Let e-cars use bus lanes and park for free

Plans to incentivise motorists to go electric...

THE Government is considering allowing electric cars to use bus lanes and avail of free parking in cities, the Irish Mail on Sunday can reveal.

Plans are being drawn up to give electric cars special ‘green number plates’ that will give them special permission to drive in bus lanes.

Private cars are prohibited from driving in bus lanes at most peak times under threat of heavy fines and penalty points. Prosecutions for driving in bus lanes have increased by 30% in the past year.

Free parking in towns and cities would also prove a major attraction for motorists considering a switch to zero-emission cars.

The moves were first flagged by Taoiseach Leo Varadkar in a radio interview last week.

Now, ministers and senior officials at the Department of Transport confirmed that civil servants are studying such programmes in other countries. There is a belief that the ceiling has been hit for grants, so additional incentives are necessary to get people into electric cars as part of the Government’s efforts to improve our environmental performance.

It was revealed last week that Ireland has failed to meet environmental targets this year.

Significant grants are already available for those who want to buy an electric car.

Last week, Mr Varadkar participated in a ‘questions and answers’ show on the Dermot and Dave Show on Today FM. He was asked whether the Government had considered allowing electric cars to use bus lanes as they do in other countries.

Mr Varadkar said: ‘In Norway, for example, where a lot of people buy electrics now, they allow them to use bus lanes and free parking, so they’re definitely the kind of things we’re looking at.

‘The bus lane one is tricky in a city like Dublin, because as anyone who drives around Dublin will know, the bus lanes stop and start,’ he added.

Sources at the Department of Transport confirmed that plans are being progressed.

‘This is one the Taoiseach is interested in and we are pushing it along,’ said a source.

‘The bus lane one is tricky in a city like Dublin’