As part of the vivaNext plan, beautiful new vivastations will be built in the centre of the roadway along the rapidways on Davis Drive, Yonge Street and Highway 7, as well as the proposed LRT lines on Don Mills Road/Leslie Street and Jane Street in York Region. From the top down, these vivastations have been designed around you. Among their many features and benefits, they will include bicycle racks for quick and easy transit connections.
Right now, we’re examining where to place these bicycle racks and would like to hear your thoughts. There are basically three options to consider.
Option 1 – Place them right on the platforms. This would allow you to conveniently lock your bicycle up right at your point of departure and simply board the next Viva vehicle. On your return Viva trip, you’ll arrive at the same station, but on a different platform. To get your bicycle, all you’d have to do is go back to the original departure platform.
Option 2 – Place the bicycle racks on the sidewalks at the intersections adjacent to the vivastations. This option would make it more convenient for you to shop, run errands and meet up with friends after your return Viva trip before picking-up your bicycle.
Option 3 – Distribute the bicycle racks evenly on both the platforms and the sidewalks.
So which option do you prefer? Please take a moment to let us know because here at vivaNext, we value your opinion – even when it comes to bicycle racks!
8 replies on “Where do you think we should place the bicycle racks?”
Option 2, in my opinion, is the best since leaves the platform area for pedestrians and persons using mobility devices. Installing racks on the platform could interfere with the safe boarding and diembarking of passengers if bicycle are not secured properly. Further it can be expected that people would carelessly ride their bikes on the platforms, within rapidways or in crosswalks.
Along with bike racks for parking, it’d be great to be able to have racks on the VIVA vehicles to take the bikes with us too. I’d also like to raise the point York Region needs to get on with building safe, convenience and direct bike lanes that will allow us to get from A to B, including those to and from VIVA/YRT stops.
DaleA: Thanks for your comment. In April 2008, York Region approved a pedestrian and cycling network plan that includes 260 kilometres of bicycle lanes and paved shoulders in its first phase. For more information about this plan, please visit the York Region website at york.ca.
HOW IS THAT SHELTER GOING TO KEEP ME WARM IN THE WINDY WINTER, WHO DESIGNED THIS SHELTER? ARE THEY FROM CALI?! GOD!!!!!!!!!! ITS GONNA BE THE SAME AS NOW, THE SHELTERS ARE DESIGNED TERRIBLY!
DaleA: Thank you for your comment. The angle in the image on the post headlined “Where do you think we should place the bicycle racks” shows readers one option for bike rack placement and doesn’t do the best job showing the whole station. Please look at the image on the post headlined “Gimme shelter” as it shows a better angle of the station including the heated, enclosed area. Please read this post to learn about how the new stations will keep you warm in the winter. This is possible because the station will have one section that will be entirely enclosed with temperature and motion activated heaters. We have received similar questions about the stations from many riders and wrote that post to explain how the new stations will protect you from the elements. The post can easily be found in the “stations” category.
I would say option 3 is the best because some people may want nothing else but to show up to a station and get on a bus, while others may want to shop or pick up a coffee before they get to the platform. That way, you cover both grounds and make everybody happy.
I think Option 3 would give the best of both worlds.
My preference would be on the sidewalks (Option 2) as this would allow both VIVA Riders to use them and people cycling to the local area to utilize them as well. Many of the current VIVA stations (both with and without bike racks) are located in areas where bike racks don’t exist (e.g. strip malls, etc.) or are near various points of interest (e.g. shopping, libraries, etc.) that would benefit from locals cycling to them from the area. Thus these racks would service both those operating within the local area and not requiring VIVA/YRT’s services and those who are going to utilize VIVA/YRT’s Services. Thus for the amount of taxpayer’s investiment in the racks would be more utilized by the community.
Other locals that are dealing with this issue (i.e. busses operating or are about to start to operate within dedicated rapidways that have investigated cycling options) include Ottawa and Las Vegas (Nevada). Hopefully VIVAnext will also take a look at these and other locals where the investitagation of integrating cycling and transit have already occurred.
My preference would be for them to be on sidewalks. This would allow for more bicycle parking to be put in place as there is more room on sidewalks, and would allow for more uses.
My own bike is pretty wide, and I find a lot of bike racks very cramped. Toronto-style ring posts are the best parking solution I’ve seen.
2. Sidewalks.
It’s probably too cramped to place bicycles in the VIVA stations. As well, bringing bicycles onto the station could create hazards; for example, if the platform is busy with waiting passengers, the cyclist might not have enough room to manouver the bike and may be forced to move onto the rapidway to get to the bike rack. There’s also the added hazards of having to cross the street with a bike (with cars U-Turning and Left turning at rapidway crossings)
It’d be much easier and simple to just lock up the bicycle on the sidewalk, and cross the street by foot to the station.
Definitely option 2.
When the ‘station’ gets crowded, the last thing we want is bikes to get in the way- especially considering the needs of strollers/wheelchairs.
There is a lot more capacity on the sidewalk.