A proposal for higher taxes on larger vehicles has been branded a 'step in the right direction'.

The Government has proposed several measures to reduce car journeys by 20% over the next six years.

Among them is to hit larger vehicles such as SUVs with higher taxes and a 'pay as you go' charge by paying per kilometre.

Environmentalist John Gibbons told The Pat Kenny Show the proposals are about rebalancing road space.

"I think it's a step in the right direction," he said.

"It's about rebalancing the roads and the limited road space in our towns and cities.

"At the moment that's overwhelmingly dominated by the private car; that's just an artifact of how the system has evolved in kind of an unplanned way".

Split-screen of a Dublin bus and cars on an Irish motorway

Mr Gibbons said the motorist is currently losing out.

"What we see in places like Dublin, a relatively small city, is among the most congested cities in the world," he said.

"Even with the addition of features like the M50 what we're seeing is more and more traffic, and you get to a point of diminishing returns.

"This hits the motorist as well because the motorist is losing out here."

The M50 motorway in Dublin. Image: Peter Cavanagh / Alamy Stock Photo

Put to him that the reason the M50 is busy is because people cannot afford to live in Dublin, combined with a lack of public transport, Mr Gibbons said we have to step outside at some point.

"There's obviously a logjam here and it's getting worse," he said.

"For people spending hundreds of hours a year... sitting in traffic that's a failure of the system.

"We have to at some point jump outside of that box and say, 'How do we fix this?'

"We need to put in a robust public transport system that gets priority".

'Wear and tear'

Mr Gibbons said he would welcome higher taxes on larger vehicles, despite the fact that electric cars may be heavier.

"These types of calculations have been done in other countries and what they found is, typically, they make an allowance that EVs are somewhat heavier than the equivalent petrol or diesel car because of the battery pack," he said.

"So they tend to taper the taxation accordingly - in other words you don't penalise somebody because they're driving an EV when you're using weight-related charges.

"But I think the weight charges are a good idea because.... the heavier vehicles create more wear and tear on the roads," he added.

Mr Gibbons these would include freight vehicles, vans, heavy cars and SUVs.

Main image: An SUV on the side of the road, 06-08-2019. Image: Sina Schuldt/dpa