Sir, – Dublin City Council and South Dublin Council have announced an ambitious plan of building a car-free town in west Dublin (“Large new car-free town planned for west Dublin”, News, August 17th). This plan hinges on assuming people can walk or cycle as well as good infrastructure being present.
The reality of this means that the area must be safe enough to walk in at all times of the day, but has the council looked at the policing required to ensure this is possible? Not everyone wants to or is able to cycle, very serious accidents can happen on bikes, even with no cars involved, something that is rarely acknowledged by the powers that be, and bikes are also frequently stolen.
The plan would require means fast, frequent, reliable and cheap public transport – something that does not as yet exist in the rest of the city. In fact, it can be the better part of a two-hour journey from East Dublin to west Dublin where several modes of transport must be employed, and train stations in west Dublin are hugely underserved. A Lucan Luas line is promised, and residents of north Dublin are waiting a long time for their metro. Will this be the same?
What happens to the cars of those who want to visit people in the car-free town? Where do they go or is it that residents are required to always do the visiting? And those working in local schools or other amenities?
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In Adamstown, 14 years post-crash, a shopping centre is only now being built, and residents and those working in the three schools have had one small convenience shop to serve them over this period. Any other daily life tasks – supermarket shopping, eating out, banking, medical treatment or socialising – all involve lengthy walks or a trip in the car in often quite heavy traffic, with one way in and one way out for most of that period. A park has only recently been added to the area; previously there was one tiny playground for the many children living there.
Currently building is being carried out at a frenetic rate but new infrastructure such as additional schools have yet to open and those currently in place are full to the brim. The residents who purchased in this area before the crash were promised a vibrant town and are still waiting for much of the infrastructure promised while more and more houses are built.
Hopefully these painful lessons will not be replicated with promised infrastructure in place before the residents of the new car-free town take up residence. – Yours, etc,
NIAMH BYRNE,
Fairview,
Dublin 3.