Council asked to approve Riverdale bus lane
City council is being asked to approve a project to add a dedicated bus lane on Lewes Boulevard for traffic travelling from Riverdale to the downtown core.
City council is being asked to approve a project to add a dedicated bus lane on Lewes Boulevard for traffic travelling from Riverdale to the downtown core.
Council is scheduled to vote on the request from administration at next Monday’s council meeting.
An agreement is in place with the Canada Community Building Fund for the provision of $1.5 million to cover the cost of the project, says the administrative report prepared for council’s meeting Monday.
The Lewes Boulevard bus lane project involves the installation of dedicated transit infrastructure along Lewes Boulevard between Alsek Road and Hospital Road to improve the reliability of transit services, says the report.
To accommodate the new bus lane, it notes, geometric changes are required at the Hospital Road intersection.
The report says the engineering work for the project was completed last year.
The scope of the engineering design included the detailed design for the dedicated bus lane, an active transportation crossing and design improvements on the east approach of the Lewes-Hospital Road intersection.
The project includes the replacement of a failed valve chamber that’s within the intersection, says the report.
A pre-construction cost estimate indicates there is sufficient money within the budget to complete the work, provided competitive bids are received.
The proposed schedule calls for issuing a tender in March and awarding the contract in April.
The start of the work is scheduled for June, with completion expected in September, says the report.
Comments (13)
Up 47 Down 2
Max Mack on Feb 22, 2023 at 2:51 pm
The headline is a bit misleading. Council already approved the dedicated bus lane in Riverdale (despite opposition from Riverdale motorists).
We were told then that the existing infrastructure on Lewes Blvd could accommodate the dedicated bus lane.
So, I guess that was a lie?
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You're right Riverdale Resident... on Feb 22, 2023 at 1:38 pm
Unfortunately some people were convinced to make Grey Mountain a First Nation School Board school. It is literally a tiny school made up of a few portables that housed Riverdale students and has now been opened up in terms of catchment for the entire city. More cars in Riverdale.
We need a counterflow lane and get rid of the stupid median. There are so many things they could do to alleviate pressure on Riverdale roads. This is NOT one of them.
Up 31 Down 11
YUKONER on Feb 22, 2023 at 11:38 am
Waste of time and money!!
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Davis on Feb 22, 2023 at 11:34 am
Great idea, I fully support this. The better we can make the public transit system in Whitehorse the more people will use it, resulting in fewer cars on the road and less traffic issues.
Whitehorse is getting more and more populated every year, getting more people taking the bus and biking is going to be a lot cheaper for us taxpayers than building new roads and expanding current roads to accommodate more cars!
Obviously if we improve public and active transport systems, it's not like the next day everyone is going to be selling their cars and using it exclusively - it's going to take a generational shift, but it will happen, build it and they will come.
Up 25 Down 18
Dear bureaucrats, officials and overlords: on Feb 22, 2023 at 8:56 am
The new whirled odor calls for fifteen minute cities. Everything within walking distance, people my leave their personal orbit by permission only, and only public transportation allowed for the plebs. Apparently their vision is identical for cities in the subarctic as it is for Saudi Arabia, demonstrating an extreme lack of imagination on the part of our globalist overlords.
And all city officials everywhere are mysteriously fully on board and determined to rearrange their hometowns according to the global template.
That is the real reason for so many of these weird decisions we are seeing. But you can't help but wonder, when the new system is fully in place, will the services of all today's officials really be necessary or will the majority of their positions be unfortunately disappeared, "in the interests of the general good" ? After all, dog-catchers won't be needed with pets disallowed. If hunting and fishing were to be forbidden, game officers wouldn't be needed. That parking ticket guy? Rather doubtful in a world without personal vehicles. And so on throughout the system. We aren't talking about small adjustments here guys.
Give a listen to Yuri Brezmenov, the Russian KGB defector sometime, who explains in no uncertain terms what happens to the "useful idiots" who have cooperated with the communist takeover of a country after the "situation has been normalized."
No one is against meaningful and necessary improvements, but some of these projects appear to lead us downhill, in addition to creating major inconveniences for city residents.
Up 24 Down 4
Khoudung Flunghi on Feb 22, 2023 at 8:29 am
Well, there was one intersection that was still working so clearly that has to be fixed.
Also, there is not nearly enough public debt and there are way too many trees in Riverdale anyway so...
Up 35 Down 0
Mark on Feb 21, 2023 at 8:16 pm
@Gus
It is certainly conceivable - if not probable - that public transit in most secondary cities is neither financially viable nor better for the environment.
Mayor Cabott has even recently noted that revenue from fares only covers 1/4 of the operating cost of transit service in Whitehorse. I, like many, observe that the buses look almost empty of passengers during off-peak times.
If we evaluate transit service based on financial and/or environmental criteria, then we can agree to scrap the service altogether and call it a day.
I do suggest, however, that we consider transit service from the perspective of end users: it is a means of needed transportation for many. The people that use transit have a multitude of reasons to use the service including that they can not afford other options, they can no longer drive, they may have one car used by someone else during the day, they can not move their parked car every two hours, they believe that it is net positive for the environment to take a bus, etc.
I predict that most people that use transit service would drive a vehicle if they could. Eventually many of these people will drive, and many will be forced to stop. I, for one, had to save money to buy a car, hence I relied on transit service for transportation to get to school, work, and for other needs. Today I own two vehicles and I have not used a bus in decades.
Our community is comprised of citizens with different backgrounds, principles, financial means, and at different stages of life. I would hope that we can have a transit service as a vital component of a robust community to support those that need or choose to use it. Many of us will eventually be dependent on it or know others that are dependent on it now.
It is OK to think about what is best for our community rather than what is best for ourselves at the moment.
In terms of the topic at hand - a dedicated bus lane - I am trying to understand what is trying to be achieved. If traffic is congested, then why not develop a solution for all traffic and not just for buses? Is the CoW trying to make transit service a more attractive option? What feedback has the CoW had from transit users and vehicle drivers (re: are they asking for a bus lane)?
Could people simply leave for work 15 minutes earlier or take an earlier bus?
If there is truly a traffic congestion issue, then this may reflect a lack of planning or understanding of the impact of policy decisions. For example, when a new high school is built at the entrance to Riverdale, did anyone consider the spike in traffic at certain times of day? Will a new dedicated bus lane resolve or substantially mitigate the issue? Will this solution be applied to the ever-growing Whistle Bend subdivision? Is the policy of densification breaking our city, with traffic congestion as a symtom?
Up 31 Down 5
Bingo on Feb 21, 2023 at 6:10 pm
1.5 million for funding that should pave a lane about 50 ft, it will be another albatross tacked on the continual raising of city taxes…. yet Rents are capped.
Up 19 Down 11
Snowball on Feb 21, 2023 at 5:52 pm
That 1.5 million dollars should go to something like housing - the city council doesn't give a damn about you people that need housing.
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Hop on the bus Gus… Don’t need to discuss much… Just get yourself unfree… on Feb 21, 2023 at 3:18 pm
No!
Buses should be banned! Why is everything a disguised lie with these people? The transit idyll is not ideal - and those with the non-political (sick) expertise know that the bus issue is taking the people for a ride - Figuratively of course -
“Subsidized transit is not sustainable by definition,” says Wendell Cox, a transport policy consultant in St. Louis, and former L.A. County Transportation commissioner. “The potential of public transit has been so overblown it’s almost scandalous.”
It’s not that environmentally minded transit promoters are being dishonest when they argue that city buses are more efficient than private cars: It’s that they’re talking about a fictional world where far more people ride buses. Mass transit vehicles use up roughly the same energy whether they are full or empty, and for much of the time, they’re more empty than full.
For the bulk of the day, and on quieter routes, the average city bus usually undoes whatever efficiencies are gained during the few hours a day, on the few routes, where transit is at its peak.
Hey - Maybe once everyone is out of work they can spend all day riding the bus. It won’t be too much longer before the Idiocracy is fully implemented and the ridership (collective name for those being taken for a ride) will be mindlessly happy singing, Wheels on the Bus Go Round and Round…
Link:
https://humantransit.org/2009/12/yet-another-transit-isnt-green-because-of-empty-buses-story.html
Up 81 Down 7
Riverdale Resident on Feb 21, 2023 at 3:13 pm
Wouldn’t need a bus lane if all the parents would stop driving their kids to and from school.
Up 55 Down 17
Dave on Feb 21, 2023 at 3:09 pm
The city should consider asphalt so the lane can represent diversity. After they should consult on a rainbow lane as well.
Up 59 Down 12
Hide your car keys on Feb 21, 2023 at 2:25 pm
Bike lanes, bus lanes, free busing: is anyone getting the feeling they don’t want us driving anymore?