Correspondence: Improving Transit Service by Improving Transit Travel Times

Victoria Regional Transit Commission

Councillor Susan Brice – Chair District of Saanich

Mayor Richard Atwell District of Saanich

Mayor Alice Finall District of North Saanich

Mayor Lisa Helps City of Victoria

Mayor Barb Desjardins Township of Esquimalt

Mayor Carol Hamilton City of Colwood

Mayor Maja Tait District of Sooke

Councillor Marianne Alto City of Victoria

November 17, 2016

Mayor & Councilors Town of View Royal 45 View Royal Avenue, Victoria, BC V9B 1A5

Re: Improving transit service by improving transit travel times

Public transit is a key component of the region’s transportation network. Reliable, consistent and frequent service attracts riders and contributes to the economic, social and environmental fabric of communities. Public transit supports the Town of View Royal’s desire to create economically, socially and environmentally sustainable and livable communities by connecting people at a local and regional scale.

Each day, the Victoria Regional Transit System accommodates between 80,000 and 100,000 rides and moves thousands of transit customers along corridors in the region including corridors in View Royal, such as the Island Highway, and Helmcken Road. Ridership continues to grow at a rate of one per cent per annum, adding 800 to 1,000 new transit rides to the system per day.

Unfortunately, it is becoming increasingly more challenging to accommodate existing and new transit riders. Across the region, traffic congestion, higher transit ridership, lane reductions and changes to speed limits are resulting in slower travel times and decreased on-time performance. These factors ultimately impact the overall quantity and quality of transit services that can be offered.

A key focus this fiscal year was reviewing and rescheduling routes to better reflect increased travel times and improve on-time performance and reliability. Given the fixed level of resources available, these schedule improvements were achieved through a reduction in service frequency of approximately two per cent across the region. Additional run time adjustments on remaining routes are anticipated next year and will likely result in further service reductions of a similar level.

Under these conditions, the Transit Commission’s ability to meet existing public demands for service and strategically develop the transit system to support community development and achieve the ridership goals identified in the Victoria Region Transit Future Plan are challenged. Accordingly, the Transit Commission is seeking local government commitment to work with BC Transit to address these factors.

Research indicates that overall street design is the largest contributor to transit delays and resolution requires a coordinated approach by transit and road authorities. The Transit Commission requests that local governments provide direction to their municipal staff to work with BC Transit on developing cohesive plans to improve transit travel times along arterial corridors outlined as Frequent and Rapid Transit Corridors in the Transit Future Plan.

In View Royal, a portion of the Island Highway is designated as part of the region’s Rapid Transit Network and Helmcken Road is part of the regions Frequent Transit Network. Routes that operate on these corridors have high levels of transit ridership, and could benefit from a multi-modal design approach to improve the efficiency of transit and address current problems with travel delays.

BC Transit staff are available to work with View Royal staff to move forward with transit priority measures already identified on the Island Highway in the 2013 Transit Priority Study and to identify measures to improve transit operations at Helmcken Rd. and Watkiss Way. Included in this review would be an assessment of the value of transit priority measures such as improvements to road geometry, SmartBus technologies, transit signal priority and signal timing. Consideration should also be given to improving transit stops to enhance the passenger realm, pedestrian connections and transit operations.

This type of collaboration is already occurring in some instances. The City of Victoria, the Ministry of Transportation and the Transit Commission are taking steps on Douglas and Highway 1 through investments in bus lanes and transit signal priority that are starting to yield the benefits of improved on-time performance and travel time savings for passengers. This is extremely advantageous to the region given that up to 38 per cent of people travelling on the Douglas corridor in peak times are doing so on transit.

The Transit Commission seeks your ongoing support to ensure public transit remains a viable and attractive transportation choice for residents of View Royal and the region as a whole.

Yours sincerely,

Susan Brice, Chair Victoria Regional Transit Commission

cc: Commission Members