European Car-Free Day

Sir, - RTE has done it again! Having seen a preview earlier in the evening on RTE 2 television for a news item which was to show…

Sir, - RTE has done it again! Having seen a preview earlier in the evening on RTE 2 television for a news item which was to show green alternatives for travelling into the city on Car-Free Day, I duly awaited the 11 p.m. bulletin. Apart from a single brief sentence mentioning the nation's apparent inability to use its legs for transport, the entire bulletin was taken up with what was effectively an advertisement for a new shop selling motorised bicycles (so called "eco-bikes"!), mopeds and motorcycles! Nowhere was there a mention of the real "eco-bike", the pedal cycle; neither was there any mention of walking routes into the city or suggestions about suitable footwear for the day, as one might expect.

Have we really come to this? Are we so hung up on cars and high-tech gadgets that we can no longer conceive of simple solutions to simple problems? Or are we simply bone-lazy? - Yours, etc.,

Colm O'Brien, Riversdale Park, Dublin 20.