Sir, - There is no "bad" traffic congestion in Dublin for three months of the year, and then only for approximately an hour (8.20 a.m.-9.20 a.m.) in the morning and about an hour and 15 minutes in the evenings (5.15 pm.-6.30 p.m.). These "bad" periods are five days a week, Monday to Friday. For the most part Dublin is relatively easy to get round in by private motor car.
Traffic congestion is caused mainly by drivers leaving well to do suburbs at approximately 8.30 a.m. and expecting to get in to the city centre for 9 a.m. When they find this difficult to accomplish they get irritated and complain that the city is in a massive gridlock.
Another major contributor to traffic congestion is the insistence of mothers in well to do areas on driving their children to school. I can see the point in small children been driven to school in inclement weather, but why very large teenage boys should be ferried across the city twice a day by their mothers remains a mystery to me.
Of course if we had a more equitable education system where students attended the nearest school, this "chauffeuring" of well to do teenagers would not be necessary, and I suspect would free their mothers for more fulfilling activities.
If, for instance, all parking rates in the city centre area were "reduced by 50 per cent before 7.30 a.m. and by 25 per cent before 8 a.m. I imagine rush hour could be made earlier. This in itself would be a good thing and bring us in line with our trading partners; it would also ease traffic congestion considerably.
There are other obvious, low cost, innovations that would be of assistance in this matter as well.
Re opening the old Harcourt Street line would be a gross waste of money and will not contributed in any major way to the easing of Dublin's so called traffic problems. It is indeed a political gifts to a wealthy suburb. I think this is apparent to Ms Monika Wulf Mathies, the EU Commissioner for Regional Affairs, and hopefully she will have it scrapped without too much delay and rerouted to communities who deserve it. After all, this is the purpose of funds for the regions surely.
One of the great mysteries of modern Irish political life was the silence of Dublin north side politicians when this plan was being rushed in by Seamus Brennan and later Ms Eithne Fitzgerald.
Bertie Ahern was a powerful figure in the Cabinet at this time but he ignored the interests of his own constituency. Can someone tell me why? - Yours, etc.,
Dunville Avenue,
Rathmines,
Dublin 6.