Sir, – It would seem the plan of the city manager is to implement more cycle lanes throughout the city (“Bus lanes in Ranelagh and car parking at Merrion Square to be reallocated for cyclists”, News, January 5th). Ranelagh and Merrion Square are next for consideration. Ranelagh, it seems, will have to give up bus lanes, in order to do so, and surely this is madness. For Merrion Square, a different fate: to lose on street parking, thus the council will lose revenue from same also.
The council seems to have forgotten that not everyone can cycle, nor is everyone willing to cycle nor is it suitable to everyone’s travel purposes to cycle. What about those who have mobility issues, how are they to travel to town? We are seeing fewer people in town of late, particularly with more people working at home, thus having a knock-on effect on businesses. People living in the environs of the city centre need to do normal life chores such as dry cleaning, grocery shopping, hairdressing and other daily tasks which aren’t easily facilitated on a bike. These people are being forced out of town and into more suburban environs. Moves that will see the death of the city centre.
While cycle lanes are great, until there is proper, easily accessible, frequent, fast, reliable, cheap public transport from all areas of the city to the city centre, people will continue to use cars.
Adding cycle lanes in lieu of normal traffic or bike lanes is only going to discourage people from town altogether. Public transport needs to be sorted out first to encourage people out of cars; after that all the bike lanes the council desires can be added in. – Yours, etc,
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NIAMH BYRNE,
Fairview,
Dublin 3.
Sir, – I read with concern the plan for widespread removal of car parking in the vicinity of the National Maternity Hospital.
While extra car parking capacity has already been built in St Vincent’s University Hospital in anticipation of the co-location of the NMH, this move is many years from becoming reality, if it ever does.
As committed I am to cycling, it is not reasonable nor safe for pregnant women, women in labour nor those in the early postnatal period to cycle to access vital care. These trips to the NMH are frequently made urgently and outside the hours of public transport.
The needs of women at a particularly vulnerable life stage were clearly not considered in the development of this plan. – Yours, etc,
YVONNE HARTNETT,
Terenure,
Dublin 6W.