New bus-only lanes are coming soon to these busy Toronto streets. Will they help get TTC riders moving?

Instead, he’s left with the 7 Bathurst bus.

“I’ve kind of given up on trying to be on time to places, because it seems like no matter what I do, I’m just always at odds.”

But there’s hope for Christou and other TTC bus riders who take the 7 Bathurst and the 29 Dufferin. The city is proposing to accelerate the implementation of RapidTO priority bus lanes on Dufferin Street (from Dufferin Gate to Eglinton Avenue West) and on Bathurst Street (from Lake Shore Boulevard to Eglinton Avenue West) to support ridership for the 2026 FIFA World Cup. 

Public consultations for the two proposed bus routes is expected to start later this month, a city spokesperson said.

Toronto traffic is only getting worse — the city ranked as having the third worst traffic in the world, out of an analysis of 387 cities in a 2023 TomTom report. Buses, as a consequence, have been bogged down in those traffic jams.

Data from the TTC shows that the average speed of Toronto buses have gone down since 2013, from an average of 20 km/h to 17.2 km/h in 2024. 

That has also meant the TTC has had to spend more on buses and drivers just to keep up its current service levels as congestion slows traffic to a crawl, according to Josh Colle, the TTC’s chief strategy and customer experience officer. 

Priority bus lanes are an easy way for the TTC to get more people moving, Colle said, adding, “In terms of capital dollars that you have to commit, you get way more bang for your buck, and its much more immediate.”

In total, combined with HOV lanes and legacy bus lanes, Toronto has a total of 57.3 kilometres of bus lanes, compared with 350 kilometres of roadway dedicated to buses in Montreal.

The success of dedicated bus lanes was borne out on Spadina Avenue where replacement buses for the streetcar were initially bogged down in traffic. Adding priority bus lanes cut the average Spadina replacement bus commute by an average of 12 minutes, TTC data from September showed.

Those bus lanes also reduced travel times for other vehicles by one minute, said Roger Browne, the city’s director of traffic management.

“No one’s going to celebrate a one-minute savings for cars on the road,” conceded Browne, but he pointed out that despite taking out a lane of traffic, the city achieved its “fundamental goal of moving more people through corridors.”

The TTC first proposed creating dedicated bus lanes in 2019, and in the throes of the pandemic in June 2020, the transit agency’s board voted to fast-track bus-only lanes on five routes that were called “critical” because of passenger volumes, with a targeted installation date of September 2020. The corridors were on Jane Street, Dufferin Street, Steeles Avenue West, Finch Avenue East and Eglinton Avenue East, including small portions of Kingston Road and Morningside Avenue. 

After former mayor John Tory’s executive committee voted against fast-tracking most of the lanes, only the Eglinton Avenue East lanes were painted.

While riders on the 34 Eglinton East saw a 10 per cent increase in on-time reliability and a five-minute drop in rush hour commute times in 2021, riders on the other five “critical” corridors were left to slog through ever-worsening traffic.

Christou is hopeful for the bus lanes, not just for himself, but for his elderly or new immigrant neighbours. 

When he’s had to tell older people the bus is more than 25 minutes away, he’s seen them walk away because they can’t stand for that long. 

“I don’t know where they went ... but I think what’s important to consider with bus lanes is that it doesn’t just help someone like me, it would help so many people take the bus.”