Transport policy has taken the wrong track

YOU report (April 29) that the NRA has warned Cork’s ring road will be “an M50 bottleneck” if the construction of offices, which would create 1,500 jobs, goes ahead.

A motorway with traffic travelling at 100km/h at a separation of 80 metres has a maximum capacity of 2,500 passengers per lane per hour assuming two persons per car, whereas a railway can deliver one train per minute carrying 1,000 passengers, which makes 60,000 passengers per hour, or 24 times as many people. This is the equivalent of a 24-lane carriageway.

Further, about two hectares of parking would be required for the proposed office block.

In cities that rely on railways, buildings are cheek to jowl because land is not wasted on parking. For example, La Defence in Paris and the City of London have hundreds of thousands of office workers in about one square mile, all arriving and departing within a short space of time, something quite impossible with our car-dependent system.

Something has gone very seriously wrong with Ireland’s transport policy.

Michael Job

Rossnagrena

Glengarriff

Co Cork