Michael McAleer answers your queries
From Kevin O'Toole:
If a person was sitting in traffic in their car, with the handbrake on, could they take digital photographs of cars using the bus lane and e-mail the photographs to the relevant authorities?
Would the photographer be committing any offence and could any action, such as a verbal warning, be taken?
According to a Garda spokesman: "You are not committing an offence once you are not driving." However, you would need to be careful that when sitting in your car, you are not liable to a similar charge of careless driving as those using mobile phones at present may face the five-point penalty for talking while behind the wheel.
While the use of bus lanes may annoy you, the thought of hundreds of drivers snapping each other's mistakes leaves us a little worried about society in general. I would suggest that while the use of bus lanes is annoying to others obeying the rules and sitting in traffic, there are several far worse offences by Irish drivers at present. Perhaps it's the fact we are on the road so much that we notice the aggressive attitude of Irish drivers. Our personal peeve is the seeming inability of many drivers to understand how to merge.
Once the road signs start to signal that traffic has to merge, the outside lane seems to speed up as drivers rush towards the bottleneck while in the inside lane motorists push up bumper to bumper to prevent anyone getting in. The end result is that traffic comes to a halt as egos get the better of those in the front.
From Fiona Cooke:
I live in the city and I'm considering a soft-top car this summer. I've read all the reports and have two or three cars in mind, the only difference being that some have folding metal roofs while others are regular cloth types. I won't be doing much mileage but like the idea of letting the roof down in the nice weather.
There are really three options open to you. First there are the traditional fold-down soft-tops, and then there are the electronic versions. Finally the latest hard-top convertibles.
You explain that you're looking for a town runaround so I suspect you are not really looking for a roadster like the BMW Z4, Nissan 350Z or even the Porsche Boxster. So your choices are confined to soft-tops or the new 'tin-top' versions. The trouble with soft-tops is the supposed insecurity and at the lower end of the market the risk of leaks. These days the metal convertibles have ironed out most of the issues, but the one main bugbear remains the extra weight that you must carry, from the roof through to the electric motors that folds it into the boot. These mean that to match the regular versions you need to go for the larger engines, and suffer accordingly in the pocket.
If it's sporting you want, go for the traditional soft-top version with electric folding roof. That's still our favoured format for convertibles. But during the winter months you'll appreciate the solidity of the 'tin-top' version. You need to decide if performance is important to you. For us it is. If not then go for the hard-top.
From Gearóid O'Sullivan:
As a fascinated reader of the Past Imperfect column, I hope you will not mind my suggesting that the date for your picture of the trams in College Green cannot be 1950.
The last city service, Dublin to Dalkey, ceased on July 9th, 1949. The Hill of Howth trams continued a Flying Dutchman-like existence, flitting from Sutton around the summit, down to Howth and back again for a further 10 years.
Apart from the volumes of past issues in The Irish Times you can check Irish Trams by James Kilroy and Through Streets Broad and Narrow by Michael Corcoran.
Your earlier account of the round the houses motor races in Bray helped me to pinpoint the dates of a childhood memory. Our family lived in Bray in the 1930s and I remember being brought as a toddler to watch the cars whizzing along the Putland Road though, until I read your article, I never could figure out what the years were.
Many thanks for your letter pin-pointing the date of the photograph which accompanied my piece on Dublin traffic at College Green. As you point out the photograph had to have been taken in 1949 as the last Dublin tram service ran in July of that year. Indeed, the "Streamliner" tram in the photograph looks almost overwhelmed by the other traffic! - Bob Montgomery
Send your queries to
- Motors Help Desk, The Irish Times, Fleet Street, Dublin 2 - or e-mail them to motorshelp@irish-times.ie