I’m in Vancouver, Canada, and almost every bus stop at an intersection is like this, where the bus station is after the stop light, so if it’s red, the bus needs to stop for the light, then drive ten metres through the intersection once the light turns green, only to then immediately stop at the bus station. And it’s like this for both directions.

Example of what I’m talking about. This intersection has four stops, one in each direction, and all of them are after their corresponding stoplights.. It’s like this for every intersection with bus stops. And the two stops on the road marked in yellow are for an express, “rapid transit” line. No parking lanes near this intersection either, the busses just travel along the rightmost lane and stop in place at the stations (they don’t need to merge in and out).

To me, this seems like the worst way to lay out the bus stops. Why not place the bus stop immediately before the red light so it can let people on and off while waiting for the light? We don’t have those nifty reactive traffic lights that automatically turn green for buses, aka Advanced Greenaway for Busses. Instead we have what I call Advanced Murphy’s Law for Busses, where the more delayed your bus is, the more before-a-stop-red-lights you’ll encounter. And TransLink has supposedly cracked down on bus drivers opening the door while waiting at the red light before the stop, which suggests this is a frequent issue for travellers trying to make connections. From personal experience, there is nothing quite like watching your connection go by while your already delayed bus patiently waits at the red light ten metres from its stop.

Can someone help me understand why this is the preferred stop placement and not placing the stops before the light? I’m assuming there is some reason this is better that I’m just not thinking about, and that Vancouver’s transit planners aren’t just screwing with us.

  • Gaywallet (they/it)
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    2 years ago

    People want to turn right at the light, having them be blocked by a bus is asking for people to pull risky maneuvers and endanger pedestrians, buses, bikes, etc. Lights can also get backed up, making a stop before the light inaccessible. It’s rare that a stop after a light won’t be accessible, ensuring that once the bus is through it can stop. Finally, if the light is green while the bus is stopped before the light, it may be difficult for the bus to get back into moving traffic, which is once again raising the risk of accidents. If the bus has trouble getting back into traffic, after the light clears (is now red), they don’t have to fight oncoming traffic to get in.

    If your connection bus is going by, the planning isn’t done very well. If connections tend to go in one direction, one bus should arrive before the other, to allow for slight variations in schedule. If connections tend to go both directions, connection stops should be an actual stop, where the bus sits for 1-2m to allow passengers to connect between the two buses. Or, simply run enough buses that missing a connection adds only a few minutes to total ride time.

  • @guojing@lemmy.ml
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    2 years ago

    I guess that happens when pallers dont use public transport. Here in my city in Spain I think all the bus stops are before traffic lights.

    • @AgreeableLandscape@lemmy.mlOP
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      2 years ago

      And reactive traffic lights are really common in Europe, so the light is almost always green for buses and trams/light rail to begin with.

      • @guojing@lemmy.ml
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        02 years ago

        Dont think we have that here. It happens a lot that cars have to wait for the bus to depart. No one minds.

  • @Slatlun@lemmy.ml
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    42 years ago

    I have thought a lot about this because they’re the same in my city. My best guess is that you don’t want a driver to try to rush loading to make a green light. The other guess is that there is some advantage to clearing the turn lane as soon as there is a green. It would be especially hard to place before the light if there was a dedicated turn lane. What do you think? Maybe a bus driver would know.

      • @Slatlun@lemmy.ml
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        22 years ago

        Some do and some don’t. As they redo the roads pullouts are being installed where it is feasible.

    • liwott
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      12 years ago

      It would be especially hard to place before the light if there was a dedicated turn lane.

      I think in that case “before the stop” should be understood as “before the turn lane”

      • @Slatlun@lemmy.ml
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        22 years ago

        You’re right that that that seems to make sense logistically, but then you’d have people cutting in front of a bus to make it to the turn lane. It might actually be safer to place in the turn lane and have the bus pull into traffic.