Got a little bored today
Halifax Transit released their annual report the other day. Included in this report are passenger count numbers by route ;
Q4 Halifax Transit Report
As a north-end Halifax resident I regularly walk the Hydrostone neighbourhood. On my walks I've noticed that buses are getting stuck outbound in front of Hydrostone Market. This area has not been identified by Halifax as needing Transit Priority Measures installed partly due to it not having a "corridor" route. The bottleneck is caused by the combination of the narrow section of Young Street between Agricola and Robie and the lack of capacity at the pair of traffic lights at Robie/Young/Kempt. Currently the immediate area is serviced by two corridor routes (7 & 80), six urban express routes (21, 31, 33, 34, 35, & 86), two local routes (42 & 81), and one regional express (330).
Since the Halifax Transit route data does not break down where the passengers are boarding and deboarding I've trimmed the routes. Routes 7, 80 & 81 are all full service routes where the data would include passengers going nowhere near this area and passengers in the late evening when ridership is much lower. These routes service 45 ppl/hr (#7), 34 ppl/hr (#80), and 27 ppl/hr (#81) which is above minimum service standards. Route 21 was also ignored due to only a handful of it's all day runs travelling into the urban centre. The other routes can be safely assumed that most passengers are passing through this area due to their specific destinations and urban express nature. Together these routes make
106 trips through the area with a total of
3'249 passengers. According to the
Moving Forward Together Plan express routes should have a minimum of 20 passengers per trip. Currently the are has
30.65 passengers per trip.
Under the approved MFTP this area will see roughly the same level of transit service. Routes 330, 7 A&B, and 8 (currently #80) will remain mostly the same with some increased service. Route 42 will be discontinued in the area, and eight urban express routes will be installed (4 from Clayton Park, 4 from Bedford). Five of the express routes can be compared to existing routes and the remaining three should balance out the removal of the 42 from the area during peak travel times.
So the question that arises is, does at least 3200 passengers a day justify spending some money on TPM's in the Young/Robie area? I think the answer is yes!
TPM's could be any of the following;
- Dual left-turn Kempt onto Young. This would separate cars heading onto Robie SB from buses heading onto Young EB. This could be done easily and quickly.
- Young between Agricola & Robie needs to be widened. There needs to be two lanes WB to avoid queues in front of Hydrostone Market. The new lane could be marked 'Right Turn Only Except Buses'.
- Young WB at Agricola the right-hand lane could become a bus queue jump. A transit signal would be needed since there is no receiving lane. The bus only lane could extend back to Isleville. This could be done easily and quickly.
- Young EB has less queue issues but if justified a bus-only lane could be installed from Agricola to the right-turn lane onto Gottingen. No parking would have to be introduced from 6am-9am but since it is before the Hydrostone Market's opening hours it should be uncontroversial.
Considering Young Street's designation as a growth centre in the Centre Plan I strongly believe that in 10-15 years time a bus terminal will be required in this area. No spot would be more perfect than the Esso/Tim Horton's complex at Young and Robie.
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