The report, which analyzed what attracts skilled workers and mobile populations to Canadian cities, ranked 41 different societal indicators including health, economy, environment, education, innovation and housing.
Richmond Hill was statistically identified as a great place to live, work and play because of its solid economic performance, diverse and well-educated workforce, low crime rates and attractive quality of life.
When completed, vivaNext – York Region’s plan for the next generation of rapid transit – will make Richmond Hill an even better place to live. In addition to making it faster and easier to travel to, from and within the Region, vivaNext will inspire urban transformation as new residents come to live, work, shop and play in close proximity to great transit service.
In total, only six Canadian cities received a grade ‘A’ in the report. Along with Richmond Hill, they include Ottawa, Waterloo, Calgary, St. John’s and Vancouver.
Around this time, our new website was also launched along with this blog and other social media initiatives to help keep you informed of all the latest vivaNext developments.
By the fall, preliminary rapidway construction activities were underway in Newmarket and Markham, and a contract for conceptual design work regarding the Yonge subway extension was awarded. In addition, preliminary station designs were also unveiled for several of the Spadina subway extension stations at a series of public open houses, and the project took an important step forward with a groundbreaking ceremony at the Wilson Subway Yard.
Then, just before the holiday season, a ceremony was held on the site of the planned rapidway alongside Enterprise Drive in Markham (which is part of the Highway 7 rapidway project) to commemorate the start of construction of the first 37 km of rapidways.
From every side of York Region, this past year has been filled with milestones for the vivaNext projects. We look forward to bringing you many more in 2010.
Today, an on-site ceremony was held on Enterprise Drive in Markham to commemorate the start of 70 kilometres of vivaNext rapidway construction in York Region.
VivaNext – York Region’s plan for the next generation of rapid transit – includes a network of several rapidways across the Region. They are the east-west Highway 7 rapidway from Highway 50 in Vaughan to Reesor Road in Markham, the north-south Yonge Street rapidway from the Richmond Hill Centre Terminal in Richmond Hill to Green Lane in Newmarket, and the east-west Davis Drive rapidway from Yonge Street to the Southlake Regional Health Centre in Newmarket.
The rapidways will take Viva vehicles out of mixed traffic and into their own dedicated lanes, where they will safely speed past congestion, no matter what time of day.
The 800 metres of rapidways being built on Enterprise Drive, between Warden Avenue and Birchmount Road, are part of the Highway 7 rapidway project.
“This construction phase is truly significant, as it marks the beginning of a new stage of rapid transit in York Region,” said York Region Chairman and CEO Bill Fisch. “Together with the Government of Ontario, we are building a modern transit system to ensure we keep pace with the planned growth in York Region and preserve the quality of life our residents have come to expect.”
Rapidway construction on Enterprise Drive, which will be completed by the end of 2010, will involve the installation of concrete platform foundations, curbs, and the placement of station canopies. No road closures will be required; only short-term temporary lane closures.
“This is great news for the people of York Region and the GTA,” said Markham-Unionville MPP Michael Chan. “The project signals the start of a faster, more convenient rapid transit network that will enable people to get around more easily, improve the ability of our businesses to grow and succeed and help improve the environment.”
As construction of the rapidways gets underway, we encourage you to add vivanext.com to your list of favourite websites for quick and easy access to the latest information and construction updates. While there, you can also sign up to receive our quarterly e-newsletter in your Inbox, along with customized email updates about vivaNext projects of particular interest to you.
If you’re like most York Region residents, your holiday shopping list is long and involves trips to multiple retail locations.
Leaving your car at home and taking transit instead is the best way to avoid traffic jams and parking problems. It’s also a lot less expensive since you don’t have to pay for things like gas, valets, tickets, and even towing.
With a YRT\Viva ticket, you can travel on any YRT or Viva vehicle in any direction for a two-hour period with just one fare. How convenient and inexpensive is that?! Simply remember to hang onto your ticket or transfer as proof-of-payment so you can hop on and hop off vehicles.
As great as transit already is for holiday shopping, it will get even better with vivaNext. The subway extensions, rapidways, and proposed light rail transit lines will make it even faster and easier to get around York Region’s busiest corridors and beyond.
In fact, we wouldn’t be at all surprised to see a certain somebody in a red and white suit using our transit system to do his holiday shopping in future!
Look for YRT\Viva staff walking near this bus at York Region holiday parades to donate mittens, hats and gloves for those in need.
Planning to attend one of York Region’s many holiday parades over the next few weeks? If so, you can help our operating partner, YRT\Viva, spread winter warmth to those in need by bringing new mittens, hats and gloves to be donated to charitable organizations in York Region.
YRT and Viva, York Region’s two great transit services, work together as one amazing system to provide seamless connections across all nine municipalities, and easy access to other transit systems operating in neighbouring regions including Toronto, Durham and Peel.
VivaNext, York Region’s plan for the next generation of Viva rapid transit service, will truly put the rapid into rapid transit and make it even faster and easier for you to travel to, from and within York Region.
Whichever holiday parade you go to, just look for YRT\Viva staff accepting donations from the crowds while proudly walking and waving alongside the beautifully decorated blue Viva vehicle – at 40-feet long, it’s hard to miss!
The holiday season kicks off this Sunday in York Region with the first of five Santa Claus parades to take place during the month of November.
To help the big guy in the red and white suit greet all of the thousands of people who will line the various parade routes to see him, vivaNext helpers have been invited to join him. They’ll be walking in front of our beautiful blue Viva vehicle specially decorated for the parades and impossible to miss.
Each helper will be wearing a 4-sided cube costume measuring 24” wide by 30” high that showcases the vivaNext changes coming to York Region. As they walk along and wave to the crowds, their cubes will rotate in formation to reveal four unique and colourful streetscapes in Newmarket, Vaughan, Richmond Hill and Markham – each one representing the urban transformation that vivaNext rapid transit projects will help to create.
We hope they will be as much fun for you to watch, as they will be for our parade marshal to coordinate. We look forward to seeing you en route!
Parade Schedule:
November 8 - Vaughan - starts at 2:00pm
click here for a parade route map
November 15 - Richmond Hill - starts at 1:30pm
click here for a parade route map
November 21 - Newmarket - starts at 11:00am
click here for a parade route map
November 28 - Markham - starts at 11:00am
click here for a parade route map
November 28 - Aurora - starts at 6:00pm
click here for a route map
So far, over 4,000 people have signed-up to receive our regular vivaNext email updates. Perhaps you’re one of them. Recently, we made it possible for you to customize the updates you receive.
You can now choose to receive email updates for a specific vivaNext project – or all of them if you want.
Click on this button in the top right of our website and watch the video.
For the past few months, we’ve been showing futuristic computer renderings of key growth centres within York Region and what they could look like years down the road with the rapidways. These renderings are really just a small part of a longer video that we have been working on that includes time-lapse animation segments showing the transformation of Newmarket, Markham Centre and Vaughan Metropolitan Centre.
You can now watch the full version on our website or scroll down to the bottom of this post. When you are on the website, just click on the icon at the top-right of every page that says “the future of viva”.
The video follows one girl’s journey as she grows up taking transit around York Region and witnesses these three key areas transform. As rapidways are built along Davis Drive, the streetscape is revitalized, a pedestrian mall with mixed-use development is built at Markham Centre, and high-rise condos and offices are built at Vaughan Metropolitan Centre. The video ends with the girl, now in her 20s, walking to a subway station at Richmond Hill Centre.
These changes won’t happen overnight, but if you wonder how our community could evolve with these transit improvements and development planning, you have to take a look at this video. The transformation is quite remarkable!
What do you think of the time-lapse animation segments? Can you picture yourself walking down the Markham Centre pedestrian mall or hopping on a subway at the Vaughan Metropolitan Centre? Let me know your thoughts on the future of York Region.
If you are a student, you’ll be heading back to school next week so we thought we would get you ready for some of those really hard tests with a little pop quiz. Luckily for you, this is an open book/computer quiz and help can be found on our website and blog.
1) What major university will have two subway stops running by it within the next six years?
2) What College campus in Markham will have a rapidway stop right outside its door within three year?
3) What high school at Warden and Highway 7 will have a rapidway stop outside its doors within three years?
4) What public high school in Newmarket will have a rapidway stop only a short walk away from its doors?
5) What Richmond Hill high school may have a subway stop a few blocks from its doors?
Good work, pencils down.
So as you can see, the rapidways and subway extensions will make it a lot easier for students from many different areas to get to school and travel in to, out of and around York Region.
If you are a student, how will our future projects help you get to school?
Good luck this school year.
Contest Grand Prize winner Larisa Roiberg shows off her new iPod touch.
The sun may be in short supply this summer but the sunny smile of our Grand Prize winner, Larisa Roiberg, sure made up for it. The Friday before last, a beaming Larisa stopped by our vivaNext office to pick up her new iPod touch® after her name was randomly selected from all eligible entrants in our Next Best Thing To Summer Contest.
So how did her winning streak begin?
Larisa says she learned about our contest when she stopped by one of our booths at the mall to learn more about vivaNext projects. While there, the vivaNext team told her how much fun it was to complete our interactive story, so she decided to go online and give it a try when she got home. And wow, is she glad she did.
During the four weeks that our contest ran, about a thousand people submitted entries that showed us what their picture perfect summer looks like. Perhaps you were one of them, and maybe you were even one of the daily prize winners?
If not, don’t worry because you’ll soon have plenty of other chances to win during our upcoming fall and winter contests. The prizes will be just as exciting so be sure to watch for news about them here, on Twitter and at vivaNext.com.
