Sir, – The vast majority of us are in favour of reallocating space for pedestrians and cyclists, where that can be done.
Thus in the first paragraph of the mid-June programme for government: transport, we read: “Necessary improvements in climate impact, quality of life, air quality and physical and mental health demand that every effort is made by the Government to make active travel and public transport better and more accessible”.
However, the recent Dublin City Council proposal for cycle lanes on Strand Road in Sandymount will not provide such necessary improvements in any of those four areas. The climate impact will not be improved, since an idling vehicle produces twice as many exhaust emissions as one moving; the quality of life in the surrounding areas will be worsened; there will be greater air pollution because of consequential traffic hold- ups right into the city centre, and the proposal gives rise to serious health and safety concerns for schoolchildren and the elderly in particular, but for everyone.
Two resident associations have demonstrated this to be the case in clinical detail, and one has put forward an alternative proposal to the council, which has the support of the growing number of those who have read or heard about it. Though not perfect, it shows how we can have a two-lane off-road cycle way on Strand Road, while preserving the two traffic lanes as they are. It also respects those demands of the programme for government, just as the DCC plan, with its dubious “trial” period, does not. – Yours, etc,
JOSEPH LYNCH,
Sandymount,
Dublin 4.