It鈥檚 good that sa国际传媒 Transit has received no negative feedback about the Douglas Street bus priority lanes, but hard data should be gathered before pronouncing the experiment a success and expanding the concept.
The curb lanes between Fisgard Street and Hillside Avenue were redesigned and reserved for buses and cyclists only during rush hour 鈥� on weekdays from 6 a.m. to 9 a.m. southbound, and 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. northbound. During those hours, other vehicles are not allowed to stop or park in the designated lanes, and can enter them only to make right turns.
Redesigning and reconstruction of the one-kilometre stretch of Douglas Street cost about $1.5 million, paid for by sa国际传媒 Transit and the Greater Victoria Transit Commission.
The redesignated lanes opened June 8, and two months later, the project seems to be going well. After a little confusion on the part of motorists during the first week, no problems have been reported, says sa国际传媒 Transit communications manager John Barry. Bus drivers say they like the new arrangement, and the City of Victoria and the Victoria police say there have been no enforcement issues.
Concerns had been expressed for the safety of cyclists. 鈥淐yclists are gonna get run over,鈥� wrote an avid cyclist in a note to Victoria Coun. Ben Isitt, who said he wished the bike lane could have come at the expense of a car lane.
Those concerns have yet to be borne out. That shouldn鈥檛 be a surprise 鈥� for cyclists, sharing a lane with buses seems to be an improvement, because they are competing with fewer vehicles for the space, and bus drivers are trained to be aware of cyclists.
So the change has done little or no harm. But has it done any good? Gut feelings that the project is doing OK are not justification for taking it further. As any Grade 8 science student knows, an experiment must produce measurable results before conclusions can be drawn.
Does the change reduce the time commuters must spend on the buses? Does funnelling vehicles into other lanes increase travel time for motorists? What are the effects upstream and downstream from the designated lanes? But so far, no data have been collected to show the change has resulted in cutting time off the commute to Langford or the ferries. All Barry could say is: 鈥淚 haven鈥檛 heard anything about getting behind schedule.鈥�
But measurements should be recorded to quantify the results. As municipal infrastructure goes, $1.5 million is a modest amount to spend on a project, but it鈥檚 a lot of money wasted if nothing has changed. The project shouldn鈥檛 be extended before the effects of the first phase are measured and recorded.
That isn鈥檛 to condemn the experiment. As Victoria Mayor Dean Fortin noted when the lanes opened in June, it鈥檚 an important first step.
Traffic in Greater Victoria is nothing compared to the tangles commuters must deal with in larger cities. But that鈥檚 not justification for complacency. Traffic here will continue to grow, and public transit will be an important component in dealing with that growth. Bus-only lanes could be a precursor to something better, such as light-rail transit.
Let鈥檚 just make sure we take the time to measure the results from this phase before we move on to the next.
