Sir, – It comes as no surprise that once again local councillors have voted against public-realm improvements to a popular area because the changes entail the loss of parking spaces ("South Dublin councillors vote down planned Lucan village redesign", News, April 11th).
Many of the arguments and tactics are very similar to those that were used here in Galway when councillors voted against a temporary cycleway because of the same concerns that a loss of parking would have to the area.
If we put aside all the arguments about the urgent need to reduce emissions, as well as the large body of evidence that reducing car access (with obvious exceptions for people with limited mobility) increases footfall for businesses, it’s best to view these decisions in terms of the incentives acting on individual councillors when they decide how to vote.
What it comes down to is that there are no real advantages for councils and councillors in reducing car dependency because nobody at a local level is going to be held accountable for the climate, air quality, safety and even congestion implications of failing to do so. Instead, these can all be pushed up to national government and, if the political pressure in a local area is sufficient around traffic, promises of improvements, usually in the form of roads, can be dangled in front of voters as an example of “something being done”.
Hopefully some of the measures in the Climate Act will change the political calculus for local representatives, but of course there’s nothing to prevent them from showing a bit of political courage right now and instead of yielding to the view that every parking space is a precious slice of freedom, taking some modest steps in the direction that every expert is telling us is necessary. – Yours, etc,
DAVE MATHIESON,
Salthill,
Galway