Rat-runs replace real urban planning

WHEN I set up home many years ago in what’s now the Cork suburb of Blackrock, it seemed we were living in the countryside.

Strolling along the banks of the Lee to the Atlantic Pond or up towards Blackrock Castle, one rarely saw a car in that bygone age. Walking down by the Marina nowadays, the road resembles a busy motorway as drivers use it to bypass the traffic madness on Skehard Road.

I see drivers coming by the Lee, go along Castle Road, skirt by Ringmahon and come up by the Mahon Point side entrance to avoid the traffic jams that occur daily at all the junctions leading to Mahon Point and the Jack Lynch Tunnel.