Sir, - On Christmas day, stimulated by Ms de Valera's absurd and unenforceable ban, we went for a walk in the Glen of the Downs. We encountered a civil group of villagers being entertained by Luka Bloom around a log fire. We contributed some food, walked the paths, and took away a bag of rubbish at their request. Many others did the same.
This group deserves the highest praise for drawing attention to the key weakness of Irish urban and regional planning. The argument for a dual-carriageway in this location is based on the assumption that the public transport infrastructure will remain neglected, and that as a consequence commuter traffic from Wicklow will increase. The alternative is to plan to prevent this happening, making use of the Greystones DART extension, which needs a reliable minibus feeder service, with park-and-ride facilities. This is where the money should be invested.
Unfortunately, this alone would not be enough. To persuade a Wicklow commuter to use the public system would require the DART to enable reliable random access to all parts of Dublin. To do this would involve reconstructing the Dublin Bus route system to interface effectively with all DART stations, and indeed with the LUAS when it comes, producing an easily read, mesh-like map, on which the nodes coincide with the main "urban village" foci in the city.
Until such a system exists, of a quality such as to enable appointments to be kept anywhere in the city, remote commuters will feel they have to bring their vehicles in, and we will have more stress and gridlock.
Infrastructure should be thought of as a total mobility system, not just roads. - Yours, etc., Roy Johnston,
Rathmines, Dublin 6.