On Monday, bus routes in Halifax will undergo their biggest change “in at least 30 years,” says Patricia Hughes, manager of planning and scheduling at Halifax Transit. Mostly affecting Clayton Park and Fairview (all but one route at the Lacewood terminal), the Monday route changes are part of the five-year-long implementation of the Moving Forward […]
Is Gottingen the right street for a bus express lane?
Because the ramp from Barrington Street to the Macdonald Bridge is too tight a turn for buses, the north end business district could be turned into a bus expressway.
This afternoon, city council’s transportation committee will consider whether or not to continue planning for a north-bound bus lane along part of Gottingen Street. The plan would see 51 parking and loading spaces removed from both sides of the street, to make room for two vehicle lanes and one northbound bus lane starting at Cogswell […]
Halifax Transit pitches Bus Rapid Transit
Alternative headline: Halifax Transit isn't pitching Bus Rapid Transit.
Citizens gathered Monday afternoon and evening to look at preliminary sketches of what a Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) network might look like for Halifax. Or did they? The citizens were there, but I’m not entirely sure what they were looking at amounts to BRT. Here’s how the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy (ITDP), an...
Growing a city where transit works
In August 2016, shortly after Halifax Transit’s Moving Forward Together plan was revealed to all, I interviewed transit planning consultant Jarrett Walker about the route re-design process. Walker makes a living helping cities rethink their bus networks, and has visited Halifax in the past at the invite of local advocacy group It’s More Than Buses....
Rethink: Halifax council calls for a much-needed second opinion on our bus route network
Colour me impressed. Halifax city councillors have voted to get a second opinion on the city’s new bus route plan, Moving Forward Together. Though it’s already been approved and the five-year implementation plan is underway, most of the heavy changes aren’t scheduled until 2018 and beyond, so there’s time to rework it. (In fact, the...
MFT changes discussion postponed to December 6
Councillors gear up to defend proposed changes, while IMTB asks to bring in an expert
Last night, Halifax council opted to defer a decision on a long list of changes to the Moving Forward Together transit plan until its meeting on December 6th. The plan, which was actually already approved in the spring, was before councillors Tuesday as they considered a staff report rejecting nearly all of the 23 changes proposed...
Halifax councillors need to make a living wage ordinance a priority: Morning File, Monday, November 21, 2016
November Subscription Drive Click here to purchase a subscription to the Halifax Examiner. News 1. Just how low, and how bad, can the Chronicle Herald get? In a bid to restart negotiations between the Chronicle Herald management and its striking newsroom employees, the union sent the company a request for a meeting. But the company […]
Remember MFT?
Transit advocates It's More Than Buses remind us what's wrong with Halifax's new transit plan
A brand spanking new council will take their seats in city hall soon, and one of the early items on their agenda will be a report outlining the repercussions of 21 different amendments to Halifax Transit’s new plan, Moving Forward Together (MFT). We last left the MFT plan in the spring, when our previous council...
It’s More Than Buses: a great starting point
The It’s More Than Buses group has released its proposal for revamping Halifax bus routes and scheduling. At the heart of the proposal are high-frequency routes that connect at transfer points. The buses would run along these routes so often—at least every 15 minutes, with some at 10 minutes—that it reduces the need for time-consuming...