Sir, – Billy Hann compares Dublin to Paris and Copenhagen with regard to traffic plans to be implemented (“Why the Dublin city traffic plan should go ahead this summer”, Opinion & Analysis, May 28th).
Having never been in Copenhagen, I can’t comment, but I have spent much time in Paris, and our public transport is in the ha’penny place by comparison, so it is far from a like-for-like comparison.
I would argue that a recent experience with Dublin Bus, in which it took more than an hour on a Saturday afternoon, to get from home to the Gaiety, a distance of 3km, on the bus (missing curtain time, to boot) would be unlikely to happen in Paris, barring a transport strike. Is it any wonder people decide to take the car?
I am one of those people traversing town on their commute. Though I do live in town, I am travelling through my local environs attending to business as anyone else might do in the suburbs. Anyone travelling anywhere passes by many places, so this argument of travelling through town seems a bit silly.
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It is not feasible to get public transport to my place of work across the county as the time and effort involved could amount to as much as four hours in a day. Generally speaking, in the car, it is half of this, while also being able to complete other life tasks at the same time. In the years I have been doing this commute, I have gone from going and returning through town to going through town and coming home on the M50, although some days I do come home through town when having done business elsewhere in town en route. Using the M50 is expensive and far too unreliable in the morning. Since cycle lanes and light changes were enacted on the quays, I rarely come directly home on the quays, as it never takes less than an hour; while Dublin City Council might consider this a success, I do not.
I love town and often stopped two to three days a week after a long day in work. I would get a hot drink, have a wander and often make purchases or do grocery shopping, after my day in work. I do not do this at all any more.
Between these changes and Covid, I find myself in town less and less, using suburban shopping centres on the way home to do the same business instead – is this a success?
I recently required physio, and I was able to take a 7am appointment and go on a day when I had a slightly later start, missing no work, but if these bus gates come in, that won’t be an option, should I need to do it again. Thus, either I move physio or take a full sick day to do so, neither appealing options. This is just one example, but it applies to many life tasks.
Cutting off one part of town to another is also a potentially dangerous move, and anyone can see the difference between Grafton Street and O’Connell Street and these moves could continue to increase that discrepancy. We have already seen an increase in anti-social behaviour due to fewer people in town.
Public transport has had decades of underinvestment, this must be remedied, and sledgehammer approaches demonising drivers aren’t the way to fix things. – Yours, etc,
NIAMH BYRNE,
Fairview,
Dublin 3.