come fly with me..

Race week and the skies are abuzz with helicopters. Nice to see such a service in operation for those who really need to spend their money! Unfortunately, those of us on the ground below (ie the ones that look like ants) have the traffic jams to contend with, although with some decent imagination, ambition and commitment this city's quality of life could be boosted significantly with adequate public transport. A fleet of well appointed biofuel powered buses would be a nice start and for those who are squeamish about using "public" transport we could use the cosmetic technique pioneered in England (though manufactured in Northern Ireland) of "streetcars." These elegant looking machines are buses that look like trams, aiming to overcome the psychological barrier that many middle class travellers seem to have to buses.

Of course, a light rail system has its advantages (streetcars, if they are to work effectively need strict lane demarkation and discipline from other users, computer controlled traffic signalling etc- oh, and smooth roads) and a proposal which has been doing the rounds in the Galway press is the Corrib Light Rail project. The proposed routes and other information are nicely summarised in that Wikipedia page.