Nadine El Ashkar

Travel Writing Section 3

Dr. Reade Dornan
Essay 2

No Transit No Fun
Where is the nearest place to obtain food? we asked a passer by.
Three miles that way. He answered thinking we were Americans.
We had no food, we were carrying a tent, sleeping bags and clothes that
were enough make a bald polar bear warm in its natural habitat. We had no choice
but walking. This is Glendlaough. It is a historic site; whose Gaelic name
translates to valley of the two lakes It is the second most visited city in Ireland
after Dublin.
We started walking on the narrow right sided road to the convenience
store, desperately trying to hitch hike. We thumbed to people. They responded
with a smile and thumbs up thinking we were complimenting their rides. We
waved. They waved back. We signaled our hands up and down for them to slow
down. They responded with perplexed looks on their face and drove a little slower.
It was funny at first, and then it was just exhausting. One hour and a half of
walking later, we arrived to a shady small convenience store with a broken sign
that said Jacobs in a gas station. Wine, bread, cheese, water and bananas were all
we bought and then we were out on the road again.
Walking back was not an option. We were tired and were already losing
sunlight. In Ireland, Dublin and Glendalough included, the majority of individuals
use the car to commute, either as a passenger or a driver (53%). A sizable
proportion of individuals walk to work, and only to work (13%). Public transport
accounts for 21% of daily work trips with the bus accounting for two thirds of that.
Yet all the public transportation is concentrated in Dublin, and only the center of it.
Predictably, walkers and cyclists have the shortest commutes, both in terms of
distance and time. Bus users and car passengers commute almost the same
distance on average but travel times for bus users are approximately 50% longer
(McDonnell). We were ready to take ten times the time of a car drive, as long as
we dont walk, but there was no other apparent option. We were ready to commute
on a donkey. Anything but walking.
The camping gear was heavy and the trip was turning into a challenge
rather than a break. Then we thought that it is true that there is no public transport,
but walking isnt necessarily the only option. We approached an old woman in a
Renault Megan who was filling her car with gas and asked her if she would drop
us off. I believe in the kindness of strangers.

That is not on my way, but hop in.

The three of us hopped in, partially scared she might change her mind and
partially because we wanted to sit down desperately.
The three-mile journey didnt seem that long at all now.
We set our picnic up and had our dinner. We staged the picnic by putting
the Semester at Sea blanket on the sandy shore of the lake. We set the ambiance by
playing Dean Martin on the speakers. Then we set our tent up, at least two of us
did. Leyla and I worked on setting the tent up while Ghadeer sat down reading us
the instructions that we didnt need and sipped her wine that we didnt want to buy
but she insisted to.
We had to be quick as the stars sprinted to make an appearance on the dark
carpet in the sky. I didnt know that that many stars existed. With the
disappearance of the nearest of the stars to our planet and the appearance of the
other stars, came an unwelcomed breeze. The moisture from the lake and the trees
on the ground hyperbolized the cold. The exhaustion I felt, which was the
aftermath of the long walk, drew my attention to the poor public transport system
of Ireland, which was a direct cause behind my exhaustion. The lack of something
makes one appreciate it. The walk we had to take was not because we were in a
remote area since for the past two days in Dublin, one of the capitals of the
European Union; we had to take taxis everywhere, and Glendalough is not a
remote area to begin with. Despite the beauty of Ireland, I would find it
challenging to live there due to the lack of reliable public transit. The problem
with transportation in Dublin is that it is tied to low-density, dispersed patter of
people that simply cant amend to alternative modes of transport (Lawton).
I was frustrated about Dublins pathetic public transportation, the one that
virtually doesnt exist. Public transportation should meet certain criteria that
Dublins transit just didnt meet. For instance, interchanges play a central role in
public transportation. Unless the interchanges are working properly, the public
transportation system will not be able to sustain itself. The dispersion of
population in Ireland might be a cause for the lack of public transport, but
networks within those dispersed areas should be implemented. Everyone needs
public transportation sometimes. But it is the steady users who keep it going, and
through surveys and statistic the government should be able to determine who
those steady users can be. According to one book describing the livability of cities
called A Pattern Language, to maintain a steady and easy to use public
transportation has to follow certain benchmarks:
1- Workplace and housing for people using interchange must be distributed evenly

around the transportation network.

2- The interchanges must connect up with the surrounding flow of pedestrian
street life.
3- It must be easy to change from one mode of travel to the other. If the system is
to be successful, there must be no more than a few minutes walk two hundred and
fifty meters at most between points of transfer (Alexander).
Ireland had none of that. A car is a must in Dublin and every other city
accordingly. Factors such as powerlessness and potential isolation due to the lack
of proper public transportation directly increase feelings of psychological stress
defying the stress-relieving ambience of Ireland. Dublin has two lines of overland
trams, a surprisingly small network for a capital city, let alone the fact that it
doesnt have a subway system. Not only that, but a two way ticket cost us five
Euros and eighty Euro cents, almost the price of daily pass in Lisbon or Barcelona
or even Paris. Spending two days in Dublin made me frustrated because there was
no reliable way of commuting but Taxis, which are too expensive for a students
budget.
The trip to Glendalough was supposed to be a break from the constant
traffic jams that a small city like Dublin had, but it appeared that as we got away
from the traffic caused by lack of proper public transportation, we still had to
suffer from the lack of public transit, just in a different way. If having rail based
public transportation is expensive, then at least the government should explore the
use of increased bus priority measures, already shown to be effective in parts of
Dublin, as a relatively low cost way to improve the efficiency of existing
infrastructure and make alternative modes more attractive to current non-public
transport users. As those users increase in number, the projects benefits will yield
back in a snowball effect. As well as improving the efficiency of infrastructure,
policymakers should also explore institutional reform since the bus that transferred
us back to Dublin was not government owned (Ferreira)
The morning after the camping, we had to walk to a near by hotel to catch
the bus back to Dublin. This bus is not run by the government, it is a privately
owned bus that comes to Glendalough from Dublin and back again once a day.
Luckily for us, the bus left at 8:00 am. We had to be in Dublin by 10:00 to get the
tram to Saggart, Dublin. If you go to Glendalough, this is your only non-tour
operated way back to Dublin, and it leaves once a day in the early morning.
We made it to Dublin by 9:15 am. We asked for the tram but people didnt seem to
understand what we were talking about.
Excuse me, we need to go to the nearest tram stop Leyla asked.

- No reaction.
Tram, electric train, metro ? She continued.
Ahhhh You mean the Luas the stranger corrected her.
No, tram.. we need to go to Saggart.
Yes, the light rail, we call it the Luas, it should take you there he replied in his
Irish accent
Take the next right, you will find one In front of the shopping mall
The tram stop was similar to public transit stations around the world. It had a small
bench for shade, or protection from the rain in the case of Dublin. The stop had an
electronic banner that indicated the direction and duration of waiting for the next
tram. It had only two destinations: Saggart and Brides Glen. The trains didnt run
frequently even though we were in the heart of Dublin in the middle of the day.
We had to wait for 17 minutes to get the tram.
The tickets were sold in a machine adjacent to the bench. One round trip
ticket for an adult cost us five euros and eight cents. The trams were not crowded
despite their infrequency and their rareness. While buying the ticket, a young man
approached us and told us that it is unnecessary to buy tickets since conductors
never check on commuters.
The public transit system of Dublin is a model of bidirectional causation.
People dont buy tickets, and ultimately use the Laus, because they are expensive
and tickets are expensive because there is no high demand for them. Also, people
dont rely on public transit for transportation and hence the government has only
constructed two lines and at the same time since it only has two lines, people dont
rely as much on public transit because there are only two lines. We got on the Laus
knowing that it is going to be a long ride since we were getting off the last stop.
The Laus was always empty throughout the whole trip. We arrived to our
destination forty five minutes later, where our hostess was waiting in her car by
the stop. She was going to host us for the day in her horse back riding farm. An
arranged agreement was made between us through Trip Advisor.
Nadine? She asked.
Yes, Hello Patrica I replied.
Are you driving? she asked sarcastically as I instinct-driven reached for the left
front door of the car.
I thought I should take an Irish Vitara for a spin I said to conceal my
awkwardness.
We have to take the car to reach my house, there are no buses. She said.
I was so delighted she brought the topic up. I seized the opportunity to ask her if

there were other forms of public transportation, hoping I would prove myself
wrong, but I unfortunately I wasnt.
We love to drive, we love to take our kids to school and we love to drive to the
shop to buy bread. It is not like we could cycle anywhere when it is always
raining
That made sense to me, the biking part. However, I was curious to know how do
they like driving when the streets are so narrow and they always have traffic jams.
So I asked her.
Before the Luas' launch, it was feared that the tram system would lead to a high
number of fatal accidents. So far, however, there have been only four fatalities, or
so I think
How ?
There have been many occurrences of cars striking trams, mainly caused by
motorists breaking red lights.
But this happens everywhere, especially when driving a car.
Yes, but again, the Laus is expensive, not only the ticket but also the cost of
parking for a full day is 4 Euros. It is unacceptable for Luas to charge passengers
for parking at their Park and Ride facilities on top of ticket fares.
The poor public transportation network in Ireland can be traced to its poor
financial situation, the choice of infrastructure investment has become more
important than ever and hence, large expensive projects such as an underground
Metro line called Metro North have been widely criticized. Although the
government has three different proposed projects for metros, some Irish people
still oppose the projects (Caulfield). The problem with public transportation in
Dublin has multiple dimensions to it. It makes me wonder whether such an
element should be a factor in deciding whether a city is a European Union city or
not, because I believe it should be an element. The expenses associated with
having to take taxis everywhere made me question whether I want to return to
Dublin, especially that I am a budget traveler. We arrived to the farm after a short
drive. I saw the horses and I instantly forgot the whole hassle about the Laus,
buses, cars and all other forms of transit. This is the only form of transportation I
need.

Bibliography:
Alexander, Christopher. A Pattern Language. 1977. Oxford University Press.
Caulfield, Brian, Diarmuid Bailey, and Shane Mullarkey. "Using Data Envelopment
Analysis As A Public Transport Project Appraisal Tool."Transport
Policy 29.(2013): 74-85. Academic Search Complete. Web. 16 Nov. 2014.
Ferreira S.; Convery, F. Using bus rapid transit to mitigate emissions of CO2 from
transport. Transp. Rev. 2008, 28, 735756. )
Lawton, Philip, and Michael Punch. "Urban Governance And The ' European City':
Ideals And Realities In Dublin, Ireland."International Journal Of Urban
&
Regional Research 38.3 (2014): 864-885. Academic Search Complete.
Web. 16
Nov. 2014.
Wikipedia. Dublin. Web. 19 Oct. 2014