €400 –550 million and Net €95 million per annum this in turn would enhance footfall for Commercial and Tourist enterprises as well as serving all Land uses from Industrial , Educational, Residential to Recreational.

12

13

References: IBEC Quarterly Index of Employment Growth 2015.

“Ireland’s Energy Crisis” Irish Times , February 2015 www.numbeo.com//travel-prices/city

www.nca.ie/costcomparisons/motorinsurances Rates of Duty on Motor Vehicles, Dept. of Environment, Sept 2013)

http://census.cso.ie/sapmap2011/

13