This is originally a two-part school assignment. The first part, posted here, is a more readable and less detailed version of the policy brief attached at the end of this post, should this really have the power to intrigue you to learn the details of it in the bland, sterile tone necessary for this type of work.
“It’s not the fault of the drivers!” pleads the woman distributing Metro newspapers at the west exit of Sherbrooke station. She’s also the one helping commuters figure out which line of passengers is for which bus – the line waiting for the 144 has crossed the one for the 24. This Monday, Lower Plateau commuters have really gotten the nasty end of the construction-caused downtown traffic issues on Sherbrooke Street and Pine Avenue.
Still, this is the level of service that many residents of Montreal’s South-West neighborhood say is “spoiling” commuters from the Plateau of Montreal. They have a point, too; at least the 24 and 144 are supposed to run frequently at peak hours. South-West commuters aren’t so lucky: many of their routes, such as the 36 and 37, aren’t even frequent in theory. They held nothing back in pointing this out to the panel of STM big-wigs at a public comment session which only vaguely mentioned potential improvements to service in the South-West.
In their defense, STM have recently been taking steps to improve bus service, called Bus Preferential Measures (BPMs). These include dedicated bus lanes, better real-time information and transit-only lights at intersections, called “candlestick” lights, among others. But have these measures been useful so far?
Certainly, a study in 2013 by McGill University’s E. Diab and A. El-Geneidy, which specifically studied revisions in the Saint-Michel corridor, would give these measures mixed reviews. And from the evidence above, everyday bus commuters in Montreal would seem to be slightly less restrained in their critique.
What can be done to help out the seemingly worsening problems with STM service? Sure, mafia-controlled construction companies and corrupt governors aren’t helping to move people around the city, but quick, cheap improvements aren’t a pipe dream, either.
With all this criticism, it’s hard to see the good work STM is completing. They’ve equipped all of the buses with real-time tracking information, making signal priority at intersections a possibility. This allows green lights to be prolonged or the previously-explained “candlestick” lights to work. Although these improvements have come with significant delays, they are a crucial component to improving bus service, especially along crowded, popular corridors.
However, one of the simplest improvements STM should make is fixing bus stop locations. There are two problems here: one, many bus stops are far too close together. A good example of this comes at the intersection of Park and Pine Avenues, where routes 80 and 144 start to look like a slowed-down stop-motion sequence. The other problem lies in the fact that many of STM’s bus stops are before intersections, not after.
What’s wrong with this? Montreal’s no-right-on-red policy exacerbates an already well-established issue with pre-intersection bus stops: right-turn queues of cars block bus access to the stop, in some cases forcing the bus to miss one or two light cycles before being able to advance. Additionally, bus stops placed after intersections create a gap between general traffic and buses, ensuring smoother traffic flow for both.
The used of aforementioned “candlestick” lights also needs to be revised. They can be useful, but in order to function as intended, there can’t be a right turn at the intersection, and there needs to be a way to ensure the bus arrives at the light before other cars do. Dedicated bus lanes are the best way to guarantee this.
Otherwise, the transit signal priority already used at these intersections can be implemented more effectively if the bus stops are moved to the far side of the intersection. Instead of cutting traffic circulation by the four to five seconds necessary to allow buses to get a head start, the green light can be extended to allow buses to get to the other side before the light turns red. This speeds up traffic and holds buses up less.
Lastly, STM needs to revise its service in express lanes and dedicated bus lanes. Uneven stop placement and poor scheduling of buses in these lanes creates chaos, and many times can worsen bus reliability. Additionally, while express buses can be faster in their own right, they will often slow down the local buses running in the same lane, or vice versa. For example, the 470 Pierrefonds Express commonly merges into general traffic to avoid the local buses that run in the express lane at rush hour. This completely defeats the point of a dedicated lane.
So yes, these solutions might not be what South-West residents are looking for, and they’re right: they simply need buses that at least try to run every ten to fifteen minutes, at least. But for the frequent routes that are underperforming, there are some pretty simple and obvious fixes that STM can make. They might not even have to employ the mafia to make them either; they just need to make better use of the technology they’ve been working on for way too long.
Original, Policy Report-style text (with a few images)