Madam, – It was most disheartening and upsetting to read the degrading headline “Go-slow ‘feels like elderly aunt pootering to Mass” and comment within Ronan McGreevy’s article, “one feels like an elderly spinster aunt pootering to Mass once a week in a Morris Minor” (Home News, February 2nd).
I appreciate Mr McGreevy’s frustration in relation to the recently imposed speed restrictions within Dublin’s city centre, however these ageist comments have absolutely no place in Irish society in 2010 and only serve to marginalise older people and reinforce negative stereotyping.
Headlines that incite public resentment to one particular category of people within society, in this instance the mature motorist, are ill placed. – Yours, etc,
Madam, – There has been much ill-informed comment about the new 30km/h speed limit in Dublin city centre, with some people claiming “you could walk faster”, or (more realistically) that many cyclists go faster. The truth is that only the fittest cyclists will do 30km/h on the flat, and Usain Bolt’s world record 100m run was at a speed of 37.58km/h.
As for the inconvenience to motorists, driving from Church Street to the Custom House at 30km/h will take you 48 seconds longer than doing the same distance at 50km/h – assuming the road is clear and you have green lights all the way. There is thus no rational reason to oppose the measure.
Once people get used to driving at 30km/h they will indeed find that it is a far more pleasant, calmer experience than the mad race between red lights that motorists presently tend to go in for.
The measure will make a huge difference to the quality of life in the city. Nearly everyone who uses the city: shoppers, tourists, revellers, residents and others, are pedestrians, and it is their interests that must be paramount.
Up to now, Dublin’s traffic management has been unremittingly pedestrian-hostile, most notably in the extremely long waiting times at pedestrian crossings, and the incredible detours people must make in many places even to cross the road.
The new speed limits will make it possible to get around on foot, to have a conversation without being drowned by traffic noise – and will undoubtedly attract more tourists and visitors to Dublin city centre. – Yours, etc,