Sir, - Strangely, there have been few media references to a serious epidemic that has broken out recently in south Dublin. Its most prominent symptom is a series of protrusions or "bumps" on the surface. It is believed to have emanated from City Hall and is now most evident in the Sandymount area.
The epidemic can be traced to planning experts who decided several years ago on the construction of artificial humps in residential roads to discourage or slow down motorists using them as shortcuts to avoid traffic congestion a practice known as "rat running". Now, it seems, Dublin Corporation has decided that all motorists are `rats'.
Signposts warning of this "rampitis" epidemic have been erected recently in several locations around here. These posts, apparently designed to deceive the public, are falsely labelled "Ramps". In my dictionary a ramp is an inclined plane between two different levels - which these are not. What they signify would be more accurately described as "bumps" or "humps". The latter term is a personal preference since the motorist not only feels the hump but is given it.
The original justification for ramps has been forgotten and they are now appearing on main roads (eg Sandymount Road, main road to the city for Sandymount residents; Londonbridge Road/Bath Avenue, main approach to the East Link bridge for many motorists). Equally ludicrous are ramps on short roads with sharp junctions at each end where speeding is impossible in any event, e.g. Herbert Road and Serpentine Avenue from the level crossing) - unless, of course, someone regards roads as children's playgrounds!
These ramps and the accompanying signposts are environmental monstrosities. It is not difficult to imagine that some years hence, when the present craze has died down, they will be removed to restore the road surface to its proper level - again at the taxpayer's expense, of course.
The situation can best be summarised by a slogan derived from the Latin: "Minimum sense in Corpo insanity".- Yours, etc., Redmond Holloway,
Farney Park, Sandymount, Dublin 4.