TransLink’s proposal to install bus-only lanes along Hastings Street within Burnaby encountered a new hurdle on Monday evening, following a Burnaby City Council debate and direction over the matter.
The public transit authority is looking to install curbside bus-only lanes on both directions of Hastings Street over a 3.6-km-long span between Willingdon Avenue and Duthie Avenue.
The new bus-only lanes — in effect from 7 am to 7 pm, daily — would replace existing curbside lane uses on both sides of the street for vehicle parking and HOV uses during the peak direction in peak hours. Such a new configuration would still generally retain four general vehicle traffic lanes (two lanes in each direction).
There would be minimal installation work to enable low costs, with the project involving the use of paint, signage, and traffic signal coordination. The intent was to begin design work immediately for implementation in 2026.
According to TransLink, such improvements would benefit five bus routes that run along this stretch of the street, including the busy R5 Hastings Street RapidBus between downtown Vancouver and Simon Fraser University’s Burnaby Mountain campus.
Currently, depending on the time of day and the traffic conditions, it takes the R5 RapidBus between 16 minutes and 22 minutes to travel through the 3.6-km-long stretch of Hastings Street between Willingdon Avenue and Duthie Avenue. With the installation of the bus-only lanes, TransLink estimates each bus trip through the area could see travel time savings of up to four minutes.
The Hastings Street segment in Burnaby between Willingdon Avenue and Duthie Avenue envisioned for curbside bus-only lanes. (TransLink)
Existing condition (top) and proposed condition (bottom) of Hastings Street in Burnaby between Willingdon Avenue and Duthie Avenue. (TransLink)
“Our assessment is that overall vehicle capacity can still be accommodated with overall minimal delay to all road users, including drivers at other times that curb lane is currently used for parking,” Matt Craig, TransLink’s director of system planning, told City Council during Monday’s public meeting, suggesting that most of the reduced curbside vehicle parking capacity can be replaced on spaces away from Hastings Street.
“Though there are some bigger impacts on weekends when some drivers may need to walk from their parking space further than today, our assessment is that these numbers are relatively small compared to the number of transit customers who would see improved access,” continued Craig.
The project would cost about $1 million out of the $17 million available for TransLink’s bus speed and reliability projects across the region.
However, the bus-only lanes necessitating the removal of curbside vehicle parking spaces has seen significant opposition from local businesses, especially those within the Burnaby Heights retail district, which is the strip of Hastings Street between Boundary Road and Delta Avenue.
When asked about the potential cost savings these bus-only lanes could generate for the public transit authority by improving bus vehicle speed and reliability, Bita Vorell, TransLink’s manager for the Bus Priority Project design and development, estimated the savings at approximately $220,000 per year.
This led some Burnaby city councillors to weigh the potential costs, benefits, and tradeoffs for public transit services and local businesses.
“The impact of what you are proposing is insurmountable for most of those businesses. There are small businesses there east of Willingdon. They don’t have the foot traffic that there is west of Willingdon, and many of them struggle to make the rent payments often, and now you’re proposing to take away the parking lane, which obviously will remove a lot of the customers from accessing those businesses,” said city councillor Pietro Calendino.
City councillor Sav Dhaliwal added, “They established their business based on the traffic coming from the neighbourhood from around the city to do their businesses, and if you take away those parking spaces, I think we are really talking about their livelihood, unless the city is willing to invest in a parking lot somewhere… This wasn’t supposed to be ever created into a thoroughfare just for buses.”
City Council’s deliberations also focused on a perceived lack of public and stakeholder consultation with businesses and the local business improvement association, including on the specific street configuration concept proposed by TransLink.
Ultimately, as a compromise, when it became clear that TransLink’s original concept would not be approved, City Council endorsed an amendment by city councillor Daniel Tetrault recommending that TransLink and City staff proceed with a scaled-down plan to install bus-only lanes only along a truncated 2.8-km-long stretch of Hastings Street between Delta Avenue and Duthie Avenue.
Tetrault’a amendment effectively removes the 0.8-km-long controversial stretch of bus-only lanes — a move to preserve the curbside vehicle spaces for the Burnaby Heights retail district, which is situated west of Delta Avenue.
“We have heard more correspondence on both sides than we’ve probably heard on any issue. I think lost in the discussion, or what we see sometimes in this divisive debate is we miss the common goals that exist in all the interested parties,” said Tetrault.
“I know talking to many transit riders, whether they’re all purpose riders or occasional riders that want reliable, frequent and faster service and experience to go to get to where they need to go. But I also know that these transit riders, they do care about these small businesses, and they want to access these small businesses, and they do value and cherish the unique nature of the Heights.”
Furthermore, the amendment also suggests TransLink and City staff should explore the feasibility of bus bulbs for the remaining 0.8-km-long segment without bus-only lanes between Willingdon Avenue and Delta Avenue. Bus bulbs are pedestrian sidewalk extensions that extend out onto the curbside parking lane at bus stops only, enabling buses to remain on the general vehicle traffic lane instead of having to pull in and out of traffic at bus stops when picking up and dropping off passengers.
Bus bulbs can produce meaningful travel time reductions; according to TransLink, the travel times of buses along a six city block segment through the West 4th Avenue retail district in Vancouver’s Kitsilano neighbourhood saw bus travel time reductions by as much as 10% to 20% from the installation of bus bulbs. This is also the most congested segment of the West 4th Avenue corridor.
Bus bulb at a bus stop on West 4th Avenue in Vancouver. (TransLink)
Additionally, the amendment requests TransLink and City staff to perform more detailed consultation before arriving on a recommended concept for City Council’s consideration.
“I’ve personally received hundreds of calls, emails and texts from businesses wanting to see bus bulbs, and wanting to preserve parking in this specific stretch,” said city councillor Alison Gu.
“So the compromise, I felt that was happening was we were looking to support the businesses and to look at supporting transit and recognizing that transit is in dire need of solutions whether they be big or small, because if every community did small, quick fixes that didn’t significantly disrupt neighbourhoods, everywhere, then there would probably be a lot more money to go around [for TransLink].”
As for the bus speed and reliability improvements for the Hastings Street segment west of Willingdon Avenue, Craig notes that this will be a separate project under TransLink’s proposal to establish a new Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) line between Park Royal in West Vancouver and Metrotown in Burnaby via the Ironworkers Second Narrows Bridge and Willingdon Avenue. He also noted that TransLink is working with the City of Vancouver on making bus speed and reliability improvements for other segments of the Hastings Street corridor.
According to TransLink, about 5.3 million bus trips are made on the Hastings Street corridor by Burnaby residents each year.
In 2023, the R5 Hastings Street RapidBus was TransLink’s eighth busiest bus route, with 4.67 million annual boardings an averages of 14,600 boardings per weekday, 9,700 boardings per Saturday, and 7,800 per Sunday/holiday. The entire R5 route spans a length of 12.5 km.