03-12-2022, 02:38 PM
(03-12-2022, 01:52 PM)Bytor Wrote:(03-12-2022, 01:14 PM)the_conestoga_guy Wrote: I personally think that Victoria North/Highland would be better served by installing BRT corridors with proper traffic signal priority measures than by adding LRT. I'm no traffic planner, but I think the benefits that could be achieved by moving our buses more efficiently along these corridors would be more meaningful than losing right-of-way space to an LRT and squishing the local bus routes into the remaining single lane with personal vehicles. Then maybe after 50-75 years or so, we could revisit the corridor and install a raised platform for an LRT or equivalent if necessitated.
Of course, this is (probably) moot until the new highway 7 is installed. I can't see the Region giving up road space in this corridor to transit projects until that happens. In the short term, I think the priority should be to efficiently move buses through the congested stretch of Victoria, in and out of the transit terminal once it's built.
If you want efficiency then you want an LRT instead of a BRT. The only place that BRTs make sense is routes where you know it's going to take a route a really, really long time to get over that tipping point where LRTs become cheaper per passenger ride than BRTs.
In the fall of 2019 after ION started running with it's 25,000 average weekday riders was running at (by my calculations dividing operating costs by known ridership) $3.10/ride compared to the GRT bus average of $4.75/ride.
I guess "efficiency" wasn't the right word in my case. Rather, I'd prefer to allocate our finite capital investment dollars into improving our bus infrastructure and buying more buses instead of spending it on a single project such as this. I know this is a boring solution, but I think it could have the greatest impact on the entire system.
If I had complete control and unlimited budget I would:
- Cancel the highway 7 project; re-invest some of this money into the existing highway.
- Start AD2W GO with 15-min headways
- Install LRT along Highland/Victoria N corridor, raised through King/Victoria intersection to allow for bus-only lanes through downtown.
- Install bus priority signals along the entirety of the corridor.
Unfortunately, we're bound by political and and financial constraints, so I can't see anything like this coming to fruition.