Sir, - In the period leading up to last Christmas, Operation Freeflow was considered largely a success in central Dublin. Nothing was done in the suburbs such as Donnybrook and Ranelagh, but the impression was that these would be tackled in early 1997. Nothing happened.
The Chairman of the Dublin Transportation Office (September 10th) takes you to task for your editorial which suggested that "Operation Codology" might be a more appropriate description of the project as a year-round campaign. Two of his statements seem quite extraordinary. "A winter campaign was approved .. . on the basis that traffic would not be a problem during the summer months." Where is he living?
The second statement was unbelievably negative: "Outside this cordon [the canals], Freeflow can have only a marginal effect and no amount of money thrown at the problem will change that."
Reading of the recent appointment of a new Director of Traffic to Dublin Corporation, I wrote him a lengthy detailed letter on June 25th last, dealing mainly with the chaotic traffic conditions in Donnybrook. I showed how, by the removal of 10 to 12 on-street car parking spaces between Mount Eden Road and Marlborough Road (half of this short stretch already has yellow lines which are never enforced) the incoming traffic problem in Donnybrook could be largely solved overnight.
On June 30th I received an acknowledgement from an assistant staff officer which said that the issues I had raised would be examined by consultants undertaking a review.
There has been complete silence since. In view of the DTO chairman's views that traffic chaos outside the canals is a fact of life which cannot be altered, this hardly augurs well for Dublin suburban car owners.
This, of course, is complete nonsense and I repeat that my letter of June 25th to the director of traffic offered a virtually overnight solution at no cost (other than the removal of a dozen carparking places outside the shops) to the morning Donnybrook traffic problems. A similar location in London would have been a freeway for the part 20 years. - Yours, etc.,
From Gerry O'Shaughnessy
Blackrock, Co Dublin.