Dedicated bus lanes planned for Broadway

There are plans at Vancouver City Hall to designate the curb lanes along Broadway for transit buses only, to ease traffic congestion on the busy thoroughfare.

The buses are now forced to wind in and out of traffic because of cars parked in the curb lane during the day.

But TransLink and the City of Vancouver want that to change.

"There's a huge demand for transit on Broadway," said Coun. Peter Ladner. "So we're now having to take the next step, the only step to make buses more efficient and get more use out of the buses we have and the lanes we have."

Ladner attributes much of the heavy transit traffic to programs like TransLink's U-pass, which encourages UBC students to take the bus.

"The U-pass has generated a huge increase in transit out to UBC. Particularly, it's picked up from Commercial to UBC," he said.

Ladner also noted that some bus riders have had to watch eight full buses go by before they can get on one. And he says he's worried that could lead to people getting back in their cars.

No date has been set for the changes, and it's still not clear whether the bus-only lanes on Broadway will be limited to rush hour.