Sir, - It is encouraging to see Dublin City Council and the National Transport Authority are considering new ways to open the city to cyclists and pedestrians ("Far less space in Dublin for cars envisaged under new plan", News, May 22nd). As your article rightly notes, "the less confident cyclist is not prepared to commute unless there is radical change".
Unfortunately, a quick glance at the DCC/NTA report shows that access to safe cycle routes will continue to be unevenly distributed, even if the plan is implemented, in a way that mirrors the uneven distribution of all sorts of public goods.
So if you live in Rathmines, you’ll be grand. But if you live in the Liberties, or Kilmainham, or Inchicore, good luck dodging those trucks! – Yours, etc,
JM MANCINI,
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Dublin 8.
Sir, – I could not agree with Paul Waldron (Letters, May 23rd), who suggests that Bus Connects plans should be implemented immediately. One of the major elements of dispute in those plans involved the pedestrianisation of College Green and the removal of buses from its principal and only real artery to the centre of Dublin from George’s Street. An alternative suggested of diverting buses down Parliament Street and then along the quays was shown to be unworkable.
The most important objective at the present time is the recovery of the retail sector and the re-employment of the workforce in the city centre post-pandemic. Structural changes such as those mentioned in Olivia Kelly’s article, including re-arrangement and reduction in bus stops, would cause major disruption and delay and act as a disincentive to those members of the public contemplating a return to the retail sector in the centre city. The other question is whether these changes could be afforded in our current straitened circumstances. – Yours, etc,
PATRICK HOWARD,
Dublin 16 .