The Toronto Transit Commission Board will debate this week whether to accelerate implementing bus priority corridors on five major routes in the city.
The five corridors are in the North York and Scarborough areas:
- Jane Street: from Eglinton Avenue to Steeles Avenue.
- Dufferin Street: from Dufferin Gate to Wilson Avenue.
- Steeles Avenue West: from Yonge Street to Pioneer Village Subway Station.
- Finch Avenue East: from Yonge Street to McCowan Road.
- Eglinton Avenue East/Kingston Road/Morningside Ave – from Kennedy Subway Station to University of Toronto Scarborough.
Although the original plan did not have a timeline for completion, the TTC Board is asking for September in order to relieve presser on the transit system amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
TTC Commissioner and City Councillor Brad Bradford said the motion before the Board states that “fast-tracking bus priority corridors will help to improve reliability, safety and customer confidence in the city’s transit service.”
Bradford said the five identified areas are in parts of Toronto that have experienced some of the most bus overcrowding during the pandemic.
“Implementing these priority corridors could be a more cost-effective approach to physical distancing on the TTC compared to the current, real-time responsive measures to address overcrowding,” Bradford said in a statement.
Bradford said the motion proposes that at a minimum the corridors could be implemented by painting and signing the curb lane for TTC buses only, optimizing signals for transit priority, placing temporary bollards or cones to identify transit-only lanes, and providing enforcement.
The five bus priority lanes were also identified in the TTC’s 5-year Service Plan in December of 2019.
The TTC Board meeting is scheduled for Wednesday.