Half-witted decision to silence audio signals

I HAVE come to wonder if the ‘authorities’ here are half-witted. We have had a number of patently stupid and unnecessary decisions made on our behalf of late.

The Tara motorway and the creation of hospital places followed by a refusal to staff them, to name just two.

However, a new low was apparently reached in Dublin recently.

You published a letter (Irish Examiner, July 5) from a gentleman who is blind. He complained, correctly, about the switching off of audible signals on traffic lights in the city. The reason given was that they confused sighted people!

I confess to living in Cork, but I do visit Dublin often. I use the signals in question and never get confused.

The average Dubliner is just as capable of telling the difference between a visual and an audio signal as the rest of us. (For the benefit of the ‘authorities’, audio comes through your ears, which are located at the sides of the head, while visual comes through the eyes, which are at the front.)

If I were a Dubliner I would find this assumption of inherent stupidity very insulting. Audio signals confuse the sighted, my eye. (This is a family paper, so I can’t use the really proper phrase.)

Patrick Browne

Brugge

51 Ashliegh Park

Blackrock

Cork.