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Transit Explained: Far Side Boarding

Busses stop at green lights, which is annoying for everyone involved. If there isn’t enough room for a bus to pull over it blocks traffic, if there is room to pull over then the bus blocks up traffic pulling in and out of the stop. In cases where there’s a lot of turning traffic the bus stop might be taking up what would be a good turn lane. Or drivers who use it as a turn lane prevent busses from pulling over and the circle of traffic continues…

Moving the bus stop to the far side of the intersection – after the signal light or stop sign – means busses are going on the green light as well, with the length of the intersection giving them room to slide over to the side and out of way for through-moving traffic. Pulling back into the traffic lane is easier because a red light or stop sign just behind the bus provides a window between cars.

It seems pretty obvious and simple now, but like of other innovations, it took a lot of time and work to get to a simple solution.

Far side boarding is not always the right solution and there are a lot of reasons to locate a stop before an intersection, such as a transfer point or a major destination where passengers would all just be crossing the street anyway. The change up in thinking is to look at far side boarding as the default, unless you come up against one of those cases which justify making busses stop a green light.

Here in San Francisco, far side boarding was a adopted as the default standard last year and is being implimented as part of the Muni Forward program starting with designated priority corridors. In a lot of cases it isn’t as simple as picking up the shelter and moving it across the street because there’s wiring and signal changes involved.

Illustration: SFMTA / Transit Effectiveness Project

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