{"id":606196,"date":"2026-04-15T18:00:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-15T18:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/606196\/"},"modified":"2026-04-15T18:00:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-15T18:00:09","slug":"edmonton-city-councillors-to-debate-rapid-transit-on-whyte-avenue-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/606196\/","title":{"rendered":"Edmonton city councillors to debate rapid transit on Whyte Avenue"},"content":{"rendered":"

Should city buses get to go first on one of Edmonton\u2019s busiest streets?<\/p>\n

City councillors are set to discuss how to move transit more efficiently on Whyte Avenue.<\/p>\n

And while business owners on the avenue support the decision, they hope infrastructure work doesn\u2019t drag on.<\/p>\n

Potential bus measures could include special turning signals, advanced lights at intersections, or dedicated bus lanes. That last option would lead to a loss of street parking.<\/p>\n

Mark Wilson, the owner of Whyte Avenue mainstay Vivid Print, says despite the road being a major east-west thoroughfare for traffic, taking a transit-first approach won\u2019t hurt businesses on Whyte Ave.<\/p>\n

\u201cDuring the pandemic, we had a great opportunity to experiment with removing parking on the avenue, and we found overall there was an increase in customers coming into our shop because people had to walk to our store,\u201d Wilson told CityNews. \u201cTransit lanes will allow emergency vehicles to get through quickly.<\/p>\n

\u201cReally, the traffic build-up is 10 hours of rush hour traffic a week. Why are we sacrificing a pedestrian-friendly community for the convenience of people for 10 hours a week?\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"An ETS bus on Whyte Avenue, April 14, 2026. (CityNews)<\/p>\n

Last month, the City of Edmonton removed zig-zag pedestrian scrambles from crosswalks on the avenue, partly to remove delays for both buses and vehicles.<\/p>\n

Those representing business owners on Whyte say it doesn\u2019t have to be car versus bus on the busy road.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think the intention is ever to lose the ability for people to travel through here by car,\u201d said Andrea Donini, the executive director of the Old Strathcona Business Association.<\/p>\n

Donini says while transit is a key part of bringing people to the area, she\u2019s hoping councillors will choose to spend more on upgrades to the Avenue.<\/p>\n

\u201cBeing able to have furniture, being able to have different kinds of amenities, to make sure that lighting is considered, and that we have the right electrical infrastructure that will support it,\u201d she said. \u201cTo make sure there\u2019s space for vehicular traffic, there\u2019s space for pedestrians, there\u2019s safety for everybody involved.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wilson hopes Edmonton city leaders will choose to get all the necessary public infrastructure work needed on the avenue done in one swoop.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs we\u2019ve seen on Stony Plain Road, that slow drip of construction does hurt business,\u201d the business owner said. \u201cWe know the work needs to be done here; our infrastructure is well past its best before date.\u201d<\/p>\n

Councillors will talk buses Wednesday.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\"\"\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\tAn ETS bus on Whyte Avenue, April 14, 2026. (CityNews) <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Should city buses get to go first on one of Edmonton\u2019s busiest streets? City councillors are set to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":606197,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194294],"tags":[49,48,23752],"class_list":["post-606196","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-edmonton","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-edmonton"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/606196","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=606196"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/606196\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/606197"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=606196"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=606196"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=606196"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}