City's bus-only corridors slow to develop

The plan was to fast-track them to speed commutes. It hasn’t happened

- LEX HARVEY

August Puranauth has always had a love-hate relationship with the 35 Jane bus.

As a kid, Puranauth rode the bus to school, and later used it as a way to navigate the city and become independent.

But it has always been slow and crammed.

“It was a lifeline, but it was also very overcrowded,” said Puranauth, adding it’s only gotten busier and less reliable.

Bus riders like Puranauth may soon get some relief. City council on Tuesday will vote on whether to move ahead with adding bus-only lanes to key corridors across the city, including Jane Street, through a 2019 plan called RapidTO.

Roughly 70 per cent of all TTC journeys include a surface transit trip but, unlike subways, streetcars and buses, can get stuck in traffic. Bus-only lanes can dramatically improve surface transit, say transit experts and riders.

Little progress has been made on the four-year-old plan until now, but Mayor Olivia Chow’s council seems poised to actually make RapidTO happen — though the plans still require ambitious and concrete timelines.

Cities around the world have implemented dedicated bus lanes, which can move up to four times as many people as mixed traffic lanes, by some estimates. Bus-only lanes can also help transit systems save on operational costs, since they can ferry people more quickly using fewer buses.

With only about 35 kilometres of bus-only lanes, Toronto is well behind its peers. Montreal has more than 300 kilometres, while New York and London each have more than 200.

“Transit riders who use the bus, like myself, feel like we’re left behind,” said Puranauth. “We see light rail and subway projects being built out across the city, but we’re still stuck on really slow buses.”