I’m in Vancouver, Canada, and almost every bus stop at an intersection is like this, where the bus station is after the stop light, so if it’s red, the bus needs to stop for the light, then drive ten metres through the intersection once the light turns green, only to then immediately stop at the bus station. And it’s like this for both directions.

Example of what I’m talking about. This intersection has four stops, one in each direction, and all of them are after their corresponding stoplights.. It’s like this for every intersection with bus stops. And the two stops on the road marked in yellow are for an express, “rapid transit” line. No parking lanes near this intersection either, the busses just travel along the rightmost lane and stop in place at the stations (they don’t need to merge in and out).

To me, this seems like the worst way to lay out the bus stops. Why not place the bus stop immediately before the red light so it can let people on and off while waiting for the light? We don’t have those nifty reactive traffic lights that automatically turn green for buses, aka Advanced Greenaway for Busses. Instead we have what I call Advanced Murphy’s Law for Busses, where the more delayed your bus is, the more before-a-stop-red-lights you’ll encounter. And TransLink has supposedly cracked down on bus drivers opening the door while waiting at the red light before the stop, which suggests this is a frequent issue for travellers trying to make connections. From personal experience, there is nothing quite like watching your connection go by while your already delayed bus patiently waits at the red light ten metres from its stop.

Can someone help me understand why this is the preferred stop placement and not placing the stops before the light? I’m assuming there is some reason this is better that I’m just not thinking about, and that Vancouver’s transit planners aren’t just screwing with us.