Screwball transport plan for Dublin (1941)

sligoliner

you can see why we are in the mess we are now:

http://indigo.ie/~kfinlay/New%20Dublin/section1.htm

sceptre

I love the bit at the beginning of section 2:

One of the major evils consequent upon indiscriminate development in Great Britain has been the unrestricted growth of the large towns. These have expanded by constantly increasing their circumference, and sending ribbon-like tentacles along the main roads. This means that the country is driven further and further from the inhabitants and a nucleus intended for, and suited to, a reasonably compact city has to serve as a centre for a population far in excess of the capacity of the nucleus and the carrying power of its transport facilities.

It has for long been recognised that a limit should be set to the growth of a town, and the difficulty elsewhere has too often been that the town (e.g., London, Glasgow, Birmingham) was already too large and unwieldy when the problem of limiting its size first came under consideration, and by the time the requisite margin of growth was allowed for, things would become worse. Dublin, as we shall see, is in the fortunate position of being able to limit herself to a much more manageable size than would be possible in the great towns of England.

Victor

Actually it isn't all that rediculous. It includes much of Collin's and Griffith Avenues and the Kylemore Road / Greentrees Road / Templeville Road / Springfield Avenue / Braemor Road / Taney Road / Mount Anville Road / Foster's Avenue route.

If only the plan was stuck to, the city might actually be a decent place to live, but no we have had a series of governments which have been in love with the landowner's, builder's and car salesmen's monopoly. Cologne has a similar population to dublin with much better transport and general social facilities because it is a quarter of the size.