Sir, - Mr Eoin Keegan of Dublin Corporation wrote (May 5th), "Motorists will, however, have to get used to the fact that traffic signalling policy is no longer exclusively focused on maximising vehicular flows on main routes without due regard to other traffic demands and the needs of pedestrians and buses." This is part of an ongoing pattern of communications from Dublin Corporation that suggests the Dublin motorist has no interest other than the progress of his/her own vehicle on the road. It really is about time that Mr Keegan and others in the Corporation stopped whining about the terrible motorists and began to take a holistic view of the traffic situation in Dublin.
The majority of motorists in Dublin are mature, balanced people who recognise the right of everyone to travel easily. The vast majority of us do not expect or wish that the entire amount of road-space be assigned to motorists or that priority be given to them over the needs of pedestrians, cyclists and buses. We also recognise that public transport has a greater right to priority on the roads. However, the attitude from those with responsibility for traffic in this great city of ours is so fixated with an "anti-car" focus that they have lost the ability to take the broadest possible view of solutions that might aid traffic movement in Dublin. Mr Keegan's comment is yet more evidence of this blinkered attitude. Many people take their cars to work for two main reasons. Firstly, they need it to do business during the day - after all, commerce is the reason that this city of ours has flourished. Secondly, they use their cars because there are no feasible public transport options. And further, many thousands of our fellow citizens from other parts of the country travel to Dublin each day of the week and they too need their cars to do business. No one would deny that the Corporation has an unenviable task. No matter what is done, Dublin will remain a city with small streets, too many cars and people and, in its own way, too successful. However, the response that is needed is not the simplistic one of "take the cars off the road". The solution to the problem is far more complex. - Yours, etc., T. Gerard Bennett,
Knocklyon,
Dublin 16.