Transit-Oriented Communities

In April 2024, TransLink and the BC Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure (MoTI), published the Design Guide for Bus Stops Adjacent to Cycling Infrastructure:

• Design Guide for Bus Stops Adjacent to Cycling Infrastructure (PDF)

• Design Guide for Bus Stops Adjacent to Cycling Infrastructure (Word). This document was developed with the CNIB Access Labs to ensure usability by adaptive technology and compliance with global accessibility standards.

This document provides a comprehensive set of guidelines offering solutions for the planning, design, operation, and maintenance of bus stops adjacent to protected cycling infrastructure. Included is a range of contexts and applications throughout British Columbia along with guidance for education and engagement for new infrastructure as well as retrofits. The framework and the treatments identified increase safety for all users by encouraging appropriate speeds and behaviour around these types of bus stops.

The focus is to improve safe active transportation for every person regardless of their needs and abilities following the principle of Comfortable for Most, also known as All Ages and Abilities (AAA). It also recognizes the wide variety of contexts across British Columbia from large urban centres which may have high levels of walking, rolling, cycling, and transit use to smaller and rural communities which may have longer distances and rely on different modes of transportation.

While the Design Guide reflects input from a variety of affected groups, recent feedback from people with sight loss have raised concerns with the mid-block island platform bus stop design option. The feedback indicated that this type of infrastructure does not provide proper safety for people with sight loss given that they cannot reliably assess if a person cycling is approaching or has stopped for them to cross. 

Engaging with local community residents and stakeholders on the planning and design of island platform bus stops is a critical component to ensuring the stops work for all members of the community. This should be conducted early in the planning process and include robust and meaningful engagement with the accessibility community, including people with sight loss.

It is essential that the engagement is intentional and effective at gathering input and is integrated into the final design. Engagement should include:

• Work with local accessibility advisory committees, including people with sight loss, to obtain their input regarding bus stops adjacent to cycling infrastructure within the context of the design guidelines.

• Developing a stakeholder list and engaging with a broad range of stakeholders, including people who cycle and people with a range of abilities, during the planning and design process.

• Partnerships established with organizations in your community that represent people with disabilities.

• Site visits conducted with people with a range of abilities at existing bus stops adjacent to cycling infrastructure to explore retrofit opportunities.

• Partnerships with Orientation and Mobility Specialists to provide training and help people with sight loss to become familiar with island platform bus stops.

The Design Guide includes planning guidance for consideration by local governments that either eliminates or minimizes the potential for conflict between transit users and people cycling before considering adding an island platform bus stop.

Understand the context:

• What is the primary role and user priority for the corridor within the broader transportation network? Has the role and modal priorities of the project corridor as part of the broader transportation network context been reviewed and assessed

• What is the land use context? Is the land in an urban, suburban, or rural context?

• What is the user context? How many users of various types are using the project corridor?

Eliminate the conflict between people cycling and people accessing transit:

• Can the bikeway and transit route be accommodated on different corridors?

• Can the bikeway be provided exclusively on the left side of a one-way street?

• Can the bikeway be accommodated on a different corridor with fewer steep slopes?

Minimize the conflict between people cycling and people accessing transit:

• Can road space be reallocated?

• Can a bus stop be provided at or adjacent to a signalized intersection?

• Can a bus stop be removed, relocated, or consolidated while still achieving the same level of transit service?

• Can unidirectional bikeways be provided instead of bi-directional?

• Can separation between people cycling and transit riders be achieved?

These guidelines encourage solutions that avoid the use of island platform bus stops altogether. If that is not possible, then the preferred configuration is the signalized-integrated island platform bus stop, adjacent to a unidirectional bikeway (Figure 44 of the Design Guide). Other configurations should only be considered under specific circumstances and if the previous suggestions are not possible.

Some of the recommendations to increase safety and access include (for a full list, please refer to the Design Guide):

• Tactile Directional Indicator Mats located on the pavement at the bus entrance

• Enhanced signage with braille and raised tactile letters provided on bus stop ID poles, indicating that the transit user must cross a bike lane

• Marked pedestrian crossings in line with bus stop ID pole and doors of bus

• Treatments to slow cyclists such as narrowing, raising, channelizing, or curving the bike lane

• Cane-detectable edge treatments along the bicycle path

• Visual and tactile contrast between sidewalk, bike lane, and island platform bus stop

• Accessible Pedestrian Signals for bus stops located at signalized intersections

The Design Guide recognizes the need to develop a wider suite of options that will let a person with sight loss know with certainty that a person cycling is approaching or has stopped. While this Design Guide is a first step, more research continues, including recommendations underscoring that transportation practitioners and people with a range of abilities should continue to work together to better understand the tools and technologies that may have the potential to address issues.

After consideration of the stakeholder feedback received throughout the development of the Design Guide and following its publication, we recommend that until new tools and technologies are available to better address the crossing safety concerns for mid-block island platform bus stops, close attention and consideration is given to the full framework of options contained in the Design Guide, including the elimination and minimization of conflict.

We strongly encourage local governments to work with their local accessibility advisory committees, including people who are blind, and obtain their input throughout the planning and design process regarding bus stops adjacent to cycling infrastructure within the context of the Design Guide.

We’re working with our partners on multiple planning processes that support the development of transit-oriented communities; these currently include but aren’t limited to:

• Surrey Langley SkyTrain

• Millennium Line UBC Extension

• Burnaby Mountain Gondola

• Area Transport Plans

Our Transit-Oriented Communities Design Guidelines outline best practices and strategies for designing communities around frequent transit stops, stations, and exchanges that support walking, cycling, and transit. These guidelines serve as a resource for municipal planners, engineers, elected officials, developers, and others in achieving transit-oriented visions for their communities.

A summary version of the guidelines key concepts is also available in our Transit-Oriented Communities: A Primer on Key Concepts.

The Transit Passenger Facilities Design Guidelines provide a framework for designing and developing transit passenger facilities (transit stations, exchanges and stops) within their surrounding context. Intended for all parties involved in passenger facility planning, design, and maintenance, the guidelines ensure that new and upgraded facilities balance the goals of creating great places for customers and pedestrians, optimizing transit efficiency, achieving environmental sustainability, and being fiscally responsible, all with design excellence.

We use a set of Transit Service Guidelines to improve service quality for customers and evaluate proposed transit service improvements. The guidelines ensure that all transit services provide customers with acceptable levels of convenience, frequency, speed, comfort, and reliability.

The Bus Infrastructure Design Guidelines consolidate transportation design best practices for bus transit facilities in Metro Vancouver. It offers transit infrastructure design best practices for engineers, planners, and other parties involved in designing and building urban infrastructure. The design criteria is recommended for typical applications and provides guidance on operational efficiency, safety, and customer comfort. It is a living document that will be updated as technology and best practices evolve.

Our TDM Guidelines for Development in Metro Vancouver provide developers and local governments with best practice and insight on how to incorporate TDM strategies into new developments.

In consultation with TransLink and member jurisdictions, Metro Vancouver is updating the Guideline on Identifying Frequent Transit Development Areas (FTDAs) to assist in establishing these areas and implementing this concept from Metro 2050. This will include guidance on updated geographic requirements for FTDAs – most notably, the policy that new FTDAs must be located within Major Transit Growth Corridors.

In 2023, the Province of British Columbia passed new legislation requiring some local governments to designate Transit-Oriented Development Areas near transit hubs. As noted on the Province’s site, “These TOD Areas are defined as areas within 800 metres of a rapid transit station (e.g., SkyTrain station) and 400 metres of a bus exchange and West Coast Express that the Province has listed in regulations.”