DÁIL ÉIREANN AN COMHCHOISTE UM IOMPAR AGUS LÍONRAÍ CUMARSÁIDE JOINT COMMITTEE ON TRANSPORT AND COMMUNICATIONS NET- WORKS Dé Máirt, 27 Aibreán 2021 Tuesday, 27 April 2021 Tháinig an Comhchoiste le chéile ag 12.30 p.m. The Joint Committee met at 12.30 p.m. Comhaltaí a bhí i láthair/Members present: Teachtaí Dála/Deputies Seanadóirí/Senators Joe Carey, Jerry Buttimer, Cathal Crowe, Gerard P. Craughwell, Steven Matthews, Timmy Dooley. James O’Connor, Darren O’Rourke, Ruairí Ó Murchú, Duncan Smith. Teachta/Deputy Kieran O’Donnell sa Chathaoir/in the Chair. 1 JTCN General Scheme of the Road Traffic (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2019: Discussion Chairman: No apologies have been received. I apologise to our witnesses and to our members for the delay. There were technical hitches. I believe we are blaming it on Microsoft Teams worldwide. Doing things online is great but, like everything else, there are human frail- ties involved in it. The purpose of today’s meeting is to undertake pre-legislative scrutiny of the Road Traffic (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2019. On behalf of the committee, I welcome to the meeting, from the National Transport Authority, NTA, Ms Anne Graham, chief executive, and Mr. Hugh Creegan, director of transport and planning investment and deputy chief execu- tive. From Transport Infrastructure Ireland, TII, I welcome Mr. Peter Walsh, chief executive, Mr. Pat Maher, director of networks management, and Dr. Suzanne Meade, senior engineer in TII’s safety section. They are all most welcome and I thank them for agreeing to participate in this meeting at such short notice in these unusual Covid times. All witnesses are again reminded of the long-standing parliamentary practice that they should not criticise or make charges against any person or entity by name or in such a way as to make him, her or it identifiable or otherwise engage in speech that might be regarded as damag- ing to the good name of the person or entity. Therefore, if witnesses’ statements are potentially defamatory in relation to an identifiable person or entity, they will be directed to discontinue their remarks. It is imperative that witnesses comply with any such direction. For witnesses attending remotely from outside of the Leinster House campus, there are some limitations to parliamentary privilege and, as such, they may not benefit from the same level of immunity from legal proceedings as a witness physically present does. Witnesses participating in this committee session from a jurisdiction outside the State are advised that they should also be mindful of their domestic law and how it may apply to evidence they give. Members are again reminded of the long-standing parliamentary practice to the effect that they should not comment on, criticise or make charges against a person outside the Houses or an official either by name or in such a way as to make him or her identifiable. I remind members of the constitutional requirement that members must be physically present within the confines of the place where Parliament has chosen to sit, namely, Leinster House or the Convention Cen- tre Dublin, in order to participate in public meetings. With regret, I will not permit a member to participate where they do not adhere to this constitutional requirement to be physically within the precincts. Therefore, any member who attempts to participate from outside the precincts will be asked to leave the meeting. In this regard, I ask any members participating via Micro- soft Teams to confirm that they are on the grounds of the Leinster House campus prior to mak- ing their contributions to the meeting. I now ask Ms Anne Graham to make her opening statement. She has five minutes and I again thank her for agreeing to appear at such short notice. Ms Anne Graham: I thank the Chairperson and members of the committee for the invita- tion to attend this meeting. I understand the committee wishes to focus upon the Road Traffic (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2019 and, in particular, the potential legislative provision for the use of e-scooters. To assist me in dealing with the committee’s subsequent questions, I am joined by Hugh Creegan, deputy CEO with the authority. The authority recognises that e-scooters and e-bikes can contribute to the increased use of sustainable transport and provide an alternative to the private car mode. However, these new 2 27 APRIL 2021 forms of transport do give rise to new issues that require careful consideration in developing an appropriate legislative framework. Some of the issues that are relevant to those considerations include the quality of road surfaces, given the small wheel diameter of e-scooters and the more significant implications of road surface defects for e-scooters than for other vehicles; minimum age requirements for the use of e-scooters on public roads; whether certain safety equipment such as helmets should be mandatory or discretionary; the speed limitations that should apply to such vehicles; whether e-scooters should be required to use cycle tracks instead of the main carriageway where such cycle tracks are provided; and the types of roads and specific traffic lanes that e-scooters should be permitted to use. Many of these issues involve balancing competing demands and seeking to achieve the optimal equilibrium in respect of those demands. This is particularly so when road space is constrained and perfect solutions such as separate facilities for e-scooters are simply not fea- sible. However, in carefully addressing the relevant considerations, an appropriate legislative framework can be put in place to support the operation of this new form of micro-mobility. That concludes my introductory statement. I trust that I can answer any queries that arise. Chairman: I thank Ms Graham for being so concise. I now call on Mr. Walsh to make his opening statement. I thank him for coming at such short notice as well. He has five minutes. Mr. Peter Walsh: I should just clarify that I am not within the precincts of Leinster House. I thank the Chairman and members of the committee for the invitation to attend today. I am joined by my colleagues, Pat Maher, director of network management, and Dr. Suzanne Meade of TII’s road safety section. I understand that the committee is undertaking pre-legislative scrutiny of the general scheme of the Road Traffic (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2019. The section of the general scheme specific to TII is in Part 6, which relates to making provision for variable speed limits. I will first describe the work that TII is undertaking in this area and I will then go on to set out what is required in the Bill to support this work. Since 2014, TII has been developing, and is currently constructing, a project on the M50 re- ferred to as enhanced motorway operation service, eMOS. This project will allow for the avail- ability of lanes and the applicable speed limits of relevant stretches of roads to be controlled in a dynamic way. This system of motorway control will improve safety and efficiency and reduce environmental impacts of traffic. We think of this as dynamic traffic management. The eMOS system is needed to address the increasing numbers of collisions and levels of congestion on the M50. In 2019, M50 operations crews attended 1,161 incidents, which rep- resents an average of 22 incidents each week of the year. The M50 is congested. In 2019, an average of 350,000 trips were undertaken on the M50 each day. This represents an increase of 40% on 2011 figures. The objective of eMOS is to improve safety for both road users and the people who respond to collisions and other incidents on the M50. This improvement in safety will be achieved by establishing speed limits that are appropriate to the traffic and weather con- ditions and by closing lanes when required. This level of control will also contribute to a reduc- tion of carbon and particulate matter emissions through the elimination of “stop-start” driving. The eMOS project has a budget of €80 million and a benefit-to-cost ratio of 2.8:1. The busi- ness case for the project has been reviewed and in accordance with the public spending code and has received ministerial approval.approved 3 JTCN Implementing eMOS involves the installation of 380 dynamic lane control signs on 98 gantries over 38 km of the M50. Fibreoptic cabling, connecting to roadside weather stations and traffic sensors, will transmit information to computers at the TII’s motorway control centre. These computers will continuously run algorithms to determine the appropriate speed required to achieve the safest and most efficient operating conditions for those 350,000 trips undertaken on the M50 every day. This dynamic speed limit and lane control system is used on motorways in the UK, in continental Europe and in North America on the approaches to major cities. The M25 around London, the M6-M40-M42 Birmingham box and the motorways of the Netherlands are good examples. These systems are reliable and have provided significant improvements to the safety and emissions performance of those roads. Work on construction of the required infrastructure has been ongoing, almost entirely at night, for the past two years. Work on this project relates to critical transport infrastructure. TII personnel and contractors have worked continuously throughout the Covid-19 restrictions. I will take this opportunity to acknowledge their work and, in particular, to thank the foreign specialist workers who have observed all quarantine restrictions and, as a consequence, have been away from their families for periods longer than initially planned for. The work of con- struction and installation has progressed well and the system will be capable of going live by October of this year.