10.30.06
DTO Hypocrite
Great story here by the magnificent Sunday Times.
The new director of traffic DRIVES to work everyday even though he lives in Dun Laoighre where the DART could easily bring him in. And of course he gets a FREE car parking space, yet announces he is putting up parking charges in the city to put off commuters. Unbelievable.
Pete said,
October 31, 2006 at 1:16 am
Hypocritical, yes. Unbeliveable, no. Sarah, I’m beginning to think that you just don’t have the cynicism gene.
FPL said,
October 31, 2006 at 11:31 am
Sarah,
How naive of you to not understand that the reason the relieve congestion is so that the people who matter can get through. The people who matter live on the southside. All civil and public servants matter.
People who live in commuter counties don’t matter.
Andrew said,
October 31, 2006 at 2:49 pm
The Stern Report suggests that we all need to take a long look at our lifestyles. The director of traffic’s behaviour shows why we won’t – we’ve all become masters at depicting our selfish behaviour as necessity, or even virtue – later in the article the DOT exlains that, as he uses the car to drop off others en route, he’s actually quite green.
Environmentalist George Monbiot has described how well-meaning friends are willing to take many steps to be greener – but not the ones that really hurt. Drive to the bottle bank – yes; forego foreign holidays – er, not yet, it’s been a tiring year and anyway the Greek economy needs tourist revenue.
Long distance commuters will insist that they must drive. They may have to explain to their children’s generation just why they lived so far from work in the first place – was it because Irish ‘necessities’ include big gardens and spare rooms?
The inadequacies of our public transport system are often cited as reasons for the necessity to drive, but Frank MacDonald has often quoted research showing that even free, clean, punctual public transport won’t get drivers out of their cars – only making it too expensive to drive/park will do that. The LUAS has resulted in thousands of bus passengers making the switch but, apparently, very few drivers.
It can be amusing to observe the distress of a teenager temporarily separated from his/her mobile – our generation managed to grow up without them, didn’t we? What must people in their sixties and seventies think, who have seen the undreamt-of luxuries of their youth – private cars, foreign holidays – claimed as human rights by today’s twenty-somethings? The latter generation may be the first in centuries to face a fall in material standards-of-living, if Stern is right. The Director of Traffic should start administering the necessary medicine by doing something about his free parking space and considering the kind of congestion charge that would send people like himself on to the bus.
Kyran said,
October 31, 2006 at 3:27 pm
I am travelling to Ireland in the spring (2nd trip). I was obsessing over a stack of DK travel books from the library last night when it occured to me there are likely bloggers, and likely even women bloggers in Ireland. So, I’m on a bit of a blogospheric scouting mission.
Nice place.
k
Luke Mc said,
November 3, 2006 at 1:48 am
In fairness, your headline is misleading. The director of traffic doesn’t work in the DTO. The chief of the DTO travels to work by Luas.
Sarah said,
November 3, 2006 at 10:24 am
oops, they are different people? I’ll have to check the structure..
oh yes, here we go. My quangos got all mixed up. DTO is Dublin Transportation Office http://www.dto.ie/
“The DTO is a government agency, formed in 1996, which provides transport and land use advise to organisations operating in the Greater Dublin Area.” (home page)
The “about” says “The DUBLIN TRANSPORTATION OFFICE ( dto ) was established in 1995 to coordinate the implementation by the relevant agencies of an agreed integrated transport strategy for the Greater Dublin Area, namely The Dublin Transportation Initiative ( dti ) which was adopted as government policy in 1994.” It lists all kinds of committees but no mention (AFAICS) of a CEO.
The Director of Traffic is a post within Dublin City Council.
Luke Mc said,
November 3, 2006 at 1:56 pm
Yeah, the DTO are actually pretty sound and have come up with some good plans for the city, unfortunately they are advisory only, have no real budget or power and tend to get blown off by FF councillors who want to give money to their friends. Plus ca change.