Governments and police are getting serious about the Douglas Street bus lanes, so drivers will stop making a joke out of the project. The bus-and-bike-only lanes along Victoria鈥檚 main drag have suffered from a lack of understanding from drivers and a lack of enforcement from police. Now, tickets for $109 will make everyone sit up and take notice 鈥� and next year, the lanes will be in force 24 hours a day.
The lanes were created in June 2014 to help buses get in and out of town more efficiently by prohibiting cars during rush hour. The rules are in effect Monday to Friday from 6 a.m. to 9 a.m. southbound from Hillside Avenue to Fisgard Street, and 3 to 6 p.m. northbound from Fisgard to Tolmie Avenue.
During those periods, cars are allowed to use the lanes only if they are making a right turn within a block.
However, because drivers don鈥檛 understand the rules or choose to ignore them, too many cars are cruising where they shouldn鈥檛 be. In 90 minutes one day, police handed out 100 warning pamphlets that described the lanes and included a free bus ticket.
It鈥檚 clear that too many drivers aren鈥檛 getting the message. To be fair, the signs are ones most drivers haven鈥檛 seen elsewhere, and they are among a blizzard of signs competing for motorists鈥� limited attention. 鈥淒o this, don鈥檛 do that. Can鈥檛 you read the signs?鈥�
The resulting difficulty in making a conviction stick is one reason city police haven鈥檛 rushed to enforce the rules over the past two years. That is about to change.
The city has repainted lane lines, installed additional diamond symbols to mark the lanes and added more overhead signs. With those improvements, the police believe they can start cracking down.
That should help the lanes to work as they were intended.
With 88 buses travelling it during peak hours and about 50 during off-peak times, Douglas Street is sa国际传媒 Transit鈥檚 busiest corridor. Transit wants those buses to move quickly, but that wasn鈥檛 happening.
Before the lanes were introduced, an analysis of traffic from the West Shore to downtown Victoria during the morning rush hour found that buses were 35 per cent slower than cars, because they have to pull out of traffic and make stops.
When the lanes are being used properly, bus drivers can pull over and then get moving again much faster. The hope is that more efficient buses will entice more people out of their cars.
Transit and the government are committed to that hope. Transit and the regional transit commission have put $3 million into it, and the Ministry of Transportation has earmarked $6.45 million to extend priority lanes from Tolmie Avenue to Saanich Road.
The chances of the decision-makers hitting reset are slim, so drivers have to adapt to the new reality.
While enforcement is one part of the solution, the switch to 24-hour bus-only lanes is another part. It鈥檚 true that few cars and no buses are on the road in the middle of the night, but it will be easier for drivers to remember that they can鈥檛 be in those lanes except to turn right. No thinking about time of day or direction of travel. Just stay out of the lane.
If you don鈥檛 stay out, expect to have some face time with a police officer.
