EAMON SWEENEY,
Madam, - On returning to Dublin after a brief odyssey my reacquaintance with the Dublin rush (sic) hour came as something of a shock.
Can there be any other European capital where sweeper trucks ply their trade between 8am and 5pm; where buses are forced to halt in the middle of the road because of cars at the stop; where untimed, "on-demand" pedestrian lights vie with lollipop-persons to snarl up the flow; where regular traffic-lights (usually only 10 metres further on) favour the road less travelled; where filter lights have no access road approaching them; where junctions appear to have been redesigned by sadistic lunatics at full moon; where commercial vehicles are double-parked and unloaded in the midst of diurnal mayhem; where yellow boxes and yellow lights serve only to distinguish the quick from the dead; and where cyclists take on charmed lives as they follow cycle paths veering drunkenly across the path of morning and evening motorised lemmings?
Now it is clear why the comely maidens are dancing at the crossroads. 'Tis sheer rage and frustration! - Yours, etc.,
EAMON SWEENEY,
South Hill,
Dublin 6.