A city council committee will debate a plan next week to install bus-only lanes along Bank Street in the Glebe.
The 15-month pilot program would limit access to some lanes for just buses from 7 to 10 a.m. northbound on Bank Street from Highway 417 to the Rideau Canal. Bus-only lanes would operate along that stretch from 3 to 6 p.m. northbound.
There would be four segments of the lanes reserved for buses 24 hours a day, according to the city-staff recommended proposal. This would be a permanent change, with the segments mostly near Lansdowne Park. The longest is 190 metres and the shortest is around 70.
The plan is laid out in the agenda for the March 30 meeting of city council’s public works and infrastructure committee. The proposed start date is summer 2027.
City staff said in the report that introducing the bus-only lanes means eliminating some curbside parking on Bank Street.
Modelling of the project shows “modest travel time savings” and city staff believe the bus-only lanes will “increase reliability and reduce travel time variability,” the report reads.
Staff said bus-only lanes are most effective when replacing curbside parking, but acknowledged it could have “negative implications for businesses.”
“As a result, any extension of the bus lane hours outside the peak period, peak direction must carefully weigh the trade-offs associated with reducing on-street parking and curbside access availability.”
The report said segments of 24-hour bus lanes at Fifth Avenue will reduce the number of on-street parking spaces on Bank Street from 146 to 129, a drop of 17.
If the time-of-day bus lanes are extended to 24 hours-a-day, the street will lose 76 spaces on the east side and 70 on the west.
City staff said data shows there’s “generally sufficient parking available within the area to accommodate the loss of on-street parking spaces during a typical weekday.” They noted the presence of parking on side streets and municipal parking garages at Lansdowne and on Second Avenue.
But the report noted that the “study team heard concerns from businesses that these locations are not as convenient for customers,” with the Lansdowne garage “perceived as primarily serving the Lansdowne site itself.”
Other proposed changes to the Bank Street corridor include a new transit priority signal at Exhibition Way and introducing ladder style crosswalks at several crossings.
The proposal recommends improving cycling access on streets that run parallel to Bank, saying it’s “challenging to find space to enhance cycling in the corridor” because of the “constrained right-of-way north of Holmwood Avenue.”
Any decision from the committee would need to be approved by city council.
