Like most urban centres, Galway has experienced traffic congestion in recent years. The booming economy has seen far more cars on the city's narrow streets and long delays are a regular feature in the early mornings and evenings.
Indeed, areas such as the Headford Road and Salthill regularly experience gridlock during the peak tourism season, when thousands of visitors add to the congestion.
While most people would agree that the pedestrianisation of the heart of the city was hugely beneficial in 1998, the closure of certain streets to traffic and the virtual elimination of on-street parking have merely added to the congestion.
And yet public transport in Galway remains something of a joke. Most car-users in sprawling suburbs such as Knocknacarra and Renmore would never consider leaving their vehicles at home, such is the infrequency of the urban bus service. Until now.
A wait of 45 minutes is quite normal, so the buses have been used mainly by pensioners, teenagers and people without cars. But efforts to discourage people from bringing their cars into the city centre are expected to result in a transformation of the bus service within the next two years.
The recently-published Galway Transportation and Planning Study has highlighted the need for a more frequent and user-friendly bus service.
A proposed new town on the eastern fringe of the city, with a population of up to 20,000 people, is also due to be designed with a vastly improved city bus service in mind.
The consultants, Colin Buchanan and Partners, believe a high-frequency service with park-and-ride facilities on the edge of the city would encourage walkers to take the bus and give motorists the option of leaving their cars at home.
The consultants have proposed that a fleet of 36 buses should replace the 13 which currently operate on urban routes in Galway. They have projected a wait of seven to 10 minutes on all routes.
Their findings have been greeted with scepticism by Galway commuters.
A Bus Eireann dispute over pay and conditions has held up the introduction of the service, which should have seen the high frequency minibuses on the city's streets in January 1997.
Since then, six of the eight IMP buses lying idle in a Galway yard have been transferred to Sligo and Athlone. They have also been used for tourist routes during the summer months.
But there was good news for Galway commuters last week when Bus Eireann announced it was aiming to have a city bus frequency of 10 to 15 minutes on all main routes within two years.
"We have detailed plans in hand for the upgrading of our city services with a far higher journey frequency," said Mr Sean Gleeson, the general manager of Bus Eireann in Galway.
"We are moving to improve the overall standard of our services in Galway city. The frequency of our services is already up 50 per cent on a number of city routes since January 3rd and we would hope to extend that to other routes."
Bus priority measures were needed on the city's narrow streets.
Mr Gleeson added: "Thankfully, since the announcement of the national development plan, funding is now there for the first time in as long as I can remember for improvements to city bus services."