Pic: William Murphy
New rules about free passage over the East-Link bridge will come into play from tomorrow onward.
Dublin City Council announced the plans this morning, with the free passage coming into force from midnight tonight.
The 22,000 motorists who use the bridge on a daily basis will get a surprise tomorrow morning, when they will be met by cheerleaders and free sausages as they pass through the old toll booth sections. It is hoped this will make up for any bad feelings for all the charges people have endured since the creation of the bridge.
In the coming weeks, DCC will be reconfiguring the toll booths into bike docks to add to the Dublin Bikes scheme. Bikes picked up here will incur an extra charge due to the loss of revenue from the toll booths. A spokesperson defended this move saying “at the very least we must recoup the price of the sausages. And the cheerleaders weren’t cheap either, you know.”
It is thought a pedestrian tax is being considered to add to the strategy of replacing the toll revenue. “This is a ‘must-cross’ bridge,” added the spokesperson “and we’re gonna target these people on foot who think they can get a freebie every day.”
Locals were divided on the measures, with many pedestrians who cross the bridge thought to be organising a march. One local who wished to remain anonymous confided to NewsFour that they would probably do a march… on a daily basis. “Every morning we’re going to gather here and rush the toll,” he said. “They can only pick one or two of us off this way. We might even knock a bike or two over for fun.”
By Ferg Hayden
