Invest in buses and trains — not roads

YOU reported that nearly €1.5bn is to be invested in the national roads development programme” (Irish Examiner, November 20).

This works out at more than €1,000 per vehicle; far more than most motorists pay annually in road and fuel taxes. In addition, there is spending by local councils and the cost of lighting, policing, accidents, etc, not to mention environmental costs.

This exposes the road lobby’s myth of the over-taxed motorist. This is not money ‘invested’; this is money squandered. Given our obsession with roads, we are digging a deeper and deeper hole in which to bury ourselves in the future.