It appears a pair of New Westminster bus routes have been identified as priorities for TransLink to mitigate regional traffic congestion.
The Eighth Street corridor and the Queensborough bridge are two of 20 listed by the transit authority for future investments in hopes of improving bus efficiency for local and regional residents.
It's part of TransLink's Bus Priority Vision, which was recently released to work with municipalities to implement more bus speed and reliability measures, according to a news release today, April 19.
And while studies will be needed to determine the specifics, the process should take 10 years to find and apply solutions.
These include:
- Dedicated bus lanes
- Approach lanes
- Queue jumps
- Balancing distances between bus stops
- Turn restrictions
- Signal improvements and upgrades
“As traffic gets worse throughout Metro Vancouver, our customers spend more time stuck on buses and less time moving,” said TransLink CEO Kevin Quinn.
“Bus delays cost us more than $80 million each year, and we are committed to developing new bus priority measures that will mitigate those costs and get our customers where they need to go faster.”
The 123 bus travels along Eighth Street from New Westminster SkyTrain Station to Canada Way and Willingdon Avenue in Burnaby before heading north to Brentwood SkyTrain Station.
The 410 bus takes riders from 22nd Street to the Queensborough neighbourhood via Highway 91A.
TransLink said the New West routes were chosen based on average bus delays, ridership volumes and the existing infrastructure.
The authority's next step in the implementation process is to secure funding for its 10-Year Access for Everyone Plan, which consists of the priority vision.
"Every weekday, bus riders throughout Metro Vancouver spend over 28,000 hours stuck in traffic combined," TransLink's release added.
"Nearly half (45 per cent) of those delays occur on the top 20 corridors, despite making up only 15 per cent of the transit network."
