Sir, – It is a standard Dublin joke that people living on the southside of the city never visit the northside except to go to the airport.
However, one of the major reasons for this is that a large and busy city centre is interposed between the southside and the northside.
Rather than take steps to rectify this situation, Dublin City Council has, over the years, closed one cross-city access route after another. Its traffic division has recently made the amazing discovery that six out of every 10 cars in the core city-centre area don’t have a destination in that area.
Why would they, when they are most likely to be travelling to the airport, the Mater hospital, or the M1, and have no practical route except through the city centre?
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This particular problem mostly affects the residents of Ranelagh, Donnybrook, and Milltown areas.
Their preferred route is on the fringe of the city centre via Morehampton Road, Merrion Square East, Holles Street, Pearse Street and Gardiner Street, and then on to Dorset Street and the MI.
Given the crucial importance of this route for cars and vans, one might well ask if Dublin City Council is going to enhance this route as part of the city centre transport plan (Olivia Kelly, “Ending city-centre car dominance presents opportunities for a better Dublin”, Analysis, September 14th).
But, unbelievably, Dublin City Council is effectively going to close this route for motorists and van drivers making it “if not impossible, very difficult indeed” to travel.
The objective, which will certainly be achieved by the new plan, is to greatly reduce traffic on Pearse Street and Gardiner Street. To what purpose, might one well ask? Pearse Street and Gardiner Street are not prime tourist areas, and Pearse Street has already not one but two parallel bus lanes.
Would Dublin City Council do those of us who live on the affected areas of Dublin southside a favour, by publishing a map showing the new preferred route for cars to the airport that links up easily, on a well-marked route, to Dorset Street and the M1? Even the smallest travel bag cannot be carried to the airport on the carrier of a bicycle. – Yours, etc,
MARY REILLY,
Ranelagh,
Dublin 6.