Letters to the Editor: Carrigaline is gone pedestrian crossing mad!

EDITOR – Carrigaline is getting very carried away with traffic light pedestrian crossings and the consequences have been reduced traffic flow leading to very heavy congestion.

For some reason the local Council engineers think signalised pedestrian traffic lights are better than zebra crossings. They’re not. Zebra crossings have far more advantages than signalised lights.

They stop the traffic for as long as people are crossing and no longer have little or no maintenance issues and do not suffer from malfunction or sequencing issues.

They are also far more inexpensive and easier to commission. The location of these traffic light pedestrian crossings is also problematic.

The one placed on the Kilmoney road near the old Cogan’s television shop has been problematic and should have been placed further up the road, rather than stopping traffic suddenly as it comes around the bend and thereby blocking traffic on main street and coming down from Church Hill.

Again, a zebra crossing would have been more efficient for pedestrians and traffic alike, rather than waiting for lights to go red and eventually green to let the traffic go. The same problem exists with pedestrian traffic lights just before the bridge close to Lidi roundabout when a zebra crossing would have been far more efficient and effective.

Confusion too about crosswalks at the Church of our Lady and St John. Drivers are very confused about the latticed yellow markings, which can fade over time. One was recently altered by making it ramped.

Are these latticed crossings for when the lollipop lady is there, or do they confer a right to walk obliging the traffic to stop?

One must ask the question whether the main purpose of these signalised pedestrian crossings is: are they there to get pedestrians from A to B, or have they an ulterior motive to calm already snail-paced traffic even further? Other signalised pedestrian lights are also under construction in various parts of Carrigaline. In contrast however, a zebra crossing has recently been placed at Riverside and Castle Court bucking the trend of pedestrian traffic lights.

Safety has given way to village cosmetics and the possibility of increasing the chance of having a crash.

Carrigaline has also opted for a large and complex array of traffic lights at Janeville rather than a roundabout which would let traffic flow, rather than huge tailbacks at peak hours.

A roundabout has worked fine at Glenwood roundabout for as long as anyone can remember. Traffic control engineering needs to look more carefully at its solutions, which are in fact creating more problems.

Maurice Fitzgerald,

Shanbally.

While eagles dare, hares die and no pride in that

EDITOR – I see that the Taoiseach was present at the release of white-tailed eagle chicks into the wild, part of an effort to bring back these magnificent birds. He had every reason to be proud of the initiative undertaken by our National Parks and Wildlife Service that aims to restore a long absent bird to our embattled ecosystem.

Sadly, this high-profile boost to our wildlife heritage came just days after the government over which Mr Martin presides granted a licence permitting the capture of thousands of wild hares: not for conservationist or scientific purposes, nor for pest control (the hare doesn’t pose a threat) but so that dogs can be set on them.

So, while the white-tailed eagles trace their majestic patterns across our skies, below them on Irish terra firma the fleet-footed hares will run from pairs of greyhounds in coursing, some to be mauled or forcibly struck; others to have their bones crushed, and others again to die of stress-related ailments following release back into the wild.

I would question the ecological vision of a government that expects us to admire its concern for rare birds even as it allows our iconic Irish hare, one of our few truly native mammals, to be used as live bait.

Unfortunately it doesn’t seem to bother certain rural TDs.

John Fitzgerald

Callan

Co Kilkenny.

Let’s not cancel Sabina

EDITOR  – Irrespective of who she is married to, as an Irish citizen Sabina Coyne Higgins has the same individual right to have opinions and express opinions as any other citizen.

In agreeing with the main thrust of her letter, her call for a ceasefire in Ukraine, the stopping of deaths, injuries and destruction, one caveat to its content is the unrelated and unnecessary mention of the climate change scare.

Let not Sabina Coyne Higgins become yet another victim of cancel culture.

Joe Terry,

Blarney