Too often, buses with dozens of people on them sit idling at traffic lights or stuck behind cars with only one person inside, worsening congestion and making transit a second-class option. Even if you don’t ever use transit, the more people who do, the more road space is freed up for everyone else. We need to ensure that we’re using our limited road space in the most efficient way possible. Building on the success of the Douglas street bus lanes, the city should expand our bus lane network on key transit corridors. We should also ensure that every new traffic signal is equipped with signal priority infrastructure to hold lights green for approaching buses, and adjust cycle lengths to prioritize transit vehicles.

The Bike Valet has been an enormous success, and with the continuing growth of our AAA bike and roll network, it’s time for the city to expand it. Parts of city-owned parkades should be explored as options for providing additional bike valet locations throughout downtown.

Many side streets downtown carry very few vehicles, yet the sidewalks are consistently packed. The Government street pedestrian pilot has been a tremendous success, as has the pedestrianization of Broad street between Fort and Broughton. We should continue exploring other areas of the city where these kinds of transformations would make sense.

Our funding system for transit is broken. Neither to city nor the CRD are allowed to increase transit funding without the province matching funds, which they refuse to do. We need to change our funding model to one which allows cities and regions to fund transit if they want to, and we need to advocate to the province for a significant increase in transit funding, both for day-to-day operations, as well as necessary capital expenditures like a new transit yard.