Our series on commuting provoked a huge reaction. Here is a sample of your letters.

I am heartily sick of the smug pronouncements of Frank McDonald on what he appears to regard as that sub-species of humanity who live in new estates in the commuter belt. We live there not just because we cannot afford penthouse apartments in Temple Bar but because these estates offer us better and more tranquil lives.

Last year I moved to a new apartment development in north Co Dublin from Dublin 7, where after six years I had tired of the antisocial behaviour of my neighbours, the regular harassment and intimidation of "new" residents by neighbours' children, the never-ending problem of litter (due in no way to lack of care by the corporation, which swept and took rubbish away every day) and the general lack of civic spirit - the corporation would replace without question vandalised street furniture, damaged trees and stolen wheelie bins and take away dumped household rubbish, militating against the development of individual responsibility and respect for one's surroundings.

I love my new home. I do not feel isolated, I feel safe. My neighbours are all pleasant and civic-spirited. The communal areas are clean. I have easy access to all the amenities I need - shops, cinemas, leisure facilities - and it takes me no longer than 30 minutes to get to work (like many people who live in places like this, I do not work in central Dublin, and I drive to work because there is no convenient public transport).

I do not have children, but I have friends who do and who have moved out of areas like my former neighbourhood to give their children a better quality of life and the opportunity to go to better local schools (rather than remain in the inner city and set up segregated schools for their middle-class children in the guise of multidenominationalism or a new-found love of Irish).

The reasons why people move to commuter belt estates are complex - affordability is just one factor. We are not aliens - many of us are even Irish Times readers - and most of us have chosen to live in these areas because it suits our circumstances. Nor are we to be pitied. As the research from Ratoath shows, we are generally well adjusted and happy with our choices.

No more condescension and smugness, please.

Fiona Dillon,

Balbriggan, Co Dublin

I am a resident and native of Drogheda working in Dublin. I am 27 and married with one young child. I commute to the IFSC each day by train. Alas, Drogheda was left out [of the National Spatial Strategy\], so it looks like we will be that big housing estate 30 miles north of Dublin after all. Drogheda is neither a gateway nor a hub. It is included in the spatial-planning guidelines for the greater Dublin area but does not get any representation on that body, Spatial Planning Guidelines for the Greater Dublin Area, insisting that Meath County Council's inclusion is sufficient - go figure!

Cormac Bohan,

Drogheda, Co Louth

I'm a software developer and my wife is a special needs teacher; we're both in our 20s. We have two young daughters, Caoimhe and Niamh, the most recent arrival only 10 weeks old. We're both from Gorey, Co Wexford, but left home after school to study at Trinity and Maynooth, respectively, then lived and worked in Dublin.

Our first family home was in Booterstown, Co Dublin. It was a settled community, and while people were friendly in passing, the generation gap was pronounced and a lack of common interests precluded the formation of any real friendships - plus, we were renting at the price of a mortgage down the country.

So we made our move to Gorey, Co Wexford. Unfortunately, both train and bus meant a two-hour each-way journey, adding four hours to the working day. Also, timetables were more geared towards the annual daytripper to Clerys than the stressed commuter trying to make an 8 a.m. meeting. Working on IT projects, one doesn't always have the luxury of a nine-to-five day, and working late is common.

I also used to enjoy an occasional post-work pint and chat at the end of a long day - this too was out of the question, owing to the restricted timetable. The last train left at 6.30 p.m., so working late meant an overnight on a friend's couch. Not ideal when you've family at home.

So we made our third move, to Sallins, Co Kildare. Houses are dearer then in Gorey but cheaper than in Dublin, reflecting the distance to the city. Crucially, it has a train station and a service that runs between 6.30 a.m. and 11.15 p.m.

With flexitime, I can sometimes get home in time to meet my daughter from the local national school, where she started last September, or to collect her from ballet classes in the local community centre. Since our mortgage is less demanding than one on a (smaller) Dublin property, my wife can enjoy being at home with our new baby and the new house while I perform a traditional breadwinner role.

The stereotype is of Dubliners forced out of their city by spiralling house prices. It is not just Dubs who are forming the new commuter belts; many country folk, like ourselves, require access to the city for work but are perfectly used to country life - and prefer to bring up a family closer to their origins.

James Lawless,

Sallins, Co Kildare

I hope The Irish Times intends to look at other parts of the country, where the difficulties are as bad proportionately. Galway's morning traffic regularly causes tailbacks as far as Derrydonnell Cross on the Dublin road, Barna on the coast road, Claregalway on the Tuam road and Moycullen [on the Oughterard-Clifden road\]. Traffic is also horrific around the city most of the day, with poor bus services adding to our problems.

Galway is suffering from a lack of good spatial planning. We are angry that the Government, having produced a national spatial strategy, is not insisting that county councils stick with it and that the Government is itself not standing by its study by providing more resources for public transport provision (such as the western rail corridor and bus lanes in Galway, which we have proposed where appropriate).

Plans for a controversial four-lane road-widening scheme between the east and west of Galway city got the go-ahead from An Bord Pleanála. The decision missed an opportunity to create Galway's first quality bus corridor, which would have gone some way to relieving the city's traffic problem from the west side of the city. Pity.

Derrick Hambleton,

An Taisce, Galway branch

A short endorsement of living outside of the pressure cooker of Dublin and its suburbs: I grew up in Templeogue, my wife in Clontarf, and when we married, in 1995, we bought a beautiful house in Lucan. At that time, we could literally see the cows in the fields around us. Getting to work required us to leave the house by about 8.10 a.m. - I worked in Donnybrook, my wife in the city centre. Over the three and a half years we lived there, we saw the traffic deteriorate horrifically. In 1999, we needed to leave the house by 7.30 a.m. at the outside.

Lucan was never going to have the infrastructure it required to operate efficiently, mainly because the planners appeared to lack the foresight and power to prevent the incremental spiral to gridlock. In late 1999, we moved to a detached house in Enfield, Co Meath. It has more than double the living space of our Lucan home, plus almost three-quarters of an acre of garden. It is surrounded by trees with a GAA pitch behind - so little immediate chance of development.

Our commuting time has increased - we now leave at about 7.15 a.m. to be ahead of the pack when reaching Lucan, but this allows me to be parked by about 8.35 a.m., and most days if we leave town by 5.30 p.m. we will be home before 7 p.m. The Bus Éireann service through Enfield is very good and stops on St Stephen's Green.

The pros outweigh the cons in relation to travel time and inconvenience, as the weekends can be oases of sanctuary. If there is one significant fly in the ointment, it is the oxymoron of the Enfield bypass: a set of lights interrupting the flow of traffic and unenforceable road signs and speed limits. Articulated lorries cannot make a right turn around the roundabouts,and there have been numerous accidents with trucks overturning. The approach signage is such that numerous motorists have reached the roundabouts too fast to turn or stop, and we regularly see cars "parked "on top of the roundabouts. The official N4 is still through the village, so local gardaí are ineffectual in being able to prevent traffic going through rather than around the village.  As a Dub born and bred,  recommend moving away from built-up areas. My quality of life and sense of well-being are considerably better than before we moved.

Nigel G. Bannister, Prudential Europe Management Services,

Dublin 2

The 2002 Census population-growth figures show that Dublin city grew by 2. 7 per cent and Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown by 0. 7 per cent. These are by far the lowest figures for Leinster. These areas have the least need to provide expensive public transport. A policy that encourages growth in the outer counties is inside out. The spatial planning guidelines should not be forcing large growth on Greystones, for example, when they do not insist that central areas grow. The solution is to develop the centre, with far more and taller residential units, and to place more offices in outlying areas, with good public transport. This reduces the need to travel and encourages contra peak flow demand, which is a very cost-effective use of public transport systems.  At the moment, the centre is being developed as low rise, and many sites are developed as offices instead of apartments.  Often this is because the social-housing rules make offices more attractive. If these offices had to pay the true cost of installing public transport, they would not be attractive to develop. Instead, the taxpayer is left to foot the transport costs. Areas 30km out should not be forced to accept massive expansion, including six-storey apartments,  when they only have one DART per hour,  unless the centre is forced to accept much higher buildings and population. 
Cllr Derek Mitchell, Fine Gael, 
Mayor of Greystones,
Co Wicklow

People may well be able to buy bigger and nicer houses in "commuter towns "like Gorey and Kinnegad, but at what cost? If you spend more than three hours a day travelling to and from work five days a year, that equates to more than 30 days a year spent commuting. Spread that over a working life of 40 years, that's three years and two months lost to commuting. We need higher- density living in the major cities, more effective rail transport and cheaper city- centre housing. If the Government were to make such things happen, they'd be giving all us commuters an additional three years of life. Surely that would be a vote winner come the next election. 
Terry McLure, 
Naas,
Co Kildare