Dedicated lanes, off-season ridership and land appropriation were high on Londoners’ list of concerns during the city’s first Public Information Centres (PIC) event discussing Bus Rapid Transit (BRT).
About 70 Londoners made their way downtown Saturday to participate in the morning session at Central Library. The event began with an open house, where the public was able to view design options for key focus areas along the BRT network. It was then followed by a formal presentation and question period, with the open house format resuming for the remainder of the event.
Appropriation was top of mind for one London man.
“Well the only thing I can see with places like Dundas Street and Richmond Street is, if you’re going to appropriate buildings there, you’re going to be tearing down all those businesses, and that’s not going to happen,” said Mike Bayliss.
Bayliss doesn’t believe many business owners will be open to giving up the little land they have at the front of their shops on key routes along Richmond and Dundas.
“They’re talking about appropriating land at the top of Richmond right now, which is going to put the street up against somebody’s front steps. I don’t think I’d want to come out of the house in front of a car,” said Bayliss.
But, as was heard at the PIC, not every section of BRT is going to look the same.
“Some areas, we will have property impacts, others, we don’t actually impact beyond our existing road elements. It’s going to be a trade-off in different areas and we’re starting to have those communications with some of the properties that may be a little bit more impacted than others,” said BRT project manager Jennie Ramsay.
Concerns were also raised over dedicated BRT lanes. One man referenced mass transit in other countries, such as Singapore, saying they are able to move hundreds of thousands of people each day in effective ways without using dedicated lanes. But if you’re expecting to see a move away from the idea of dedicated lanes, you may be out of luck.
“Dedicated bus lanes are really the key element in bringing a full BRT system in. That’s what brings us the reliability and the frequency to our Bus Rapid Transit System,” said Ramsay
Another major concern for those who attended the PIC was how the buses will be handled when the students go home for the summer.
“I look at the capacity and how the system is going to be used off-season when the students aren’t available to keep the buses full for those four months of the year,” said Rob Perry.
“I look at something like the Highbury overpass, which is going to have to be enlarged to six lanes. The bus will be going from Dundas Street down Highbury Avenue to Oxford Street then hanging a right, and so four months of the year it’s going to be at low capactiy.” he said.
But, Ramsay is sure that won’t be an issue.
“When we did our business case back in at the master planning stage we looked at ridership year-round. Our system and our city has more than enough ridership to be able to maintain it year-round,” she said.
However, what seemed to be most upsetting to those in attendance was the feeling that city staff is disconnected from the real transit issues facing the citizens of London.
“Like I said about the picture showing the one girl showing the bus pass, that doesn’t happen. You get 50, 60 people waiting at a bus stop to get on a bus. That’s going to back up the traffic even more.” said Bayliss in reference to a design option pictured in the slideshow above.
More frustration was found in a perceived lack of concern for the non-student population.
Further issues brought up include centre stops (stops in the middle of the road/intersection) as well as difficulty that comes with crossing busy interactions in order to catch a bus across the street.
The PICs run from now until Dec. 14.
Those looking to have their say can find specific dates and locations on Shift London’s website.
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