Sir, One of your correspondents' (December 31st) reports a travel time of 25 minutes from the Montrose hotel to the dock area in Dublin. The distance is about six kilometers, so the average speed was around 14 km/hr or nine miles per hour. From this, some readers may get the impression that Dublin is a quaint but primitive backwater, where the pace of life is much as it was in the era of the horse and cart. Let me assure them that more sensible forms of transport than the car are available in Dublin, and that the above journey can be covered in under 20 minutes by bike at any time.
Another correspondent exhibits the classical denial symptoms of the car cult. Instead of accepting responsibility for their actions, such people seek scapegoats elsewhere. Now, traffic congestion is the fault of the dustmen and the solution is for them to do their work after 7 p.m. So that some motorists can continue their anti social practices, others should work anti social hours; that's the car lobby for you. - Yours, etc.,
48 Cabinteely Green,
Dublin 18.