Dublin City Council's director of traffic Owen Keegan wouldn't exactly be the motorist's most popular person. He has never made any bones about the fact that he really doesn't want any cars coming into his city. Buses are what their drivers should be using. And, when it gets going, the Luas. And I don't disagree with him much there.
Are we heading down the Stasi route?
The 'Lo-Call Traffic Watch' signs have just appeared in my county, on the local motorway. I expect to see a proliferation of these 'shop bad drivers' on other routes soon. And I've no intention of using the number.
The electronics we now have in our cars have made them better, safer, more economical and more comfortable to be in. But I'm getting worried about privacy, because there's less and less of it
I'm starting this piece at 37,000 feet, on my way back from a quick trip to the South of France. Nice one, Brian, you say. Nice job too.
They won't use their batons, so give ’em guns ...
I’m not particularly against penalty points in principle. I just don’t think we need them, and certainly not in the form proposed. It’s only setting down another layer of bureaucracy on one already there that’s not being used.
It’s funny how the names of cars we drove ourselves over the years , or which were in our families, generate their own particular memories.
I’m glad to read recently that we’re to have a dedicated traffic police corps, aimed at making sure the road is made safer for all of us. But I’m confused, because I was under the impression that we already had dedicated traffic police in every division.
Shining a bright light on insurers, lawyers
Let’s hear it for Dorothea Dowling. An Irish motorists’ heroine. She and her Motor Insurance Advisory Board have finally managed to do what Government, motoring journos like me, and so-called motorist organisations have all failed to do.
Renault’s Vel Satis luxury car will be aiming at people who ‘want to make a statement’ when it comes on the Irish market in April.
So they've finally got work on the Dublin Port Tunnel under way. We should go down on our knees in absolute gratitude to the powers that be. It will remove from Dublin's streets some 9,000 HGVs each day.
A news item this morning about 18 youngsters being injured in a bus accident reminded me of a perennial chestnut. School buses. The disgrace of Irish school buses.
Minister for the Environment Noel Dempsey made a big political play this week about the possibility of banning the use of mobile phones in cars. And in terms of road safety, that’s what it was. A political play. A grandstand.
The recently-touted idea by AXA insurance to keep electronic speed tabs on young drivers in return for lower premiums might seem a good idea.
If there was ever a really cynical attempt at media manipulation, it was perpetrated by the National Road Authority's spokesman Michael Egan on RTE Radio last week, when he callously played the 'death' card in that organisation's game against farmers.
I'm very glad that the Southern Cross part of the M50 is now open, even if it is some 30 years after it was first proposed. Already it makes a significant difference to some regular journeys I have to make. But is it as safe as it should be?