Sir, – While I can empathise with your letter writer Niamh Byrne regarding her long journeys either by bus or by car across Dublin (Letters, June 3rd), I would take issue with her argument that the proposed traffic changes in Dublin are somehow a demonisation of motorists. Decades of underinvestment in public transport infrastructure have led to the dead-end of car-clogged streets and disgruntled commuters.
Billy Hann, as the chief executive of Dublin Bus, Ireland’s largest public transport operator, is right to argue for more space for bus priority so that the bus journeys will be more reliable (“Why the Dublin city traffic plan should go ahead this summer”, Opinion & Analysis, May 28th).
Whether we like to accept it or not, the reality is that motor vehicles are incredibly inefficient space users on the roads. If you were to compare the length of a double-decker bus to the length of an average car, a bus takes up the space of approximately two to three cars. However, during an average peak travel journey, such a bus would likely carry well over 100 passengers throughout its journey. An average car carries nothing close to that during its average peak-time journey and many of those journeys are for single occupants.
While many people will argue that their car journeys are necessary, the challenge is that in busy areas of the road network there are simply too many motor vehicles and it is causing more traffic congestion in Dublin, blocking the roads for everyone. It makes more sense to prioritise the movement of more people than vehicles, hence the argument for prioritising bus journeys. Your letter writer, like many people, are also pedestrians on Dublin city’s streets, where literally thousands of people traverse across street junctions and they too should get higher priority for their journeys. In many cases, this is why traffic light sequences need to be adapted so as to allow more time at junctions to let pedestrians cross the road.
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While Mr Hann mentioned how cities such as Paris and Copenhagen have had to adjust their traffic management plans in favour of public transport, the one thing these cities have which Dublin does not have is a metro. Since the 1970s, officials have come up with various plans for a metro in Dublin. These plans always seem to be arriving at the station platform in the future, with the current rather limited metro plan due to arrive in the mid 2030s.
Rail could play a much more significant part in helping to relieve traffic congestion in Dublin. Regrettably, Ireland does seem to be a country that is always looking for a way not to invest sufficiently enough in rail-related infrastructure.
Here in France, the cities of Toulouse, Lille and Rennes all have metro lines. Each of these cities’ metropolitan areas all have smaller populations compared to Dublin.
While a metro or expanded rail services will not resolve all of Dublin’s traffic ills, millions of suburban and city journeys could be taken off the road if a sufficiently integrated rail, tram and metro network was built out. This would give commuters such as your correspondent more options to reduce the number of car journeys they need to undertake. Dart and Luas have proven that rail can deliver. Dublin and other Irish cities need to take a more continental perspective when it comes to rail infrastructure investment. – Yours, etc,
TERRY O’FLOINN,
Arith,
France.