Sir, - Dublin Corporation proposes to remove one lane of traffic in each direction in O'Connell Street by widening the pedestrian area, the work to be done in autumn 1998. There is also a longer-term plan to eliminate through traffic from the street altogether. On hearing such proposals, one naturally asks what plans there are to cope with the substantial traffic flows presently using O'Connell Street on other routes. It comes as a shock, on reading the volume Dublin Corporation has published outlining its proposals for O'Connell Street, that there are no such plans. There is nothing more than a totally unconvincing statement on the declining need for cross-city journeys. There is every reason to expect that restriction or elimination of traffic flows in O'Connell Street will lead to massive congestion at peak hours in Gardiner Street, Capel Street and other cross-city routes, all of which are already congested.
It is stated that traffic flows will be reduced from three lanes to two lanes in each direction. This ignores the fact that one lane in each direction is blocked almost all the time by buses stationary at bus stops. In Upper O'Connell Street there will be, in effect, a reduction to one lane in each direction, a 50 per cent reduction.
The need for these changes is highly debatable. There is ample space for pedestrians on the central reservation. Traffic flows in O'Connell Street are one of the few things in Dublin's overall traffic problem that actually work quite well. To destroy this for no good reason seems to me a misuse of public funds, and a major step backwards. - Yours, etc., John Brady, SJ,
Milltown Park, Dublin 6.