TransLink 101: What does farside and nearside bus stop mean?
TransLink 101: What does farside and nearside bus stop mean?
We’re going back to basics again with TransLink 101—explaining TransLink and its operations!
Have you ever used Google Maps to plan your trip or called 604.953.3333 with your transit stop number? Then you might have heard of farside (FS), nearside (NS), and mid-block bus stops.
What does that exactly mean?
Nearside is the side of an intersection before you cross and farside is the side after. Mid-block bus stops are located in between intersections.
Katherine McCune, Manager of Service Planning at Coast Mountain Company tells us farside stops are the standard due to safety and customer convenience considerations.
“Farside bus stops are preferred so that the cars do not cut in front of the bus stopped nearside or block the right turn lane and cause traffic congestion,” she says. “Also, the bus does not have to stop twice – once for picking up and dropping off customers and then again at the red light. All pedestrian activity takes place behind the bus when it has left the bus stop thus increasing the pedestrian safety.”
Nearside and mid-block bus stops are only used when it is absolutely necessary, such as a driveway is in the way or passenger amenities are poor on the farside.
“Nearside stops result in buses blocking the view of motorists and pedestrians, and often pedestrians running out in front of the bus,” Katherine says. “Mid-block stops are only used when we have a major [pedestrian traffic] generator in the area and generally there is a crosswalk or pedestrian signal nearby.”
When it comes to planning the placement of bus stops, the planning team works with the local municipalities and has spacing guidelines that they follow.
“We do not want stops too close together such that the bus cannot travel in a reasonably quick manner,” according to Katherine. “We also look at where people may be going to and coming from. We look for locations that will provide safety for our passengers, such as the location of crosswalks and signalized intersections nearby.”
Author: Allen Tung
I definitely agree with the rationale that FS stops are preferred! I do think spacing is something that needs to be looked at more. There are too many stops that are closer than 200m together and some less than 100m!! Downtown is pretty bad for that, but also around Vancouver in general.
Does the 22 need two spots on each side of W 4th Ave? Or on both sides of Broadway?
There are also weird spots where there is only a spot in one direction. Typically (and as it should be) stops are in pairs in each direction. For example, there are pairs of stops for the 4/7 at Trafalgar and Balsam, but only a stop EB at Larch. Weird.
I think Translink should do a better of consolidating stops at a regular spacing of maybe 300-400m (MAYBE 250m downtown). Of course there might be exceptions for squeezing in key transfer points. Is this something Translink might look at in the future? I could imagine a city-wide bus stop optimization program might speed up service quite considerably.
Perhaps locate key transfer stops and then evenly space stops in between to achieve the 300-400m spacing.
Hi Jordan. Me too! It’s something I never considered before as a passenger. You can register your suggestions about bus stop spacing with Customer Relations at http://mfb.translink.ca too. That way we have an official record.
In Vancouver, it used to be a more-or-less uniform rule of thumb that stops are generally (though not exclusively) 2 blocks apart, at least outside of Downtown.
It used to be that stops were generally offset from each other on opposite sides of the street. This is still often true on the north-south routes, where they interset with numbered avenues.
For example, on Granville between 33rd and 41st, there are southbound stops at 33rd, 35th, 37th, Connaught (= 39th), 40th, and 41st; while northbound, the stops are at 41st, 38th, 36th, 34th, and Minto (north of 33rd).
(Of course there are numerous exceptions to this rule: 40th southbound is one such exception; and north of 33rd and south of 41st, the pattern breaks down.)
Because of this offsetting, sometimes there will be stops one block or three blocks apart instead of two blocks, adjacent to major cross-streets.
In the case of Broadway between Arbutus and Trafalgar, there are stops westbound at Arbutus, Yew, Balsam, and Trafalgar; but eastbound at Trafalgar, Larch, Vine, and Arbutus: so a stop after one block in each direction, then stops two blocks apart.
In the 1990s and 2000s, as there was a program to install new traffic signals at scores of intersections throughout the city, it seems that a few stops were shifted to align with the new signals, to aid pedestrians crossing major thoroughfares.
If you want to see a far-side/near-side mess… go to Broadway and Commercial. Those Westbound buses are often held back by the Commercial light.
Have more stops than some people need is actually providing for mobility limited passenger need. Both seniors and persons with disability appreciate a greater number of stop. The current system is not too slow in my opinion. I schedule an hour an a half for my commute to Van from Surrey. When there are NS and FS stops at busy intersections, would you rather the senior citizen walk out FS on a flashing red hand to catch the bus on the perpendicular NS side? I wouldn’t.
I need to question this part of the article: ““Also, [at a farside stop] the bus does not have to stop twice – once for picking up and dropping off customers and then again at the red light.”
The same problem in reverse happens equally often for a farside stop. The bus still has to stop twice, once at the red light and then again for picking up customers.
Now, I think that farside stops work better for transit signal priority. With a nearside stop it is harder for a TSP system to predict when the bus will enter the intersection. The driver may open the door again to board another customer, and waste a priority green interval. Whereas with a farside stop, the TSP system could remain passive until the bus starts to move and still have some time to adjust the next traffic signal for the bus.