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Merry Christmas to the Gardai

Operation free-flow is a stunning success

Now before anybody goes on rabbiting about operation free flow being nonsense and a waste of space, we must remember that the purpose of operation free flow is to allow public transport move freely throughout the city. Unfortunately that includes taxis that do there utmost best to make all traffic move or should I say NOT MOVE throughout the city by cluttering up lanes, driving in between lanes( punter dashing) and holding up at traffic light junctions.. There is a noticeable level of traffic movement throughout the city once the blue hats and the wagging fingers are there, ready to pounce and withdraw the old black notebook from pocket once a muppet motorist plays the same game of feck everybody else, I’ll do the same now, as I done during the rest of the year. Have you noticed the visible emptiness of box junctions now that a Garda stands at the corner of the junction? No cars climbing over one another and blocking pedestrians from crossing the road at the corner of traffic light junctions. Ah yes, pedestrian crossings nicely laid waste so that pedestrians can walk straight across the crossing road without having to go half way up the road to get to the other side. Please save all this nicey-nicey stuff for later you say, when Christmas is over we will be back to the same old two-finger jobs, horns blowing as the taxi driver stops to feck his sandwich wrapper out the window after having his lunch break at the bus stop opposite the bleeding horse pub in Camden street, as little old ladies struggle to board or disembark buses that are forced to literally stop in the middle of the road.  

Ah yes, operation free flow is indeed providing a considerable number of people with a level of relief that one can only wish for during the rest of the year. And operation free flow is also having a level of success for motorist trying to get home at the end of the evening. Although it still occurs to a limited extent, it is not as prevalent as before, to see a driver tear up the bus lane only to come to a screaming halt and then expect you and me to give way because of his or her need to suddenly squeeze in on top of you and the motorist in front of you because a Garda is at the top of the lane. Ah let me in, move, stop, let me in, ye bloody ba***** I’ll be caught, a f***** 80 Euro fine because that f***** to the right would not me in. Ever turn to your left, smile and say in your mind “ I might be two hours getting home but the cost of the wait will be coming out of my pocket and petrol tank and not pocket, tank and pocket again”.  The unfortunate part of operation free flow is when the Gardai at 18.30pm move back to base for the cuppa and the motoring community return to normality, forgetting about the inconvenience for another day. In the case of Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights in the city, everything returns to chaos.

But operation free flow should not stop because the festive season is over. The RSA should switch its squandering of money on road fatality images that have no real impact in changing people’s attitude and therefore their driving habits. We have seen worse images of violence, destruction, injury and death in Freddy Kruger films or at the best of time, films that have PG ratings at prime viewing times on TV. The RSA was given a considerable amount of money to spend on road safety advertising and other iniatives, (as in the past) but this time next year the statistics for road fatalities will either be the same or even higher. At the launch of the RSA Christmas campaign I heard Gaybo waffling on about the strength of the images and the message these images were attempting to get across to the general public. Listen Gaybo the lights are on but their is nobody in, never mind listening. It’s time for the RSA to recognise that these campaigns are doing absolutely nothing in changing people’s attitude to their driving habits. I feel sad when I say this, but the advertising campaigns are having no real substantive impact and furthermore cannot be used as definitive proof that the campaigns themselves contributed to any real decline in road fatalities.

The ridiculous debacle of a lorry over turning and the city coming to a complete standstill tells us that there is something seriously wrong in the way we approach traffic management and the methods used to resolution problems that occur during the course of a typical day in our capital city. Take for example Georges Street junction onto Dame Street where a incident involving a motorist and a cyclist seen a fire brigade vehicle completely block the junction ( 17.00 hours) thereby causing a traffic jam that spread throughout the city. Fire brigades and ambulances come to a complete standstill as if all life and all activity in the city had just died and they were the only ones around to use the roads. Now I know there are situations where the emergency services unintentionally but necessarily block the movement of traffic, but all situations, even onto a cat stuck in a tree, does not warrant the need to bring the city to a standstill. The Gardai for their part can be slow to prioritise the free movement of traffic, thereby increasing the impact of the incident or accident throughout the city which may indirectly lead to other incidents or accidents as motorists jostle to avoid streets or areas of traffic congestion. Cork Street, Dublin, a fire in a premise’s caused the road (wide road) to be completely blocked off by fir brigade vehicles despite the fact that one side of the road could have been used effectively if the Gardai had taken effective control of the traffic situation. But the Gardai cannot be seen or accused of being the problem, it appears that there is a lack of communication and co-ordination when it comes to incidents that occur outside the norm. The lorry over turning seems to indicate the validity of my argument. 

Operation free-flow from next year should commence from the 1^st of November and continue until the 31^st of January. During this time motorists should be made aware (through effective and meaningful advertising) that violations of traffic regulations e.g. box junctions, double yellow lines, pedestrian crossings and bus stops will be strenuously  enforced by the Gardai. During this period motorists should be also made aware, that violations outside this period will see instant prosecutions for breaches of the rules. What we have here is a substantial lead in time in conditioning motorists to accept that the rules and regulations will be enforced. Over time the Gardai will have a reduced visible presence as motorists begin to experience a zero tolerance approach to a range of traffic violations. The problem we currently have is that we are taking Gardai away from other duties in order to control situations that in reality should be the responsibility of every motorist. In other words, when a taxi stops at a clearly defined bus stop, then instead of a Garda giving a warning and telling the driver to move on, a prosecution should immediately take place. Turn the onus and responsibility directly onto the driver which over time will see the problem become self policing.

Despite all the hums and haws about operation free flow one thing is absolutely certain, if the Garda presence was not there on our streets then the current problems with traffic congestion would be magnified ten time over. The bigger challenge is how we reduce that presence while maintaining the same or better level of compliance despite the reduction in Gardai. It seems to me that everybody wants to shy away from the enforcement of personal responsibility for ones actions. Our leaders and those in positions of authority appear to strive for other solutions to the problem rather than the solutions that are blatantly obvious and need to be pursued.

If the Gardai can impound a vehicle for non-payment of road tax, then the Gardai can do the same for motorists who have no insurance or motorists who blatantly and dangerously drive through red traffic lights. The smoking ban in public places has provided us with evidential proof that compliance is not about strength of numbers as in a Garda presence, but compliance based on personal responsibility and the consequences resulting from such breaches of that responsibility. If we really want to reduce road fatalities, murder, assault and damage to property then we have to move away from listening to the manipulated cries of insanity or the pleas of regret and sorry for the actions. The unfortunate thing about freedom is that the more freedom people have the less justice comes to people abusing that freedom. Victims of crime must stand back and accept the now regular and frequently thrown about excuse of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Nobody has grasped the potential advantages that operation free flow could provide in helping to reduce a considerable number of crimes and other incidents that plague this country. We have an opportunity to go beyond the initial concept of keeping public transport moving, if only those in authority took the bull by the horns and made things really happen.

Operation free flow will come and go, road fatalities will increase, the RSA will come up with other stunning advertising campaigns and life will go on as it did yesterday and the day before. People will die on our road, others will be severely injured, thugs will roam our streets and the Gardai will lock a few up as the courts listen to their cries of sorrow and give them yet another chance to get their assaults properly mastered on the streets of our cities and towns. Our country is dangerously sick and nobody wants to call a doctor.

Happy Christmas to the members of An Garda Siochana, your job is constantly made that much more difficult by powers that see what is wrong and know what needs to be done, but are reluctant or unwilling to take the responsibility that will herald in change.

 Merry Christmas one and all