ON STREET TRANSIT PRIORITY MEASURES – PUTTING BUSES FIRST IN WINNIPEG

In February 2006, the City of Winnipeg approved a comprehensive plan of transit improvements for implementation. The improvement plan included new buses, upgraded stations, intelligent transportation system applications, transit priority measures, as well as park and ride facilities. While several of the initiatives were system-wide, others were focused on major arterial streets with high levels of transit service. These streets have been designated as "Quality Corridors”. Dillon Consulting Limited was retained to study and implement the transit priority measures. This included a study of eleven Quality Corridors, modeling the traffic and transit patterns, analyzing possible transit priority measures, and implementing the recommended measures through construction. This report presents a case study of the impacts of the transit priority measures in the first three Quality Corridors of the program: Pembina Highway; St. Mary’s Road; and St. Anne’s Road. This was Phase I of three phases. Transit priority measures are one of the few strategies that can be used concurrently to attract passengers with moderate capital costs. Improvements in speed and reliability make transit travel more competitive with automobile travel and attract ridership. A decrease in bus running times due to priority measures can lead to higher operating speed and reduced delay, which can translate to more reliable service, decreased delays, fuel consumption, and emissions from idling vehicles. Increased ridership can further result in reduced emissions and congestion from the reduction in passenger cars on the roadway. There are many ways to provide priority to on street transit over regular traffic. A variety of items in the “toolbox” are necessary to be able to address different situations. Retrofitting an existing arterial or collector street to include transit priorities usually means issues with traffic volumes, restricted right-ofway, traffic signal spacing, and adjacent parking and access. There is no “one size fits all” solution to promote transit. Measures can include dedicated bus lanes, bus-only links or “shortcuts”, queue jumps, transit priority signals, and even optimization of existing signal phases for transit. In general, transit priority measures were implemented within the Corridors without unduly impacting general traffic movements. In this way, the gap in speed between transit and other traffic was narrowed and transit can become more attractive to commuters. This reduced delay, idling, and emissions for all modes, is a benefit to the community and contributes to a more sustainable city.