Let’s be honest about it, Cork city traffic is awful!
I spent a couple of months in Cork commuting in from the Blarney area, and I also did plenty of runs through the city from north to south in rush-hour traffic. I also did a couple of runs back and forth along the Kinsale – Cork route. I now understand Kinsalers’ love of the Kinsale roundabout in Cork!
Cork is a great city to work and live, and I love the place, but its geography of steep hills and numerous river channels does not lend itself to free-flowing traffic. Furthermore, like many Irish towns, it was never designed for the amount of traffic that now comes in and out of the city on a daily basis.
During my time in Cork, I spent hours sitting in traffic, normally on my own, listening to the radio and getting steadily more and more frustrated. As I listened to the Ray D’Arcy show on Today FM, I noticed something; the vast majority of the other cars also only had one passenger – the driver. I thought to myself; imagine if every driver could fill the seats in their car with passengers going on a similar route? With four spare seats in each car, that’s a very simple sum to do: take the total amount of cars you can see on the road and reduce it by 80% Instead of five cars carrying a total of five people, you would have one car carrying five people. The Cork streets would be empty. Well, not quite, but the reduction in traffic would be huge.
And then there’s the parking. Parking in Cork is difficult and very expensive. I have heard people comment that one of the most expensive aspects of the Kinsale – Cork commute is the parking at the Cork end of the trip; and I agree. If you are not early enough to avail of the very limited free on-street parking, then it’s one of the car parks, which are usually at least €2.30 per hour. Sure, you can get a spot for €8.00 for the entire day over on Penrose Wharf, but again spaces are limited.
Avego ridesharing dramatically affects both this congestion and the space required for car parking. Ridesharing means less cars on the road, more spaces to park, and with the payment from ridesharers, drivers can recover some of the costs of commuting to work.
Also, I heard that the first 100 ridesharers to sign up to Avego will receive a huge discount at Q-Park. https://rtr.avego.com/rtr-desktop-web/
Image credit: http://wisequacks.org/wp2/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/how-to-avoid-traffic-jams-35319_2.jpg