CAG Position Statement - Mid Block Bus Stops and Protected Bike Lanes
Position Statement on Mid-Block Bus Stops and Protected Bike Lanes
Date: January 15 2025
About the Consumer Access Group
The Consumer Access Group (CAG) is a coalition of blindness-related, not-for-profit organizations. Each partner contributes their expertise to developing position statements on blindness-related concerns. These statements enable organizations and individuals to advocate with a common voice on blindness-related issues, increasing the capacity of each to more effectively promote social inclusion for Canadians who are blind, deafblind and partially sighted.
Issue
Protected bike lanes that separate cyclists from vehicle traffic by a physical barrier, are being constructed as a part of many Municipal Active Transportation Plans (non-motorized travel). When these bike lanes share the same route as local buses, bus passengers are often required to cross from the sidewalk over the bike lane to board the bus at an island platform (floating) bus stop. Persons who are blind, deafblind and partially sighted (hereafter referred to as blind) are unable to do this safely and independently, particularly if the bus stop is mid-block. Mid-block island platform bus stops have resulted in the creation of a barrier to an essential means of transportation for persons who are blind, and were found to be discriminatory by a Human Rights decision in British Columbia in 2020.
Despite this human rights decision, mid-block island platform bus stops continue to be built, and blind bus passengers continue to face barriers to their right to safe and independent travel.
Background
Mid-block island platform bus stops require bus passengers to cross over the bike lane from the sidewalk to an island platform (floating) bus stop. Although there are marked crosswalks, bus passengers who are blind cannot see or hear approaching cyclists and cyclists do not reliably stop for pedestrians. This is particularly dangerous in constrained situations where there is not enough room for an island platform, and where bus passengers wait on the sidewalk and cross the bike lane once the bus pulls up in the middle of the road. When alighting from the bus in a constrained situation, bus passengers step directly into the bike lane.
Although orientation treatments such as attention and guidance tactile walking surface indicators (TWSI) and accessible signage, make it easier for the blind pedestrian to find and understand mid-block island platform bus stops, no treatments in either a 2023 CNIB national study or a 2023 TransLink consultation and pilot in British Columbia, were found to provide the blind pedestrian with the information they need to cross the bike lane safely and independently. It has also been demonstrated that cyclists cannot be relied upon to stop despite signage and pedestrian activated flashing amber lights.
It is recognized that encouraging active means of transportation such as cycling, with the goal of reducing the use of motor vehicles is an important strategy to address climate change, but not at the cost of the safety of blind persons. The organizations listed below therefore make the following recommendations.
Recommendations
Until such time that a treatment is found and demonstrated to give blind persons the agency they need to cross the bike lane safely and independently, mid-block island platform bus stops and constrained mid-block bus stops, should not be built.
The following alternative designs can be considered when planning a protected bike lane network.
1. Build the protected bike lane on a different street to the bus route.
2. Build the bike lane on the left-hand side of a one-way street and the bus stops on the right-hand side of the street.
3. Integrate the island platform bus stop with a controlled intersection equipped with an audible signal. Bus passengers use the crosswalk at the intersection to cross over the bike lane or the vehicle traffic to get to the end of the island platform bus stop.
4. If a mid-block bus stop cannot be avoided, the bus should pull across the bike lane, through a gap in the protective infrastructure, to the curb. This design has been constructed in both Victoria and Esquimalt, British Columbia.
Review date: January 2027
Canadian Council of the Blind (CCB)
Canadian National Institute for the Blind (CNIB)