It's a promise of precision - with every second planned and each turn mapped. Considerable care is taken to ensure that the public transit system functions with speed, efficiency, and (most importantly) predictability. The buses will be on time. This is the expectation.
Traffic calming shatters that expectation.
The stakes are significant. The City of Vancouver says that two-thirds of transit trips are made by bus. TransLink reports that approximately 1,000 buses travel along Hastings Street daily, while Route 49 serves more than 8.5 million passenger journeys annually. With so many individuals relying on this form of transportation, the need for reliable scheduling cannot be denied - and, yet, an estimated 25% of travels fail to meet time demands.
Research shows that traffic congestion (such as the type caused by the blocking of streets) can substantially affect bus reliability, with a 2023 study reporting average delays of 133.75 seconds per trip (equivalent to 17% of the average bus travel time). The U.S. Federal Highway Administration notes that speed humps can impede vehicles by up to 9.4 seconds per installation; while a 2017 MIT study of London’s bus network found that roadwork diversions and route obstacles increased running times and impacted scheduling. By implementing traffic calming measures, cities experienced consistent interruptions - leaving passengers to bear the cost. The lack of predictable routing proves frustrating.
Community barriers are becoming a very public problem.
Sources
City of Vancouver — Bus Network Improvements — bus travel and priority improvements.
TransLink — Hastings Street Bus Priority — bus volumes and corridor delays.
TransLink — Route 49 Bus Priority — passenger volumes and schedule reliability.
Montero-Lamas — Study of bus passenger delays.
U.S. Federal Highway Administration — Traffic Calming ePrimer, Module 5 — traffic-calming design and impacts on large vehicles.
MIT — Mitigating Road Work Disruptions on Bus Service — effects of roadworks on bus travel times and service reliability.
Traffic Calming Effects In East Vancouver
The Public Transit Delay: Traffic Calming In East Vancouver
