Sir, – What is the purpose of bus lanes ? It seems that whatever purpose this is, the bus lanes can fulfil it admirably without requiring any actual buses.
Whatever about the pros and cons of the latest bus dispute, surely the most asinine and unhelpful decision that could have been made was to keep the bus lanes operational.
The original purpose of the bus lanes was supposedly an attempt to more efficiently manage the scarce resource of road bandwidth. On a day when there was unprecedented demand, having them remain for the exclusive use of a small number of private buses, taxis (for those who can afford to take one to work) and the occasional Government Merc must rank as one of the most ludicrous decisions to come out of this sorry mess.
A more imaginative approach would be to open the lanes to any vehicle with more than one person in it. Since most of the cars going into town each day have a single occupant, this would at least make some effort to alleviate the pressure, and make better use of the available road space, as well as offering some relief to all commuters. But no – why miss an opportunity to maximise the misery for everybody!
I expect no better from the anti-motorist zealots who run Dublin City Council, who would prefer the bus lanes to remain idle rather than have nasty motorists use them, even if they were carrying some of the people stranded by Dublin Bus and its unions.
I am disappointed, however, that the Garda showed such lack of imagination. When it should have been trying to find ways to keep traffic flowing, it decided to ensure that amid the chaos yesterday, the bus lanes would remain pristine and largely idle.
I am also still waiting for journalists to ask such spokespeople to justify their stupid decision rather than merely repeatedly remind people as it if were a weather warning beyond our control.
Perhaps the Minister for Transport might see fit to do something about this, even if he feels that he can’t intervene directly in the dispute that caused it ? – Yours, etc,
TOM WADE,
Blackrock,
Co Dublin.