An update (or non-update) for bus lanes on Granville

It’s been eight months since our campaign launched to push for bus lanes promised back in 2023 by Vancouver City Council. It’s 2026 – there’s good news and bad news. The good news is that the city is still planning on going ahead with transit priority on Granville, and they might have totally caved if not for your vigorous support. The bad news? They’ve scaled back the original plan and they’re dragging their feet on actually installing the darn things.

• Existing bus lanes are peak hour, only in the peak direction.
• The original plan was to extend bus lanes in both directions during AM & PM peak hours, southbound from 63rd to Marine, and northbound from 63rd to 70th, and 24/7 bus lanes on Granville outside of those blocks.
• The updated plan has been rolled back south of 70th, to be weekday peak hour bus lanes instead of all day bus lanes, and northbound from 62nd to 63rd has received the same treatment.

The city’s website also specifies that: “implementation [of bus lane changes] in Marpole Village will begin after the winter holiday season to minimize business impacts.”

This is based on the assumption that drivers are the primary patrons of businesses, which simply isn’t the case, especially in a neighbourhood like Marpole which has a much higher share of transit users than other Vancouver neighbourhoods. Multiple studies show that business owners tend to overestimate the number of people who drive to their businesses. It also overlooks residents and employees who rely on transit to get to work, school, medical appointments and community. Businesses hold a lot of sway with the city, but one day transit riders will hold even more.

Bus lanes don’t need to take this long, Toronto put in bus lanes in just a handful of days, and a lack of ambition in the city’s leadership is the only thing holding us back.

If you’re fired up about this, you can send the city a quick email to say you’re disappointed, an example letter for you to copy and paste is at the bottom of this page. Here are some key points:

• FIFA is coming in a matter of months, and we can expect Granville Street to get extremely congested with taxis and rideshare vehicles. Will Marpole residents still be able to get around?
• Marpole residents use transit at a higher rate than almost any other neighbourhood. Do their commutes matter?
• Bus lanes are a quick and affordable way of boosting transportation capacity. Is this council just going to sit back and let our city get more congested?
• Council promised ambitious improvements on our major bus routes. Cities like Seattle, Toronto, Seattle and San Francisco are making rapid progress. Why is it so hard here?

You can also take a moment to send an email about the other active Vancouver bus lanes in the planning stage, check out our Kingsway campaign and keep an eye out for our Hastings and 49th Ave campaigns launching soon.