Gridlock is ruining health of Dubliners

Traffic congestion will have major implications for the health of Dubliners over the next decade, a conference on transport options has been told.

Dublin Bus came in for severe criticism yesterday at the conference held by the Foundation for Fiscal Studies.

Mr Owen Keegan, Dublin City director of traffic, said priority roadspace would continue to be given to buses, cyclists and pedestrians. But he said it was disappointing that target dates for integrated ticketing for Dublin Bus - which allows passengers to use one ticket for multiple bus journeys or bus and train journeys - were not introduced.

He was also disappointed that real-time information displays were years away and that Dublin Bus had initiated legal action over plans to build 400 high quality bus shelters which would facilitate transport competition.

Ms Isolde Goggin, director of regulated markets with the Competition Authority, said the State proposed to enact legislation by late 2002 for a franchised bus market in the capital; to establish Dublin Bus and Bus Eireann as independent firms; and to privatise Dublin Bus. But Fine Gael TD Ms Olivia Mitchell said the congestion and gridlock stemmed at least in part from the failure of the State to co-ordinate service providers.

"The real story is why one State agency, Dublin Bus, is being allowed to sue another State agency, Dublin Corporation, over policy which is supposed to be aimed at making the city more managable in traffic terms," she said.

Mr Frank Convery, of the environmental studies unit at UCD, was concerned that the State had not begun monitoring the micro-particles contained in emissions from diesel engines.

He said: "We have got the problems of smoke and NOx (nitrogen oxides) out of the air and made some start on monitoring small particles, but we don't monitor the effects of the micro-particles, which are much worse on the health of the general population. This is likely to be the major health issue over the coming 10 years."