THE traffic reports on Tuesday morning were pretty consistent; the airwaves reverberated with chilling warnings of dire congestion for commuters on routes in and around the M50. It was a poor diagnosis for the post-bank holiday traffic warriors. A protest by hauliers at the decision to kick them out of the city into the port tunnel and onto the motorway was expected to create havoc.

In the end, it didn't really materialise. Only about 200 truckers took part in the planned go-slow and other motorists were so warned about the potential mayhem that many of them stayed away from the major routes.

There were some delays but no more, it seems, than are usual on a busy morning around Dublin.

I interviewed one of the spokespeople for the organisers of the protest by the Road Transport Association (RTA) on Tuesday morning. I asked him to tell me, worst-case scenario, how long it takes truckers to navigate the M50 at peak times. A shiver ran down my spine when he told me that up to an hour and 40 minutes can be spent travelling the length of the motorway from the port tunnel exit to the end of the M50. That's a maximum of 27 miles.

It brought back memories to me of when I had to face that journey. I used to navigate the barrier of crawling steel, created by thousands of motorists stuck in their cars on a daily basis. When travelling at a snail's pace becomes part of your daily routine, you get used to spending a good part of your life in the car. You begin keeping important things in there, most of your thinking is done within the glass and metal bubble and your car becomes an extension of yourself, or at least of your living space.

It's only when you stop the daily M50 grind, as I have, that you realise a number of things. Firstly, it's a miserable way to have to spend your time; secondly, it takes up more of your life than you realise; and thirdly, it's outrageous and insulting that you have pay to use it.

So why then was the protest last week largely unsupported? These truck drivers surely have a point. The Dublin Port Tunnel is undoubtedly a great success. It has taken the heavy vehicles out of the city centre and has made the journey to the port much easier. But for those who have to use the M50, it has made life much, much worse. All of these vehicles now pour onto the motorway and clog it up even more than before.

It is not only the HGV drivers who are suffering. It is also the thousands of people who are forced to commute into Dublin because the only affordable housing is outside the city. Public transport is still a struggle for many, with overcrowded and patchy services in many areas. The government would argue that it's all in hand, with money being pumped into train, trams and buses and the expansion of the M50 underway. But increasing the capacity of the motorway will take five years and the disruption it is causing to the traffic flow further increases the misery.

The RTA is made up of a group of disaffected members of the Irish Road Hauliers' Association. They had lined up 600 members to take part in the protest but, after talks with gardai, it was scaled back to 200. I was surprised at the reaction to their protest by the listeners who got in touch with our radio show on the day. Many were delighted it had not managed to cause the promised disruption and almost gloated over the fact that it was now being perceived as a damp squib.

Have we become such a lethargic and disaffected society that we are happy to sit back, take our foot off the accelerator and accept our fate? Are we happy to normalise living at least part of our lives in our cars, while throwing money into the toll bridge cash basket to pay for the privilege?

The other alternative is to try, as the RTA did, to exercise our democratic right and shout about it. But we had proof last week of just how uninterested we are in those who raise their voices in dissent.

The rejection of apathy by the 200 truck drivers was met by a collective shrug of the shoulders by those who saw a protest against traffic and tolls as disruptive to their difficult and longterm relationship with the M50.