Rapid transit plans upset local residents

A bus lane route planned to stretch along Highway 7 from Markham to Vaughan is alarming some residents near Bathurst and Centre Streets.

Along some parts of this planned route, York Region Viva bus rapid transit’s rapidway project will create bus-only lanes and stations to speed bus service and eventually connect the area’s future subway extensions. A segment of the route will run along Highway 7 from Yonge Street, detour down Bathurst and Centre and end at Bowes Road. It will have 7.6 kilometres of bus-only lanes and four bus stations.

According to Viva, no traffic lanes will be lost. Existing lanes will be shifted to the side, and two new lanes will be constructed in the centre. Where no bus-only lanes exist, buses will merge with regular traffic.

Gila Martow, president of the Beverely Glen Ratepayers Association located near Bathurst and Centre, has initiated a campaign to fight the expansion. Martow said bus lanes would not ease congestion heading north and south, unlike a subway. She and other residents would prefer if the rapidway did not detour through the area.

“We will be closed in by bus lanes, wall-to-wall cars and pollution.”

“It’ll kill the character of our neighbourhood,” said Martow, noting the rapidway could continue on Highway 7 instead. “All of the sudden we will be closed in by centre-only bus lanes, wall-to-wall cars and pollution.”

The local councillor at Bathurst Street and Centre Street, Alan Shefman, said the area has the highest population density in York Region, necessitating rapid transit for future residents. He believes the rapidway will strengthen the city of Vaughan’s weak transportation links from east to west by laying the groundwork for a GTA-wide transit network.

“You build the first step and then you have the capacity to build further steps of sophistication” such as subways, said Coun. Shefman. “What York Region is doing is starting to build the network that we need.”

Coun. Shefman said he also thinks the rapidway could help rehabilitate Centre Street’s “ugly, rundown and unwalkable” streetscape. The rapidway’s two-year construction is scheduled to start in 2015.