A proposed Dublin quality bus corridor linking Blackrock DART station and the Luas at Dundrum should not go ahead on the grounds that it is unnecessary and dangerous, a local residents' group has claimed.
The new QBC would provide access for commuters, including UCD students, between the DART and Luas lines. However, opponents say there is not sufficient demand to justify the road changes.
The Mount Merrion Avenue Residents' Association claim buses on the proposed route are operating below capacity and the creation of a dedicated bus lane would cause additional traffic problems.
The association has lodged its opposition with Dún Laoghaire Rathdown County Council. Its submission is one of almost 300 received by the council in relation to the project.
A spokesman for the association said it was unable to get any information from the Quality Bus Network Project Office or Dublin Bus in relation to bus usage on the route, but from its own analysis of an average day, fewer than 500 passengers are carried between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m., when the QBC restrictions would apply, and of the 169 buses logged on the route, 79 were out of service.
"There just isn't the demand for this. They should have carried out research on the people coming from the DART station and there's no evidence that they did," the spokesman said.
The association claims the commuter demand is from workers in the Sandyford industrial estate, not Dundrum, and that businesses in Sandyford run private buses to Blackrock to make up for the lack of buses. UCD students use the bus route from Sydney Parade DART station and not Blackrock, the spokesman said.
The narrowing of the general traffic lanes could lead to accidents, he added. "Even with a reduced speed limit, cars will be in danger of tipping off each other. There is a risk of major accidents."
The trees on Mount Merrion Avenue were also in danger, he said. The council has said that eight trees will have to be removed to accommodate the bus lane.
However, a landscape survey found a further 40 could be destroyed by the construction work, the association said.
The council's director of transportation, Mr Eamon O'Hare, said studies had been carried out showing a "clear demand" for an extension of the QBC network. The Blackrock to Dundrum QBC was just one phase of an expanded network, which would also include a Sandyford to Blackrock corridor.
He did not agree with the residents' association's assessment of the damage to the trees.
"We will ensure we remove as few trees as possible and where they have to be removed we've given an undertaking to plant new ones."
There had been a significant number of submissions to the council on the project, he said. "There have been 277 submissions, which isn't normal, but they may not all be critical. I'm sure there's a lot of constructive suggestions."
