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Council considers dedicated bus lanes to improve bus speed, reliability
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OneCity Coun. Christine Boyle is proposing that Vancouver work with TransLink to expedite the design and implementation of eight new bus lanes outlined in TransLink’s 2024 Bus Speed and Reliability update — and the motion goes before council on Wednesday.
The new bus lanes would be included along Southeast Marine Drive, 49th Ave., Hastings, Main St. and Kingsway, among others.
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“Implementing dedicated bus lanes is not just about improving transit times,” Rhiannon Fox, a spokesperson for Vision Zero Vancouver, an organization that advocates for traffic safety, said in a statement.
“Expanding bus lanes in Vancouver would go a long way toward making our streets safer for everyone. Studies have shown bus lanes reduced fatal and serious crashes by up to 30 per cent, and reduced all crashes by 14 per cent. That’s a big deal in a metro area where 100 people are killed in crashes every year.
Additional routes would include King Edward Avenue, West 4th, and downtown to North Vancouver via Powell and Cordova streets.
The motion asks city staff to work with TransLink to implement at least two new dedicated bus corridors each year, starting in 2025. Planning and engineering resources would be provided by the city and TransLink would provide funding.
Expedited bus lanes could address long-standing concerns about overcrowding and reliability on Vancouver buses.
Virtually all of TransLink’s customer service metrics for bus routes — including timing, reliability and frequency — were lower this year than at the same time last year, according to TransLink’s own surveys.
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Overcrowding, frequency and reliability were identified as particular areas of concern, according to the report.
![Vancouver councillor Christine Boyle.](https://i0.wp.com/smartcdn.gprod.postmedia.digital/vancouversun/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/png1003-vanccitycouncil.jpg?resize=700%2C510&ssl=1)
“If we could make buses faster, we could redeploy some of that (saved) money to address the other major transit issue: overcrowding,” Denis Agar, executive director of Movement: Metro Vancouver Transit Riders wrote in a recent opinion column
“Bus lanes cost almost nothing to deliver,” Agar wrote. “On streets like 49th Avenue, it would involve painting a diamond on the road and an overhead sign. On Broadway between Fraser and Commercial, there are already bus lanes for three hours per day. Getting all-day bus lanes on this, one of the busiest bus corridors on the continent, would involve simply putting stickers on the overhead sign to change the time restriction.”.
Boyle’s motion also calls for additional enforcement for dedicated bus lanes.
“Dedicated bus lanes are a quick and inexpensive solution allowing the city to quickly increase the capacity of the transportation system,” she wrote.
An example of automated bus lane enforcement involves installing cameras on buses than can capture licence numbers of vehicles ahead of buses in priority lanes.
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TransLink has been working with municipal governments to implement more bus-priority measures, such as bus lanes, queue jumpers, “bus bulb” sidewalk extensions at bus stops, traffic regulation changes and traffic signal priority.
TransLink’s reports estimate that buses were travelling slower compared to five years ago, costing an additional $75 million in annual operating costs due to delays.
Bus priority measures are essential for TransLink’s future plans for rapid bus lines.
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