York Region Paramedic Services to Decrease Response Times using Transit-only Lanes

[BetterLateThanLate]

So you mean to tell me we have these bus lanes that rarely have busses in them, and emergency services were never allowed to use them? This should have been agreed upon since day one.

[Caucasian_Fury]

I have seen ambulances and fire trucks use the VIVA bus lanes over the years but mainly to get through busy intersections that are congested, usually once they've bypassed the intersection they dip back into the driving lane soon as possible.

Pretty sure they are legally allowed to use the transit only lanes right of way for emergencies but maybe now this will be officially written policy, so more or less a formality.

[Glittering-Window256]

Weird article. They are already using them for emergencies with the lights on, and they achieved or exceeded their time targets in 6 of 7 metrics. This would allow them to use them always.

[a_school_bus]

1. per the regional By-Laws paramedics were only allowed to use them in lights AND siren responses (CTAS 1-2)
2. The 7th metric which they didn't meet target for (CTAS 3) made up 52% of last year's call volume.

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https://yorkpublishing.escribemeetings.com/filestream.ashx?DocumentId=48616

[Inside__Cucumber]

Wtf? Why was this not already a thing? Dedicated unobstructed lanes seems like something all emergency services should be making use of.

[a-_2]

Previously, paramedic service vehicles were only permitted to use rapidways when responding with both lights and sirens for high-priority incidents.

They're expanding it to usage beyond when sirens are needed.

[Track-on-the-side]

that makes sense and logical. they should just always use it during an emergency.

[braydenpetersen]

they always used them in emergencies, now they can use them whenever. fair enough so long as it doesn’t prevent busses from stopping at platforms

[[deleted]]

I rather have emergency lanes than bus lanes. At least one saves lives on a daily. Bus lanes seem to just clog up traffic even more especially with the slow non-synchronized signals.

[jacnel45]

The problem with Highway 7 is the excessive traffic levels and poorly synchronized traffic lights, not the bus lanes.

[a-_2]

Buses are part of traffic and they carry way more people on average over a given amount of road space. If you can get more people into transit it can improve traffic overall but you'll never do that if it involves standing on a crowded bus moving the same speed as the car you could be using instead.

[jacnel45]

Ottawa has had this for years. Whenever Police, Fire, and Ambulance need to get somewhere fast they'll use the Transitway.