Ottawa's Unique Bus Rapid Transit System

A quick trip on Ottawa's unique bus rapid transit system. There are many different styles of rapid transit, developed for the circumstances of each city and transit line. Seen from a downtown street, Ottawa's Bus Rapid Transit system does not look much different from a busy bus stop in any North American city. The system lacks off-bus ticketing downtown, which slows loading. It is also an 'open system' meaning that many buses going to different destinations use the same bus lanes, which can sometime slow boarding even more. But this means many people can get from their suburban homes to downtown and back without transferring at all. In the downtown core, there are also occasional problems with cars and trucks blocking bus lanes. But unlike light rail vehicles, buses can maneuver around obstacles.
However, once past Ottawa's downtown area buses move very quickly, shown in the video at three times actual speed. Note that most of this video was filmed from the upper deck of a double-decker bus.