Dublin's Christmas traffic management campaign, Operation Freeflow, is being scaled down today and replaced by Operation Clearway.
The new operation, which will run through the year, focuses on keeping the city's buses running on schedule "to offer a realistic alternative to cars".
Motorcycle gardai will "blitz" several main arterial routes into the city from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. daily to keep bus lanes and clearways functioning.
Officers from local stations will patrol on foot near problem junctions.
Additional 12-hour bus lanes will be introduced.
In future, Operation Freeflow will be the name of the city's month-long Christmas traffic management campaign only. The initiative will be called Operation Clearway for the other 11 months.
Mr John Henry of the Dublin Transport Office, which co-ordinates the initiative, said Clearway's focus was "to improve the lot for buses because that's the only possibility to get people to shift from their cars to buses.
"If we can keep the clearways and bus lanes free, buses will get a chance . . . they may offer a better alternative to the car."
Mr Henry called Operation Freeflow's Christmas programme a "major success".
The 160 gardai drafted in for the Christmas programme, from December 1st to yesterday, have been assigned to other duties, leaving about 100 officers throughout the city working on Operation Clearway.
Bus Atha Cliath said all routes operated at or close to the scheduled timetable during the period. This compared with delays of between 20 and 40 minutes before the initiative.
The company's managing director, Mr Alan Westwell, said the Christmas operation allowed for more bus services. "There was an increase in customers carried before 9.15 a.m. each day before Christmas, and the daily number of passengers, which exceeded half a million, was up on the numbers carried during the same period last year."
Mr Henry said it was "too ambitious" to try to spread Operation Freeflow over 12 months. The decision to rename the initiative was made following a review by the agencies involved in the Operation Freeflow Christmas campaign. These include the Garda, Dublin Corporation and Bus Atha Cliath.
"We were criticised for not maintaining Operation Freeflow year-round. We tried to do it but, while it was effective, it did not have dramatic effects outside the Christmas period. This is why we decided to have two distinct programmes."