Does Hudson Williams support bus lanes on 49th Avenue, and will he celebrate his birthday with us at our lookalike competition?
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Feb 9, 2026
SOUTH VANCOUVER — The City of Vancouver has just announced plans to institute all day bus lanes on 49th Avenue from Cambie to Fraser. Movement strongly supports this 1.9km step toward bus lanes on the entire 21 kilometre corridor. The push for bus lanes on 49th was Movement’s first campaign back in 2023, and we’re excited to see results.
That said, the question is: Why only Cambie to Fraser? Vancouver is only adding bus lanes on segments that are affected by other capital projects – watermain replacement, repaving, etc. “At this rate, it will take lifetimes to finish the bus lanes on 49th Avenue,” says Denis Agar, Executive Director of Movement. “Why do bus lanes on 49th have to piggyback on other projects? In Toronto, they delivered bus lanes in under a week. It’s not a major project – usually just paint and signs. They cost almost nothing to implement and they actually save TransLink money.”
Route 49 is the 3rd busiest bus route in Metro Vancouver, moving twice as many people as VIA Rail, our national railway. It is remarkably busy all day long, and often passes riders by with the headsign saying “SORRY BUS FULL”. Bus lanes help improve reliability and alleviate overcrowding by allowing for increased frequency.
This route is a lifeline for South Vancouver, serving some of the neighbourhoods with the highest rate of transit usage in the region. Vancouver’s practice of adding bus lanes only when doing other road work raises questions about how much priority the city gives to South Vancouver’s transit riders.
The community supports bus lanes
Please see our attached video with Rob Nijjar, Executive Director of the Sunset on Fraser Business Improvement Association. You can use these videos on air with attribution. Please e-mail us a clip of the produced segment.
Back in 2023, Movement put up posters at bus stops asking riders how they felt about their commute on the 49. Here are a few of their responses:
- “Faster service and have dedicated lanes and signals and less stops.”
- “Get rid of parking and add a bus lane”
- “A main concern is how slow the 49 moves at certain points along the route. Particularly eastbound on marine dr near 41st Ave and in both directions along marine dr between dunbar and 49th. Turning left from marine drive onto 49th can be especially painstaking. I wonder if this could be addressed by implementing bus-only travel or queue jump lanes (for some of the day or all the time), modifying traffic signal sequences, or implementing something like traffic signal priority for busses.”
- “I would like the 49 to be more frequent because it is often over crowded in the mornings. There are some days where I am skipped by 4 busses in a row, and it is the only way I can get to school.”
- “The bunched busses is a huge problem especially when I was coming home from school last year.”
- “I wish it could be a bit more faster.”
What does this have to do with Heated Rivalry?
Hudson Williams, breakout star of the hit series Heated Rivalry, is a proud Langara College alumnus. We suspect he commuted on route 49, and we want to have some fun with it.
On February 13th, we will gather to celebrate Hudson Williams’ 25th birthday, as well as to celebrate the 49, and call for better transit priority along the entire street. We will have a Hudson lookalike competition, a stand up comedy set, and we will be giving out transit-themed valentine’s day cards.
Red Carpet Rally
Friday, February 13th
6PM
Langara–49th SkyTrain Station
What does Movement want on the 49?
Most of the 49 is in Vancouver, but there are segments that are under the jurisdiction of Burnaby, UBC, and the provincial government. Each one has different needs. We want each jurisdiction to work urgently to shorten bus travel times.
- UBC
- Signalized intersections on Wesbrook Mall
- Vancouver
- Introduce bus lanes along most of 49th, and the segments of Dunbar and 41st that this bus uses
- Add turn restrictions where turning vehicles contribute most to congestion
- Add queue jumps at congested intersections like 49th and Dunbar
- Burnaby
- Introduce bus lanes on Imperial and Willingdon
- All
- Traffic signal priority to detect buses and ensure they get more green lights
- TransLink
- Convert the 49 to a RapidBus and introduce a less-frequent route to maintain local service at less-busy stops, like on 41st, Broadway, and King George.
- Introduce a local bus on 54th/57th to relieve the strain on 49th. The area between 49th and Marine is one of the widest gaps in the city with no bus service
Media Contact
Nav Sharma
Director of Marketing and Communications
nav.sharma@movementyvr.ca