Madam, - Your Editorial of October 2nd and the news from the Railway Procurement Agency in the same day's issue, are dead right. The tramline across the Red Cow roundabout will make virtually no difference to road traffic.
I stood recently at the roundabout and watched, and I drew the same conclusion. The tracks are in place now; it is easy to see that as each line of traffic waits behind a red light, there is time for a tram to pass. The lights have a fairly quick turn-round. I estimated that the maximum time for a tram to pass the whole roundabout is about 70 seconds, and the average 40 seconds.
The logic of this is unchanged, no matter how long tailbacks are, or by how much traffic volumes exceed the forecasts. Even if the frequency of the trams were doubled, it would still make no difference. The prevailing logic - that things are so bad now that the trams could only make things worse - is therefore completely false.
What if things go wrong? Again, if anything, the risk is to the trams rather than to road traffic, and some refinements could be made. But experience abroad shows that motorists are far more wary of taking chances with trams than with other traffic.
The people of Tallaght should not be asked to wait another couple of years for their tram line, only to save one minute on their journey, without any benefit to other road users. - Yours, etc.,
ALAN FRENCH, Mulgrave Street, Dun Laoghaire, Co Dublin.