Tell Vancouver City Council you want bus priority improvements in the Rupert-Renfrew neighbourhood!
The 9, 16, 27 are among the slowest routes in the region, and the 25, the 4th busiest route in all of Metro Vancouver, continues face the worst bus bunching among all bus routes in the region. Residents and commuters in the area deserve fast and reliable bus service.
Rupert-Renfrew transit service map, City of Vancouver, 2025.
The City of Vancouver recently completed the Final Draft for the Rupert and Renfrew Station Area Plan. The plan is a good step toward providing more housing and improving the transit accessibility of the neighbourhood as it indicates that some streets may be reconfigured to prioritize transit. However are few details and the draft plan remains non-committal about bus-priority measures.
There are a few specific measures to improve bus speed and reliability that the City of Vancouver can commit to and work on with TransLink:
- The intersection of Rupert and 22nd is a bottleneck seven days per week. Queues radiate 10 blocks from the intersection on a daily basis. Replacing on-street parking with a bus lane in only the direction heading towards this intersection will improve the lives of existing riders and attract new ones.
- Add a traffic signal to the intersection of Boundary and Kincaid. This has been the most common request from drivers on the 25, who must wait multiple minutes just to make the turn. As the 25 is one of the top 5 busiest bus routes in the region, improving this intersection will improve the reliability for the 6.3 million+ riders of the route every year.
- Grandview Highway and the railway crossing represent another traffic bottleneck in this area, and bus lanes on Renfrew and Rupert leading up to those crossings would go a long way to making transit the fastest option for new residents, especially in rush hour.
Adding bus lanes to 22nd Ave and Rupert St heading toward the intersection would greatly improve bus speed and reliability.
These improvements to bus priority are easy to implement, affordable, and are solutions to the ever-worsening issue of congestion, which too often feels intractable.
We join the City of Vancouver in working with TransLink to improve bus frequency, expand express service, and add a new bus route on 1st Avenue. We will continue to advocate for new and sustainable funding sources and improvements to transit efficiency to fund more improvements like these.
By committing to the specific bus priority measures above, the City of Vancouver’s Rupert-Renfrew Station Area Plan would deliver much-needed fast and reliable transit prior to a 61% increase in the neighbourhood’s population. When new residents see that transit is a convenient, fast, and accessible option before they move in, the strain on our streets that an influx of new residents brings can be reduced immensely.
Tell Vancouver City Council you want faster and more reliable buses in your community!
The Rupert-Renfrew Station Area plans lack actionable commitments to improve bus speed and reliability to efficiently move existing and future residents. City Councillors need to hear from transit riders, like you!