The City of Vancouver is officially recognizing taxis as a form of public transit by allowing them to use bus lanes.
City Hall has launched a one-year pilot project that allows taxis to use designated bus lanes on Pender, Hastings, Burrard, Broadway, Georgia and Granville streets.
Cabs will only be allowed to drive in the lanes – they will not be allowed to stop to pick up or drop off passengers. Police and city parking enforcement officers will be enforcing the restrictions.
It is hoped that by allowing cabs to use bus lanes, travel times and traffic congestion will be decreased.
“It makes it faster for drivers to pick up the passengers, and for the passengers to get to their destinations much faster,” said Kulwant Sahota, president of Yellow Cab.
“And it also benefits the passenger that the cost of their ride will go down too. The driver [makes] more money, and more passengers get better service by taxis.”
For the first six weeks of the pilot project, Yellow Cab will work with the city, TransLink and Coast Mountain Bus Company to conduct speed tests.
The travel times of cabs travelling in bus lanes will be compared with cabs travelling in regular traffic along the same routes during the same times to determine how much time the bus lanes shave off a typical cab ride and any cost savings that may result for passengers.
