Sir, - Yesterday as I drove through the bottleneck in Donnybrook during evening rush-hour I noted that one of the two lanes out of town was being converted into a bus lane. Madness, I said, this is already a jam with two lanes; now just one? I thought about the reasoning behind this change: the powers that be are trying to encourage motorists to use public transport. This led me to the conclusion that the masterminds of this effort live in a separate world from most of us in Dublin.
It may be acceptable for the management of a county corporation to be late for a meeting because buses are running late. It might be overlooked if a public transport manager doesn't turn up at a meeting because his DART was stuck at Merrion gates. I, like many other motorists, work in a private sector business and if I am late or don't turn up for a meeting the company could lose money and our business suffers. I can't afford to take the public service transport risk. So, as I sit in longer traffic jams in Donnybrook staring out at what used to be a car lane, I will think of that other world and how much of my hard-earned tax money they are spending to make my life a misery. - Yours, etc.,
Tom Harper, Carysfort Downs, Blackrock, Co Dublin.