What was at stake was the potential destruction of the area’s “character.’’ The peace would be disrupted, the residents of $20 million townhouses unsettled. The vehicles denied access to 14th Street would inevitably snake their way through adjacent roads, more intimate and precious, bringing with them fumes and commotion.

All of this pollution had been absorbed by 14th Street for years. But no one ever went to court on behalf of the men and women who line up in front of the Salvation Army on Tuesday morning, between Sixth and Seventh Avenues, for free meals that many of them eat on the sidewalk.

Plaintiffs twice succeeded in getting the Transportation Department to delay its plans. Then, in late September a panel of state appellate judges allowed the experiment to go forward. The result has been a span of several days with buses traveling on 14th Street — a thoroughfare of discounts and hustle — accompanied only by delivery trucks, emergency vehicles and cabs, which can pick up and drop people off but must make the first available turn. (Drivers who violate this rule receive tickets.)

So how has this all played out? As a phenomenal success.

Initial data indicate that the buses, previously some of the slowest in the city but now, free of so much competition, have become much faster. An M14 bus trip that typically took 30 minutes now is taking about 21 minutes. One morning this week, a bus was so ahead of schedule that it had to stop at an intersection and pass the time so it wouldn’t get too ahead of itself.

The greatest disincentive to getting on a bus in New York is the prospect of waiting so long for it, followed then by the reality, once you are on the bus, that you could have gone to Connecticut in the time it will take to get from the far reaches of the East Side to Lincoln Center. The more reliable buses are, the more popular they should become.