I am so lucky that Since I started my friendly greeting weekly to the friends last August, I have got over 3000 responding from about 30 countries. All of the letters are so friendly and helpful...   

Mr. Johnny Fox is just one of the best friends who has been keeping responding my work and keeping introducing something in his culture.

Mr. Johnny Fox is younger than 30 years old, but, he is a gentleman who has a very good education background and culture, knowledgeable and talent, he has been keeping offering his help from the other of the Ocean...

Today, I would like to publish his last responding to my 55th friendly Greeting and hope it will be helpful to you to know something about Dublin and London.

If you would like to share anything fun and positive from your cultures here, if you have any questions, comments and suggestions, please write to shirley@ebridge.cn , or shirleyz004@yahoo.com, You are welcomed to publish your opinions in the forum. too. :-)

--Shirley
Friday, Sep 22, 2006

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Talking Something About Dublin and London

By Mr. Johnny Fox (Ireland)


Hi Shirley

I'm so glad you brought up the topic of traffic congestion and transport. Dublin is Ireland's largest
city but is still quite small when compared to other capital cities around the world. However Dublin city is growing at a very fast rate due to 'Urban Sprawl'. This means houses are built up outside the city in green space and the city will grow outwards. This means more and more people live outside the city but work inside the city so traffic is a major problem.

In the UK, the mayor of the city of London introduced 'Congestion Charges'. This means that people have to pay if they drive their cars into the centre of the city. The idea of congestion charges has actually reduced the amount of cars and pollution in London but London has a much better transport structure with its underground railway and bus service which Dublin does not really have. Dublin city may introduce these congestion charges in a few years time because from
the evidence in London, the charges work very well.

There have been other initiatives Dublin city has introduced to reduce the amount of litter. The first was a plastic bag tax. This means you pay for you shopping bag, this was to encourage people to use
their own shopping bags. There have been calls to introduce a tax on chewing gum because gum can be a problem on the pavement if you step in it. Luckily there is no tax on chewing gum which is good for me because I chew gum quite a lot.

There is also a proposal to give people an incentive to buy more "greener" or environmentally friendly cars such as the Toyota Prius. Giving the owners of "greener" cars a tax break might encourage people to buy more environmentally friendly cars.

Well that's all for now, hope to hear from you soon.

Take care.

Johnny