Brendan Gerad O'Brien

Don't get me wrong: I love my car. If it wasn't for my car I would never have been able to visit all the wonderful places that I've been to over the years.

    I mean, what's nicer than hopping in the car and bimbling off out to Fenit or Banna for a stroll on a warm evening?

    So it came as a bit of a shock one day during the festival to suddenly realise how much cars have taken over our lives, and how Tralee has totally succumbed to the onslaught of the motor vehicle. Not just succumbed, but surrendered completely!

    This amazing revelation happened at about two o'clock in the afternoon. Coming out of The Bank Of Ireland I was amazed to see that the whole of Castle St had become totally gridlocked. Two cars were straddling the pavement by the corner to Denny St while the drivers went to use the cash point, seemingly oblivious to the chaos they were causing all around them. A large van was trying to turn into Ashe Street, but a truck was parked right on the corner with its rear end poking out while the driver was taking boxes off the back. Between the cars and the truck, the van didn?t have enough room to swing around into Ashe St, so he was stranded in the middle of the road.

    Cars coming from The Mall couldn?t come down Castle St now so there was also a tail back right down to Bridge St.

    So I leant against the railing and idly watched all the fun, and as I casually scanned the faces of the people stuck in the queue of cars I wondered how many of them actually needed to be there at all. How many had a legitimate reason for being there, and how many of them were just cruising through, not going anywhere in particular?

    How many were just looking for a parking space as close to the shops as possible so they didn?t have to exert themselves too much by actually walking? I?m embarrassed to admit I?ve done it myself many, many times. (What? Why can?t I drive into the shop?) 

     But now, as I watched streams of people darting in and out amongst the stationary cars as they crossed over from one side of the road to the other, I was well intrigued by one big question: how did we evolve into a society where one person in a tin can is allowed to commandeer the whole of the street, while the rest of us are crammed onto narrow bits of scabby pavements?

    Across the road from the bank I counted eleven cars parked legally, and four more on the double yellow lines, illegally parked up on the pavement by the traffic lights outside St John?s Church. (Bless them! They were probably in a rush. And the poor sod in the wheelchair trying to squeeze by?  Not my problem! He?ll just have to go around. The old girl with the stick? Didn?t see her, sorry!)

    Anyway, on the other side of the cars a constant line of shoppers was anxiously trying to negotiate their way along the extremely narrow pavement, trying to avoid the cobbles so they didn?t break a foot, sidestepping the advertising boards and dancing around the wheelie bins: mothers with pushchairs looked totally flustered, a group of bemused tourists were hesitating and looking around in a haze of confusion, a lady pushing an elderly man in a wheelchair having to squeeze into a shop doorway until she managed to find a gap to push through. In the short time I was there I counted over one hundred people trying to squeeze through that narrow space, and none of them could stop to look in the shop windows. It would have been impossible: they just didn?t have the room.

    So I wondered what the local retailers think about all this? Surely it must affect their business. They must know that it is the people on foot who keep the shops alive, which is why most other towns in the country are introducing pedestrian zones and wider, safer pavements. You only have to look around to see that most shopper in Tralee gravitate towards the Square and the Mall, where they can shop in comfort without getting a fong up the butt from an impatient car driver.

     As I?ve been in retail for over twenty years I?m well aware that if you want people to buy your merchandise you have to display it in a way that the customers are comfortable while they?re looking at it. They need to be able take their time: they must feel relaxed as they make up their minds on whether to buy or not. But it?s no good if your shop is hidden behind a barricade of cars and your potential customers can?t even pause for a moment to look in your window before being shoved out of the way by the sheer volume of people squeezing by behind the parked cars.

    I can tell you, if I had a business on that street I?d be roaring to have those cars removed and the pavement widened. How can it be right that, for the convenience of eleven people, we totally inconvenience hundreds?

    My curiosity was aroused by now so I thought I?d have a look at the situation in the Mall. I went along and stood outside Der Sullivan?s.  To establish what percentage of cars actually stopped along this stretch of road I counted the first one hundred cars to turn into the Mall from Bridge St. How many stopped? Four! And they were all Taxis! The rest were on their way to somewhere else. So again, did they need to go this way?

    And what about the tourists? We?re moaning about the lack of visitors to the town, but what kind of welcome do we give them? They don?t all want to sit in an auld pub all day supping a pint of the black stuff. They want to see the town, wallow in the history of old Ireland. Tralee is a beautiful town, oozing character, and it?s a treat to discover. But you just can?t enjoy a moment to look at it. If you don?t watch your step as you walk around the streets you?ll crack your shin on a car parked up on the pavement. You can?t use the pedestrian crossing because there?ll be a car parked on it. There?s actually a standing joke in Tralee that if you park on the pavement you?re technically not parked on the yellow lines ? you?re parked over them.

    I have to tell you, though, it opened my eyes. The next time I go to the Post Office I?ll have to ask myself if it?s right to just hop up on the pavement and run in. (Did you notice that if someone gets caught in a queue they?ll moan that they?ve been standing there for twenty minutes, but if they see the traffic warden they?ll swear they were there for just half a minute!)

    I?ve no doubt that some people see absolutely nothing wrong with this casual attitude to casual parking. In fact, a couple of years ago as I was walking up Ashe St ? before the one way system was built ? there was a line of Gardai ?no parking? cones along the front of the Court House. But there were several cars parked between the cones! A very young lady garda was standing near by, busily gazing at nothing in particular, and when I drew her attention to this rather amusing situation she seemed totally un-phased.

    ?Shur they?re not doing any harm!? she muttered before wandering off to the other side of the street, glancing back at me once or twice as if I was a bit slow in the head.

    So what do we do about it? Is it something we should be concerned about? Should we put a concerted effort into bringing Tralee up to the standard and discipline enforced in all the other towns in the developed world? Should we make the town pedestrian friendly so that the residents of the town, and the numerous visitors and tourists whom we try to encourage to come here, can see the town in safety and not have to risk life and limb while trying to do so?

    Or is it a quaint auld way of life, an throwback to the slower pace and casual attitude of bygone days, that we should treasure at all costs - until we grind to a complete stop?

The End