Sir, – Simon Carswell reports on Dublin's traffic gridlock, specifically on the M50 (October 21st).
In January 2017, I had to leave one of my two part-time jobs because it took me 90 minutes each way in the rush hour, by public transport, to commute to and from my workplace in west Dublin. To date I have only found unpaid work to replace it. If that is the human cost to me, how much worse must it be for those who have to commute much longer distances than I? Is there any solution? – Yours, etc,
MICHAEL THOMPSON,
Blackrock,
Co Dublin.
Sir, – Between them, the twin toll schemes located between the Westlink and Eastlink bridges will deliver a €150 million cash bonanza to Government in 2017. A toll is essentially a service agreement; in return for a payment the user can expect a relatively congestion-free transit. This principle has obviously been abandoned on the busiest motorway in Ireland. As a result of planning and design failures, the M50 has evolved into something unique, a piece of reverse infrastructure, where the users serve the facility, rather than the other way round.
The initial plan for the motorway envisaged a full orbital corridor around the city. With a history of planning and construction extending over half a century, this facility remains unfinished and, as a further measure of its dysfunctionality, terminates in a €1 billion tunnel with a toll designed to keep cars out. – Yours, etc,
REG McCABE,
Killiney,
Co Dublin.