SaskatoonCity council’s transportation committee heard Tuesday that when dedicated bus lanes are finished on College Drive, car and truck traffic will be slowed by three minutes over the 1.6-kilometre stretch from Preston Avenue to Clarence Avenue.Artificial intelligence could help speed up the drive along the key commuter stretch, committee hearsPhil Tank · CBC News · Posted: Dec 03, 2025 4:00 PM EST | Last Updated: 4 hours agoListen to this articleEstimated 3 minutesThe audio version of this article is generated by text-to-speech, a technology based on artificial intelligence.This artist’s rendering shows the conceptual design for bus-only lanes along College Drive at Cumberland Avenue in Saskatoon, Sask. (City of Saskatoon)A key commuter route connecting to downtown Saskatoon will become a slower option for drivers when bus-only lanes are added.City council’s transportation committee heard Tuesday that once the dedicated bus lanes are added to College Drive, car and truck traffic is expected to be slowed by three minutes over the 1.6-kilometre stretch from Preston Avenue to Clarence Avenue.That “seems like an awful long time” for an already busy street, Coun. Randy Donauer said.College Drive connects to the University Bridge and is located directly south of the University of Saskatchewan campus.Donauer got support for asking the city administration to explore the possibility of adding artificial intelligence measures to make the drive smoother for motorists once the changes to transit are made.“That is one of the busiest streets in Saskatoon during morning rush hour … and adding [bus lanes] on there is going to make it a very important busy street,” Donauer said.“And so I think anything that we can do to use AI to make it better and more functional, we’re putting a lot of effort and money into the [bus rapid transit] system. I think it would be wise for us to make it as successful for all users as we could.”College Drive is scheduled to become one of two streets with dedicated bus lanes and stations located in the middle of the roadway. The other is First Avenue downtown.Construction of the bus lanes on College is supposed to begin next year. The new $250-million Link transit system is set to debut in 2028.City hall’s director of transportation, Jay Magus, said more changes are coming, including a bike lane along the north side of College. This artist’s rendering shows the conceptual design for bus-only lanes along College Drive. The view is looking west at Munroe Avenue. (City of Saskatoon)“It’s always a tradeoff when we’re retrofitting a street that was designed for [private motor] vehicles,” Magus said of the anticipated extra travel time for cars and trucks.The committee also heard that a pedestrian crossing will be added just east of Clarence on College, and that left turns onto Wiggins Avenue will be prohibited for westbound traffic on College and for northbound University Drive traffic onto College.Two intersections along College, at Wiggins and Cumberland Avenue, are considered to be among the busiest in Saskatoon for pedestrians, the committee heard. The pedestrian bridge north of Griffiths Stadium is also expected to be removed.Technology will trigger green lights for buses that are behind schedule once the lanes have been installed, but so-called adaptive signal control technology is not planned to be part of the original tender.That technology would deploy AI to analyze traffic and use algorithms to operate traffic lights to make travel smoother for motor vehicles.The committee voted to research whether that technology could be introduced along College when the Link system debuts. That effort is not expected to delay construction on College.ABOUT THE AUTHORPhil Tank is an award-winning journalist based in Saskatoon. He can be reached at phil.tank@cbc.ca.
College Drive bus lanes expected to slow Saskatoon drivers by 3 minutes
