Gemma Flanagan, tourism and marketing student in DIT Cathal Brugha St, Dublin does the commuter thing.
How do you travel to and from work? By bus from Dunshaughlin, Co Meath to Dublin city centre.
How long does it take? It takes between one hour and 10 minutes to get into town and one and a half hours to get home.
What time do you leave home? Three times a week, I take the 7.30 a.m. which is 10 minutes walk from my home. The other two days, I catch the 10 a.m. bus.
What time do you arrive back home? I get the 6 p.m. bus from Busarus and arrive home between 7.15 p.m. and 7.30 p.m.
Do you travel the same route every day? Yes, straight into town via the Navan Road and Phibsboro.
What do you enjoy about your commute? The rest in the morning; sometimes I sleep. And the chat with friends on the bus. It can be a good way of catching up with people I wouldn't otherwise see during the week.
What bothers you most about your commute? The traffic. Particularly sitting in the traffic in the evening - sometimes it can take up to 20 minutes to get through Phibsboro and there can be a tailback of over a mile coming into Dunshaughlin.
Would you change your mode of transport if you could? I don't think so. There are bus lanes for most of the journey. If I was travelling in a car at the same time, I would be stuck in traffic for longer. The bus is better for students, I think.
How could your journey be improved? If there were bus lanes through Phibsboro and if nobody ate cheese and onion crisps on the bus.
In conversation with Sylvia Thompson
Traffic Gripe
Bus stops are for dropping or picking up passengers, bus lanes are for buses to drive in and bus stands are for parked buses.
Take a walk around Dublin city centre and count the number of buses using bus stops and bus lanes as bus stands. As a result, buses are unable to utilise the bus lanes effectively during rush hour.
The only place buses are allowed to park are in nominated bus stands or at a depot. No such depots exist in the city centre - CIE had planned to build one in Temple Bar but the land was sold. I believe the solution is to enforce the laws.
The Garda Traffic Division says it is aware of the problem and have on occasion driven abandoned buses away.
John Russell, Co Kildare
It is intensely annoying when entering the city from the west that the tailback from the Westlink toll booths reaches the roundabout and causes massive delays to traffic not using the toll bridge. The toll company should be penalised heavily for this.
Gerard Crotty, Co Offaly
E-mail trafficgripes@irish-times.ie or write to Traffic Gripes, Features Dept, The Irish Times, 11-15 D'Olier Street, Dublin 2
