Sir, – While there is resistance to the building of new motorways in some sections of Government, motorways and bypasses offer many advantages.
Reduced journey times for business and leisure, reduced energy consumption, safer roads with a lower accident rate, quieter, less congested towns and villages to do shopping in, less stress for drivers, cleaner air for town dwellers (even electric cars produce particulates from their brakes and tyres) and better spatial development for the rest of the country to counter the excessive unmanaged growth of Dublin.
There are two major routes crying out for development of the south and west of the country. The N20 from Cork to Limerick and the N24 from Waterford to Limerick.
The frustration of driving those roads, which go through every small village and town, stifling reasonable progress, along with getting caught behind tractors and trailers on the “open” road, leading to dangerous overtakes, accidents and large queues of traffic going through towns, make life unpleasant and more dangerous for pedestrians and cyclists.
:fill(white):background_color(white)/static.themebuilder.aws.arc.pub/irishtimes/1647534191476.png)
Motorways may be anathema to the green agenda, but they are a necessity for the N20 and N24 routes, improving access from and to the west to the ferryports of Cork, Waterford and Rosslare, both for business and for tourists, and giving peace to the urban dwellers along these routes from the incessant rumble of heavy trucks and cars. – Yours, etc,
DAVID DORAN,
Bagenalstown,
Co Carlow.