Buses travel 50 per cent more quickly than cars on the Lucan Quality Bus Corridor (QBC) and 30 per cent more quickly on the Malahide Road QBC, according to figures from Dublin Bus. Passenger numbers have increased by 15 to 20 per cent on average.
Buses account for only 3 per cent of vehicle movements on the Malahide Road corridor, according to Mr Owen Keegan, Dublin Corporation's director of traffic. But when combined with bicycles, which account for a further 6 per cent of peak-time traffic, they carry more than 50 per cent of the commuters using this congested route.
When buses start hitting travel speeds 20 per cent faster than cars, motorists ask themselves whether it's time to get out of their cars. "What a QBC does is to provide them with an opportunity to transfer to public transport; likewise, if they want to wait in their cars in ever-increasing queues, they have that choice as well," he said.
Mr Keegan expects the QBCs and associated cycle routes will also help to reduce accidents on each corridor by up to 30 per cent. In economic terms, this would pay for every QBC within three years. "It's tremendous value for money, compared to, say, minor road schemes," he said.
The QBC concept was first put forward in the Dublin Transportation Initiative's final report (1994). It recommended 11 QBCs on the city's main arterial routes and one orbital corridor in the suburbs. But the AA is quite right in saying that what Dublin is now getting falls short of the DTI's specifications.
A QBC was meant to be "a single, direct, unambiguous alignment upon which investment in a high-quality operation can be focused." Apart from providing a continuous frequency of buses, so that nobody has to wait more than a few minutes, each stop on the QBC was to have a shelter equipped with timetable information, lighting and seating.
"Wherever possible, additional service facilities like telephones, vending machines, etc, should be incorporated in the shelter, turning bus stops into attractive focal points and ensuring that even the minimal wait for a bus on a QBC alignment is not an unpleasant experience," said the DTI final report.
However, the traffic authorities were not prepared to concede the AA's demand that the Stillorgan Road QBC should be delayed until all of these facilities, plus park-and-ride sites, are in place. "The situation is so bad that we couldn't wait for that," says Mr John Henry, director of the Dublin Transportation Office.
For example, some No. 10 buses go on from their terminus at the UCD campus in Belfield to Foxrock, from where they come back into town as a 46A. And because there is a bus every two-and-a-half minutes, at least in peak periods, Mr Henry says that "real time information" at bus stops on times of arrival is less crucial.
He justifies taking space away from cars on the basis of equity and efficiency. "The new bus lane can carry twice as many passengers as the car lane it replaced, so it represents a 50 per cent increase in capacity inbound," he said. "And the more people who transfer to buses, the more it will free up other space for people who really need to use their cars."
Even the shopkeepers who complained about the loss of parking outside their premises will benefit. When QBCs are finally installed with timetables at bus stops, people will know that they have X minutes to buy sweets, a newspaper or whatever. The shops nearby may become goldmines.
As for park-and-ride facilities, Mr Henry revealed last week that the acquisition of two sites on the south side of the city, large enough to park 1,000 cars, is under negotiation.
However, there is no agreement between Dublin Corporation and the DTO on the design of QBCs. The corporation is more lenient towards motorists than the DTO would like - for example, by stopping a bus lane 50 metres short of a junction, to allow cars to filter left. "We would be a bit more radical, even draconian," Mr Henry says.
"We are not interested in the capacity for cars; what we want is a straight run-through for the bus. Let the cars suffer."
If it was left to him and his highly-motivated staff at the DTO, the Stillorgan Road bus lane would have been carried right through Donnybrook, instead of vanishing, reappearing, vanishing again and reappearing again. The friction between the DTO and the office of the director of traffic is clear. It would appear that Mr Keegan's office sometimes interprets what the DTO says as an implied criticism. There is also a bureaucratic battle between the two over who gets the kudos for initiatives such as last year's pre-Christmas park-and-ride sites.
Three Government departments, four local authorities, the DTO, the National Roads Authority and the Garda all have some responsibility for the supply, maintenance and management of transport infrastructure in Dublin, as CIE's chief executive, Mr Michael McDonnell, told an Oireachtas committee in 1997.
"Each of these has separate budgets and separate vested interests," he said. "So despite goodwill on all sides and formalised consultation mechanisms, it is inevitable that progress must be based on the lowest common denominator." However, he wanted the city to have public transport facilities to compare with "the best in Europe."
These will be needed, in any case, to cater for the 40 per cent of Dublin households without private cars. But Mr McDonnell will need to bring about major improvements in the level of service - integrated ticketing, higher standards of comfort and, above all, reliability - before hardened car commuters will get on the buses.