London, Ontario’s BRT project had an original budget of $281 million. Now it’s approaching HALF A BILLION dollars, and about HALF of the original project is actually getting built.
That’s tax mismanagement at its best.
Especially when the City is still rolling out three-bay bus shelters costing $250,000 each. Shelters that are HUGE even by London, ENGLAND standards.
Meanwhile, we had an opportunity to finally make a much-needed improvement to Oxford and Wharncliffe, right here in Ward 6. Anyone who regularly goes through that intersection knows the challenges. It has needed to be fixed for years to improve traffic flow and reduce the bottleneck.
Yet when the opportunity finally came to fund that long-awaited improvement, Ward 6’s own current city councillor voted against it and supported taking that money and putting EVEN MORE into the BRT project instead.
Nearly half a billion dollars for about half the original BRT project, $250,000 bus shelters, and money redirected away from fixing one of Ward 6’s most frustrating intersections.
I don’t get it.
THE OXFORD/WHARNCLIFFE PLAN:
The Oxford/Wharncliffe project main physical change was not simply adding ordinary car lanes, it was mainly to widen the Oxford Street approaches to the intersection and build eastbound and westbound transit “queue-jump” lanes. These would be short, bus-only approach lanes that let an LTC bus bypass a line of cars waiting at the light. The signals would then give the bus priority so it could proceed through or merge back into traffic ahead of the queue. The goal was both better bus reliability and less interference between stopped buses and general traffic.
The planned work included:
Widening/reconstructing Oxford Street through the intersection, including the two bus queue-jump lanes.
New or modified turning lanes at the intersection.
A new intelligent traffic-signal system with transit signal priority, so approaching buses could receive priority at the light.
New/updated street lighting.
Sidewalk reconstruction and cycling facilities through the intersection. The cycling work was intended to connect the Wharncliffe/Western Road bike facilities south to Oxford Street.
Widening the roadway infrastructure funding. The noticeable difference would have been a physically wider Oxford Street on the approaches, with extra pavement devoted principally to buses and turning movements, upgraded signals, and improved pedestrian/cycling infrastructure.
