Abstract Manager

Most urban streets don't have a lot of unused space. When building bus priority measures, planners and engineers must weigh tradeoffs between outcomes for buses, active transport safety and comfort, vehicle capacity, curbside usage, urban design, and more.

This talk focuses on two major bus priority projects in Surrey, BC: the R6 Scott Road RapidBus, which launched in 2024, and the King George Boulevard BRT, which is currently in design. On both projects, TransLink and the City of Surrey jointly developed a framework to help make decisions on how to allocate space in the roadway. They developed a set of target KPIs for each account, with a prioritisation framework to help make decisions where it is not possible to meet all objectives.

Development of this framework required TransLink and Surrey to navigate their partially-aligned interests and the tension between aspiration and achievability in project goals to deliver a framework that reflected all parties’ concerns. They have been fortunate enough to have two similar projects in short succession to evolve and adapt this framework to different project contexts. This talk will explore the technical and human side of decision-making around space for transit infrastructure in the road.