Q&A: Could bus rapid transit improve Edmonton’s transit system?

August 27, 2024 Canuck

The City of Edmonton has unveiled routes for a potential bus rapid transit system – BRT – as part of a long-term plan.

In a report, the city says BRT would be part of an expansion of the existing bus network. BRT buses would have their own lanes, allowing them to skip traffic and congestion.

Some BRT systems already exist in other parts of the country, including Halifax, Montreal, Ottawa and Toronto.

A report on the idea is on the agenda for Tuesday’s meeting of city council’s urban planning committee.

On Monday, Edmonton AM host Tara McCarthy spoke with Dallas Karhut, a senior engineer in mobility strategies with the City of Edmonton.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

How would BRT differ from an express route?

BRT basically fills in a gap between the express routes and the LRT where we get a higher order of service in terms of the frequency, in terms of the travel times. But we have the flexibility of using buses and using the existing roadways to make it work.

Where are some potential routes?

We are looking at connecting Castle Downs to Century Park. So, that one is going to basically be down 97th Street, 101st Street south of 118th Avenue through downtown, and then it winds up on Calgary Trail in south Edmonton and eventually 23rd Avenue to Century Park.

A map of a proposed BRT route running from Castle Downs to Century Park in south Edmonton. — One BRT proposed route ran from Castle Downs to Century Park in south Edmonton. (City of Edmonton)

Then we have our east-west route. So this is going to connect West Edmonton Mall to Bonnie Doon. It’s going to use 87th Avenue, Whitemud Drive, Fox Drive to get to [University of Alberta] south campus, connect to [U of A] main campus and then come back on Whyte Avenue and go on to Bonnie Doon.

And then the third route we have connects the university to Ambleside. It overlaps the [second] route through the central or through the university area. Then the other one is on further south. It uses Terwillegar Drive, which is under construction, and some of the bus lanes are already showing up there.

Edmonton AM8:06City of Edmonton proposes routes for a bus rapid transit system

City transportation officials have unveiled the routes for a potential BRT (bus rapid transit) system in Edmonton. Dallas Karhut is a transportation engineer with the City of Edmonton.

What sort of changes would the city be looking at to make this possible?

We are striving for dedicated bus lanes through the entire route. Generally when we talk about BRT, we’re talking about three different kinds of configurations. The curb-running lane – these are just dedicated lanes along each side of the curb.

And then you can get into kind of more complex configurations, which include things like centre-running, where we put both lanes in the centre, and the buses run on basically a dedicated running way. And then we can take the lanes together and put them on one side of the corridor.

Why focus on BRT versus LRT or just improving existing bus service?

LRT works really well. It does what it’s supposed to do really well, moves a lot of people relatively quickly, but also comes with a lot of impacts whether that’s the neighbourhood, cost, etc.

We’re also trying to kind of pair the types of transit service that we want to offer with levels of ridership, how the neighbourhood looks, how this route is going to fit in the area.

A map of the BRT route proposed by City of Edmonton. — One proposed BRT route runs from West Edmonton Mall to Bonnie Doon. (City of Edmonton)

When would you like to see BRT up and running?

We’re thinking that kind of in that five- to 10-year horizon… concept planning does take a few years basically. So, there’s still a lot of work to do yet here.

But we are getting excited about the prospect of like again, this has been kind of established through the city plan.

Which best practices are you looking at?

There’s a broad range of areas that we’re looking at here. [In Montreal, Toronto and the York area] they have a newer system that they put in place. Calgary’s been doing work [with] curbside lines, but still establishing that priority.

Every city tends to offer a different variation of what their BRT system is.

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