Metro bus riders lose 44K hours per week to traffic congestion
Published 11:30 am Thursday, June 25, 2026
Every weekday Metro Vancouver bus riders collectively lose more than 44,000 hours to traffic congestion.
That’s what TransLink CEO Kevin Quinn told the Mayors’ Council on Regional Transportation at its June 25 meeting.
“That’s time lost to traffic instead of getting to work, school or family. That comes at a cost to both customers and to our bottom line, accounting for about 13 per cent of our annual bus operating cost,” Quinn noted. “That’s why since 2018 we’ve added 80 lane kilometres of bus lane priority across 100 routes.”
That said, overcrowding on weekday bus trips dropped by more than 50 per cent last year, in part influenced by federal immigration policy such as reduced international student and newcomer intake caps.
“In 2025 customers took nearly 238 million transit trips,” Quinn told the mayors. “And just to put this into perspective, while we’re the 21st largest metropolitan area in Canada and the U.S. by population, Metro Vancouver makes third in how often residents use transit, only behind New York and Montreal.”
The council’s next meeting is set for September 24.