The introduction today of a controversial Quality Bus Corridor on the main N11 southern approach to Dublin city centre, has caused considerable trepidation among the inhabitants of the city's southside suburbs. The measure is strongly supported by the Dublin Transportation Office (DTO), the Garda, the local authorities and Dublin Bus, as a key component in the long-term strategy to reduce the city's chronic traffic congestion.
The DTO points out that, since that strategy was devised in 1994, there has been an explosive growth in the number of cars on the roads. It estimates that there are currently about 400,000 cars in the greater Dublin area, compared with 270,000 in 1991, and that 1,000 additional cars are joining the capital's streets and roads each week. The city is heading for complete gridlock unless thousands of drivers can be persuaded to switch to public transport. The measure introduced today undoubtedly amounts to a powerful piece of persuasion: 50 per cent of the road space on the N11 between Foxrock Church and St Stephen's Green will now be reserved for buses, and Dublin Bus has pledged a dramatic increase in the number of buses serving the route, promising a bus every two-and-a-half minutes during the morning rush.
The most cogent criticism of the plan has come from the Automobile Association, which is predicting enormous tailbacks as private traffic along the Stillorgan dual-carriageway and through Donnybrook is forced into a narrow funnel. The AA says it favours Quality Bus Corridors in principle, but that the measures being delivered today lack key elements such as park-and-ride sites, integrated ticketing, proper bus shelters and electronic real-time displays. These, it says, are essential to give commuters a realistic alternative and to entice motorists from their cars. In support of its case that we are getting a bus lane instead of a QBC, it quotes the 1994 report of the Dublin Transportation Initiative - the DTO's predecessor. The force of such criticisms must be acknowledged. Clearly, it would be better if the upgraded bus service starting today did amount to a fully-fledged QBC. But it is difficult to disagree with the response of Mr Owen Keegan, Dublin Corporation's director of traffic, that it would not be reasonable to delay a marked improvement in public transport any further. Existing bus users have made a choice which is in line with public policy, he says, and they should be rewarded for it. It would be a great pity if the vital search for a solution to the capital's congestion descended into a feud between warring interest groups. An efficient public transport system is in everyone's interests, but it cannot be achieved painlessly. The new QBC, despite the inevitable teething troubles, deserves a chance. Equally, the authorities must be sensitive to motorists' genuine difficulties, and be ready to think again - if need be.