They asked us nicely to give up our cars. They encouraged us to use the bus, the train or the Park and Ride they laid on. They told us kindly that the city couldn’t tolerate any more vehicles. They warned us there would be repercussions if we didn’t. But we didn’t listen.

Now, motorists who wouldn’t leave their cars at home are going to be well and truly smote this week, as they sit in the traffic jams of their own making, while Galway City Council puts the finishing touches to the roundabout come junction that has been the bane of this city’s existence for the past eternity.

The Galway City Council induced commuting purgatory should offer us enough time to consider our motoring trespasses, if we take the time to sit, stew and reflect on our past sins.

While they are working on it and you are waiting in line, think long and hard about the motoring misdeeds you have committed and whether it would really be so difficult to see the light, that is get to work some other way.

Sure, if you took the train in, you would probably have the penance of waking in the middle of the night and walking the mile and a half to the nearest station. You would probably have to sit in the freezing cold for half an hour more for the 8am train to Galway while a cow is shoed off the track at Woodlawn, but you could offer it up.

Or if the train isn’t your thing, think about the spiritual awakening you could have every morning if you bought a bike and cycled the six miles to your office, through rain or hail or whatever the God’s winter throws at you. Imagine the fun you could have dodging the potholes the council can’t afford to fill and seeing if you could guess where the cycle lanes end and the brick wall begins.

Think about paying your dues on the bus, car pooling, working from home, think about anything other than continuing on as you are because commuting heaven doesn’t await and Bodkin 2.0 is not going to be any better than Bodkin, the Roundabout. That is unless some of you give up your oul cars and leave the rest of us in commuting peace.