Most commentators agree that the benefits - or otherwise - of yesterday's introduction of the Stillorgan Quality Bus Corridor (QBC) will not be known until mid-September. The route goes from Foxrock church in south Dublin to St Stephen's Green in the city centre, running along the Stillorgan dual carriageway and through Donnybrook village.
Certainly the effects on rush-hour traffic yesterday morning and evening were less noticeable than they might have been due to the absence of school traffic, but also because, according to Dublin Corporation figures, less traffic used the route than usual - a 15 per cent reduction on last Thursday.
While everyone agrees that the new QBC delivers bus-journey times that are significantly shorter than car journeys, there was concern about whether sufficient numbers of motorists switched to public transport.
The experience of three Irish Times reporters travelling the route - one by bicycle, one by bus and one by car - was good in terms of general commuting on the route. The car took the longest time, taking 50 minutes to travel the 10km journey from Foxrock church to St Stephen's Green, while the fastest time was the bicycle at 31 minutes.
Significantly, the bus journey time was 32 minutes, just one minute behind the bicycle. An analysis of the three journey times, by stage, confirms that the approach to Donnybrook village is the worst section for car-commuters - even worse than the stretch from Donnybrook to St Stephen's Green.
It is also, however, the worst section for cyclists, as they share their road space with buses. The reporter who fared best, by and large, was the one who took the bus, arriving neither sweaty nor infuriated.
If the experiment can show anything, it is that the new QBC has done some good for the bus user, but little for anyone else. There remain the questions to which the critics of the bus corridor - as presently constituted - want answers.
Is the goal to make journey times faster for buses, thereby rewarding those commuters who have made a choice in line with public policy, or is the goal to improve the general capacity of the route? The only figures for the Malahide QBC which the corporation have supplied were in a survey taken last November which showed that the overall numbers using the route had reduced from 13,000 to 11,000 per morning peak.
Similarly, after one day of operation of the Stillorgan QBC, we have a situation where the journey times for bus passengers have improved (as estimated by Dublin Bus), but journey times for others have significantly disimproved, while overall vehicle numbers are down by 15 per cent.
If the object of the exercise is to improve the capacity of the route and get more people into work, then it is clear that a two-sided approach must be used. Not only should the route be quicker for bus passengers, but it should be made easy, indeed desirable, for car commuters to convert to the bus.
The AA insists that more people are willing and anxious to use the QBC. Chief among its concerns is a park-and-ride facility, which would allow those who live beyond the corridor to access it. Mr Conor Faughnan says: "The AA wants to be able to say that the QBC is terrific and deserves to be supported. If it had proper facilities, then that is exactly what the AA would be saying."
Mr Faughnan said yesterday morning bore out everything that the association had feared. "Bus users were well served, but not the great majority of commuters who do not live on or beside the QBC.
"Motorists sat in tailbacks of over 40 minutes for journeys that should have lasted only 15. Those who opted to avoid the Still organ Road found themselves backlogged on the Rock Road, Merrion Road, Goatstown, Dundrum, Milltown and Ranelagh. The traffic jams continued well after the peak hour," he added.
Mr Faughnan said that, in addition to park-and-ride sites, permitting multi-occupancy cars to use the QBC "could be the one measure that really makes this work". He maintained that to do it badly was worse than to do nothing at all, and he added that yesterday morning's delays were "a foretaste of what is to come".
Meanwhile, Dublin Bus also agreed yesterday was no test really. "It will be in two weeks' time that the real test will come, when the schools reopen", commented a spokesman, who added that the bus company was, however, well pleased with its performance.
The gardai reported no serious incidents, commenting that "99 per cent of people seemed to know what was happening and be prepared to obey the rules".