Downtown's business groups want the bus-lane push paused

Two of downtown Victoria's biggest business voices are asking the Victoria Regional Transit Commission to stop adding bus-only lanes until someone studies what they're doing to traffic and to the shops that depend on it.

The Downtown Victoria Business Association and the Greater Victoria Chamber of Commerce also want the new bus lane running from Discovery Street to Colwood converted into a high-occupancy vehicle lane. Their pitch: keep prioritizing buses, but let carpoolers use the space too, with bus-stop insets where needed to protect reliable service.

Their core objection is timing. The lane was rolled out under a regional transit plan drafted in 2011, before the pandemic reshaped office occupancy, population growth and where people actually work. The groups say congestion has worsened over the past several years, and that the people who can't just shift to another time or mode, emergency services, deliveries, couriers, taxis and tradespeople, are the ones absorbing it.

Both groups say they support better transit. What they're fighting is losing one more vehicle lane into the core.