Priority traffic lights for B.C. Transit buses on Douglas Street are still in the works.
As the News reported last year, a computer glitch was keeping buses from moving through 22 traffic lights from Belleville Street to Uptown using transit signal priority.
The city and B.C. Transit are continuing to work to improve the system.
“We got new controllers from the supplier … they updated the controllers, so that is all now resolved,” said Dwayne Kalynchuk, City of Victoria director of engineering.
“B.C. Transit, City of Victoria, Municipality of Saanich and Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure are continuing to work together to ensure a seamless integration of the transit signal priority on Douglas Street,” said Maureen Sheehan, B.C. Transit spokesperson.
“Controllers are all installed and are working well with the TSP system,” said Kalynchuk. “We’re monitoring their operations and they are recognizing signals from the buses – that seems to be fine.”
Detectors at each intersection pick up a global positioning service signal automatically relayed by buses travelling Douglas Street. That signal can extend a green light or shorten a red light by eight seconds.
“I know transit is doing an update on the transponders in the near future and we’re continuing with our testing in February and March. The whole thing should be operating very soon,” Kalynchuk said.
“The traffic signal controllers and software are almost updated and the buses that are equipped with transponders are being updated in February,” said Sheehan. “Testing is scheduled to occur in February and March.”
“It seems to be working all fine, we’re just in the testing phase,” Kalynchuk said.
