Category: Rapidways

Categories
Rapidways Stations

first new vivastation is coming together!

Metal framework being raised into place at one of our new vivastation platforms
Metal framework being raised into place at one of our new vivastation platforms

The first vivastation designed for our new system of rapidways is becoming a reality. The arched metal framework for our new vivastation platforms at the intersection of Warden Avenue and Enterprise Drive has now been raised into place, and glass canopies will be added over the next few weeks.

This vivastation will be put into service next year, replacing the current Viva shelters at this location. Passengers using Warden Station can look forward to a new level of comfort next winter, with an enclosed, heated, and LED-lit section and an arched glass roof to shelter them as they get on and off our vehicles.

The new vivastation is located at the western gateway to Markham Centre, where a vibrant mix of activities will be available on the streets and squares where people live, work, shop and play. The first phases of residential construction are already underway.

I look forward to seeing the new station in service, and if you use this station, I hope you’ll let us know what you think.

Categories
General Rapidways

Transit priority measures to get you there faster

Transit Priority Measures to Get You There Faster

I often talk about the big picture benefits of the vivaNext plan; our rapid transit system will help York Region manage growth through new transit-oriented development; reduced reliance on cars will benefit the environment; greater choice will improve the quality of life for York Region residents. And of course, the main benefit of the vivaNext plan— rapidways will allow people to get around York Region faster than before.

The vivaNext rapidways are going to make a major difference to the timeliness and efficiency of Viva service, but what you may not know is, we took steps prior to Viva’s launch to make the service as fast as was possible. We put various measures into place – collectively called “transit priority measures” – to make it easier for Viva vehicles to get through gridlock. This means that commuters on Viva are already able to cut through traffic congestion faster than people travelling in cars.

Ok, I know what you’re thinking: “There’s no way a bus can go faster than a car unless it’s in its own lane.” Allow me to explain.

In general, transit priority measures are strategies that help buses move quickly along their routes. These measures can involve physical improvements to the roadway, with the most obvious example being dedicated lanes through congested areas (like the vivaNext rapidways!). A less dramatic, but still effective approach is that of queue-jumping lanes, which allow buses to move ahead of congested traffic at intersections. We installed queue-jumping lanes for Viva’s first phase.

Another transit priority measure involves legislative steps. Have you ever noticed the big “Yield to Bus” sign on the back of buses? This transit priority measure was added to Ontario’s Highway Traffic Act to improve transit flow and make transit service more reliable and efficient. This law actually requires drivers to yield the right-of-way to buses trying to leave bus bays and merge with traffic.

The other key category of transit priority measures involves something called “intelligent transportation systems” which are signal system technologies used to improve transit efficiency. Signal systems are quite complex, but in general, modern signals analyze inputs (e.g. vehicles approaching a signal or crossing buttons being pushed by pedestrians) and decide when the traffic lights should change. Transit priority systems add another important input. A bus will automatically send a message to the traffic signal telling it to change, and the signal will adjust its timing in response, favouring the bus. This is not to say that the bus is guaranteed a green light (such as the case of an emergency vehicle), but rather that the delay to the transit vehicle is slightly reduced compared to normal operation (without the transit signal priority).

Viva vehicles don’t “ask” for priority at every signal; priority is only requested when the Viva vehicle is running behind schedule. Currently, Viva vehicles can ask for a low level of priority when they are one minute off schedule, and more immediate priority when they are three minutes behind schedule. And to provide some context, with light cycles in the Region often lasting about two minutes, missing one light can easily put a bus behind schedule. So signal priority is an important tool that helps keep the system running on time, even during the busiest times of the day.

By combining dedicated transit lanes through the most congested parts of Highway 7, Yonge Street and Davis Drive with other transit priority measures in less crowded stretches, Viva is going to offer you a ride that will be comfortable, convenient, fun—and faster than ever before.

Categories
Rapidways

Connecting the past to the future

Connecting the Past to the Future

One of the best things about my job is that I get an opportunity to work with people who are really passionate about their community, and who want to share their knowledge and enthusiasm with others. One such group that the vivaNext team has had the privilege of working with over the past year or so is Heritage Newmarket, a committee that advises Newmarket Town Council on various issues related to the Town’s history and heritage properties.

An important part of the Heritage Newmarket mandate, and something that we’re proud to support, is increasing public awareness of the history of the Town of Newmarket. We believe that while we’re building the rapidways along Davis Drive, we have a great opportunity to build various features into our design that will tell people they’re in an historical district, and help build local knowledge and appreciation for Newmarket’s heritage.

One theme that we will be highlighting is, of course, transportation in its many forms. From prehistoric times, nomadic indigenous peoples roamed the area now known as Newmarket, searching for food and shelter. By the 12th century, the Rouge, Humber and Don Trails, connecting Lake Ontario and Lake Huron via the Holland River and Lake Simcoe, were well established travel routes for these early inhabitants. European fur traders first travelled here 400 years ago, and when York County was established in 1792, a road named Military Street was built to replace the trails that connected Lake Ontario and Lake Huron. This road, which ran from York (now the City of Toronto) to the Pine Fort at Holland Landing, was eventually renamed Yonge Street.

By the mid-19th century, more and more people were coming to this area, including day-trippers to the Saturday Farmer’s Market and the North York Agricultural Fair, as well as business people. The Ontario, Huron & Simcoe Railway built a rail line to more effectively connect Newmarket and Toronto, travelling up Yonge Street and over to the Main Street area in Newmarket. And in the early 20th century, a canal system to transport goods was built in Newmarket. Although it was later abandoned, remnants of the system can still be found today along the Holland River.

So how will we be commemorating this rich history along the Davis Drive rapidways? Detailed planning is still underway, but our concept is to highlight heritage features in two areas: at Davis Drive and Main Street near the historic downtown, and along the Keith Bridge. Our urban design team is exploring ways of incorporating distinctive features such as lighting, pavement treatments, street furniture and other elements with a heritage aesthetic.

We know that there’s a really interesting story to be told, and we will be working with Heritage Newmarket and others to provide more information in these key areas, possibly through plaques, informational signage, and more. In the meantime, if you want to know more about Newmarket’s fascinating history, I’d encourage you to check out the links below to learn more about the Town and see how vivaNext is but the latest chapter in the ongoing story of getting people from A to B.

Links:

Categories
Rapidways Urban Planning

Planning for urban renewal on Davis Drive

Planning for Urban Renewal on Davis Drive

If you’ve driven along Newmarket’s Davis Drive recently, you’ve probably noticed the signs of impending construction work, including building demolitions and soil testing. These preliminary tasks are taking place to prepare the roadway before rapidway construction begins. The actual construction stage is the final step in what will have been a long process of planning for urban renewal and redesign along Davis Drive – a process that will transform this important street in some exciting ways.

Much of the planning for the Davis Drive rapidway is as concerned with urban design as it is with public transit improvements. So what do we mean by urban design and what are the issues on Davis Drive?

In general, urban design is about deliberately shaping neighbourhoods and cities using architecture, landscaping and city planning. It’s about arranging things such as buildings, public spaces, services and amenities, in a way that will provide a certain feel or character.

When we started to design the Davis Drive rapidway, we had a number of urban design objectives. It goes without saying that the rapidway needed to be both functional and attractive. As with all of the rapidways, Davis Drive will use a design sensibility that reminds people of how innovative, exciting and fun Viva is.  Every element we will be using along Davis Drive, from station features to the pavement, retaining walls, handrails, and lighting, will reflect and repeat a consistent, appealing look that speaks to what Viva is all about.

But more than that, in keeping with the principles of transit-oriented-development, we wanted to create new destinations along Davis Drive, making it even more welcoming and friendly for people. The idea is to make Davis Drive feel like an urban space, encouraging people to walk around and visit local shops and restaurants. And with increased visitors, new development is more likely to take place, resulting in even more destinations and potential visitors.

Our plans for Davis Drive include wider boulevards, with pleasantly planted areas, trees, street furniture and landscaping. High-quality pedestrian and street lighting will provide an attractive, welcoming environment at all times of day. These elements will be designed to a human scale, which will make people feel more comfortable walking around and enjoying the sights and activities.

Another design objective has been to forge a strong connection between the heritage flavour of Main Street and Davis Drive itself. Main Street has a lot of character, and we want to extend some of that charm out onto Davis Drive; we want to provide a cue to people as they travel along Davis Drive that they are entering the old-time heart of Newmarket. So around the intersection of Main and Davis, our rapidway design will include some elements to visually connect the rapidways to the heritage area, including the street furniture, lighting design and the bridge over the East Holland River. We hope that people will be intrigued by the change in visual tone, and will want to explore more of the heritage shopping areas along Main Street.

Of course, with construction ahead of us, the final product is a ways off. Even so, we’re really excited about the urban renewal that we are a part of on Davis Drive, and we can’t wait to get underway!

Categories
Going Green Rapidways

Protecting the environment

Protecting the Environment

If you’re a regular reader of this blog, you’ve probably explored the vivaNext website and will have seen the information section on environmental assessments. But what that section doesn’t really describe, is why we do environmental assessments in general, and how they are done. So here is my version of Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Environmental Assessments.

To begin with, the premise of an environmental assessment is based on a really important principle: projects that are being built in a community (whether large, like a new power plant, or relatively small like a new street) must address any potential negative effects on the natural, social or structural environment. Equally important, is the requirement that the community – including all members of the public – be given opportunities to understand the planned project, what impacts it is likely to have and how those will be addressed, and to provide comments before the project is approved.

Our provincial and federal environmental assessment processes are the safety net that ensure a project has been carefully analyzed, and negative effects on the community are minimized. These environmental assessment processes also look at how a proposed project fits into a community’s plans for its future, to ensure it will enhance rather than interfere with a community’s vision for itself. Whether a project needs to go through the provincial process, the federal process, or both, depends on the type of project, the project proponent or owner, and the effects it will have.

All municipal infrastructure projects in Ontario are subject to environmental assessment under the Ontario Environmental Assessment Act. Depending on the type, complexity and potential effects of a project, it may be subject to one of the provincial environmental assessment processes, such as the Individual Environmental Assessment, Municipal Class Environmental Assessment or the new Transit Project Assessment Process, which now governs and expedites the environmental assessment and approval for transit projects. Although the steps and timelines differ for each type of provincial environmental assessment, all allow similar opportunities for the community and public agencies to comment on a project.

Each environmental assessment process involves evaluating a project to determine what impacts it will have, and how those impacts will be addressed. Impacts range from how the project will affect the natural environment (plants, wildlife, air, water and geography), to social effects such as increased noise and vibration, traffic impacts, and access to properties and businesses. Throughout the process, the public is consulted at prescribed stages. For instance, as part of the Transit Project Assessment Process, once the assessment has been completed and documented, it is made public for 30 days, during which anyone can review it and provide comments. At the final stage of the Transit Project Assessment Process, the Minister of the Environment has 35 days to either approve the project or require further work to be done. The entire process must take no more than six months.

Federal environmental assessments are done when a project may have an impact on an area within federal jurisdiction. For vivaNext projects, those areas are mostly related to navigable waters and fish habitat in rivers and creeks that will be crossed by our rapid transit lines. In the case of navigable waters, the intent is to make sure that our project will not have a significant effect on the public’s existing ability to access or use a waterway. An officer from the Navigable Waters office reviews our plans then literally comes and looks at all the watercourses our transit lines will cross, even the smallest creeks and streams, to see if either the roadway or any planned bridges will affect these waterways.

In the case of fisheries, we work closely with the local conservation authorities to assess whether the project will potentially harm fish habitats. In either case, if there is a chance that our project will have an impact, then a federal environmental assessment is required. Data collected during the provincial environmental assessment is used in the federal environmental assessment as far as possible to avoid duplication and a coordinated process has been developed to further improve efficiency. So far, the North Yonge Street corridor is the only Viva project that required a federal environmental assessment, which was completed on August 19, 2010.

Once the environmental assessment approvals are completed, we work closely with provincial and federal agencies, monitoring our projects to ensure we’ve lived up to our promises.
So as you can see, the entire environmental assessment process is a thorough and comprehensive one, as well as being totally transparent, to ensure the public knows what’s happening. I’d encourage you to read up on our vivaNext environmental assessments, and to also check out these links for more background information on the federal process and the provincial process:

Categories
General Rapidways

Engineering well so you won’t notice

Engineering Well So You Won't Notice

If you’ve ever come to one of our vivaNext open houses, you’ll be able to picture this scene: a room-full of long maps, blueprints and illustrations, showing all manner of lines, arrows and numbers. It’s not necessarily the most glamourous-looking stuff to many of us – in fact, some details can seem downright indecipherable! But to an engineer, these displays represent the product of months and months of immensely challenging puzzles, detailed analysis and problems to be solved.

Like other huge civil engineering projects, the vivaNext rapidways rely on an enormous amount of massively detailed planning; these details probably aren’t top-of-mind for the vast majority of people. When’s the last time you drove down a road in a rainstorm and paid attention to how well the water was draining off the roadway? Probably never. But I can guarantee that if the water was not draining well, you would notice. That’s the point of engineering – to anticipate and plan for a dizzying array of components,  in this case, the elements needed for roadway and transit system building – so that when the final project is built, everything works seamlessly and perfectly.

So what have those engineers (and architects) been doing for the last couple of years, anyway? Here’s a plain-language guide to vivaNext engineering.

Each week at the vivaNext office, our preliminary engineering team sits down and gives an update on all the project components they’ve been working on. Some items – like designing all the underpinnings (e.g. road grade, storm sewers and catch basins to make sure water drains properly) – are critical, but largely invisible. Some of the components require looking well into the future, for example, working with Regional and Town planners to anticipate future land use plans and potential developments to ensure intersections and stations are located where they will be most convenient and useful. Some of the planning is related to urban design issues, such as the kind of materials and finishes that will create the style of urban streetscape we want for our communities.

Did you ever stop to look at a street light pole? I confess that it never occurred to me what went into choosing a street light. I now know that there are many options for street lights out there, and someone actually has to spend time carefully considering what height, diameter, finish and shape will work and look best – not to mention what kind of foundations are needed, how they should be spaced, and what kind of light they will provide. Every decision point impacts the budget, how the streetscape will look and may impact the construction schedule as well.

And as with everything that involves public money, there is an ever-present (and totally appropriate) focus on getting the best value for money, and balancing design objectives with cost-consciousness. Some of these discussions involve items that I suspect many people would find interesting – like landscaping and street furniture choices. Other items deal with equally important but less visible questions (and let’s be honest, not terribly interesting for most people), for example, determining the best and most cost-effective way to protect all the electrical wires that will be buried under our rapidway stations.

Safety and legislated issues are key, of course – ensuring surfaces such as platform tiles aren’t slippery, and that stations and enclosures are accessible. Many questions – such as where to locate fare equipment and displays so people don’t have to go farther than necessary – involve anticipating how people will want to use the system and making sure it functions well. Some of the issues can draw on experience from other places – for example, understanding how wind and weather will interact with our glass canopies, so we can make them as comfortable as possible for riders. Others issues are totally dependent on finding made-at-home answers, by working with local municipalities, who in turn work with their stakeholders. These include things like fitting bike lanes into the roadway design, or how best to protect sensitive natural or heritage features.

One thing I have learned from observing our engineers at work, is how much careful thought, analysis and knowledge is required to build our vivaNext dream. For most – if not all – of the issues, there’s never an obvious answer. Every issue, from the most glamourous to the most prosaic, needs to be debated and weighed, with many different pros and cons considered and balanced. And everything is connected, so nothing is ever as simple or straightforward as you might think.

So next time you walk down the sidewalk or drive along Highway 7, give a thought to what you’re surrounded by, and notice all the little things that make up the streetscape –then consider the additional complexity involved in our vivaNext rapidway system! The effort is worth it to plan and build a vision, to make it work perfectly, and to get people around York Region easily, quickly and conveniently.

Categories
Announcements Rapidways Stations Subways

Dale’s summer update

Dale's Summer Update

Whew! What a busy few months we’ve had here at the vivaNext headquarters!  No doubt a lot of people have been enjoying this great summer weather and taking a bit of a break… but for those of us here, it’s been full steam ahead.  Since we announced the news this past May that Metrolinx approved a revised capital funding schedule for the vivaNext rapidways, our office has been a hive of activity! Okay, I took a week off as well to enjoy this summer weather.

But here’s an exclusive peek behind the scenes of what’s happening with vivaNext projects.

Although it’s not a typical rapidway station, our new stop currently under construction at Enterprise and Warden in Markham will be the first place you’ll be able to try out our new, comfortably designed vivastation.  The concrete foundations are currently being put in for the station, and sometime in early fall we expect to receive the glass canopy from the fabricators.  After all the work that went into designing it, we can’t wait to see the vivastation in person!  We’ll keep you updated on the delivery dates and let you know more about how you can see it too!

Our crews are out and about along Davis Drive in Newmarket, with most work presently focused on pre-construction activities in preparation for the road widening.  We’ve been taking down some existing buildings, and working closely with Habitat for Humanity York Region and other organizations to ensure that every last piece of building material that can be reused or recycled is diverted from landfill.  At least 85% of materials will be diverted – we are really proud of that. Even shrubs, plants and trees have been transplanted to new locations within Newmarket, including some churches and a public school.

Our engineers, architects and other experts are working hard on the preliminary engineering for the rapidways up Yonge Street and along Highway 7. Preliminary engineering is the early design stage of an infrastructure project, and it involves numerous hours of discussion and planning for options on things you may never think about when you drive down a street; things like median width, lightpole design and surface treatments.  Every step of their work is carried out in conjunction with a number of other partners, including The Regional Municipality of York and each of the municipalities, as well as other local groups. The amount of painstaking, detailed work that goes into designing a rapidway is just incredible – in a separate blog, I’ll tell you more about the processes, the challenges and introduce you to some of our experts.

We are also spending a lot of time working with our colleagues at the TTC on plans to connect the Spadina Subway extension to the vivaNext transit hub at Highway 7 in the Vaughan Metropolitan Centre.  Construction of a six-lane bridge, access roads, traffic signals, utility relocation and the realignment of a portion of Black Creek is now underway so that construction can start on the Highway 407 Station. This work is anticipated to be complete by spring 2011. Public open houses in July showcased the station design finishes and public artwork for the Sheppard West and Highway 407 Stations. More open houses will soon be held, so that the public can view the four remaining station designs. I hope to tell you more exciting details about the design ideas we’re working on in the near future.

Another key task that represents a huge amount of our efforts is the ongoing Environmental Assessment process – and rightly so: ensuring that our projects don’t negatively affect the environment, either natural or human, is a critical priority for this project.  Each rapidway segment has its own process and requirements – in fact, there’s so much to describe, I’m going to save it for another time!

During the summer we also participated in some fundraising events for United Way, attended several community events and participated in some local industry workshops.

So that was a brief summary of what we’ve been up to! We hope you’re enjoying the summer sunshine, and all of the great things there are to do in York Region!

Categories
Live-work-play Rapidways Urban Planning

Why “TOD” is great news for all of us

A rendering of transit-oriented development in Markham
A rendering of transit-oriented development at the future Markham Centre

Recently, I wrote about transit and the role it has in shaping communities, in particular, the development that tends to spring up along transit routes and around stations. This time, I want to talk more about what we mean by “transit-oriented-development” ( TOD for short), and why this kind of development will be good news for people in York Region—whether or not they are transit users themselves.

Most people get around York Region by car – possibly because they want to – but also because some people find it challenging to do all the things they need to do in a day by transit. That’s not surprising in a region like this one; in communities where development has been shaped by a long-standing car culture, destinations are more likely to be spread out, with greater distances between live-work-play destinations. Even the design of buildings may be shaped by car usage, with large parking lots separating buildings from roads.

The idea behind TOD is that people using transit are also likely to be pedestrians at some point during their journey – either at the beginning, or the end (or both). Studies have shown that people are willing to walk about 5 minutes to or from transit, which is somewhere between 400 and 600 metres. So TOD uses the approach of creating a complete community within walking distance of transit – including workplaces, homes, shopping, recreation and services. The thinking is that if new developments are designed to be conveniently compact and appealing to pedestrians, people are more likely to leave their car at home for at least one of their trips. Obviously, the good news is that more people taking transit means fewer cars on the road, less pollution, and less gridlock.

So York Region planners have linked the plans for the vivaNext rapidways to land use policies that will result in more TOD along Viva routes and near vivastations. These policies will likely mean that much of the new development built around vivastations will be compact and mixed-use, providing housing, employment, retail, dining, services and recreation, all within a walkable distance of transit. Developments will also include more welcoming public spaces, attractive landscaping, and other amenities so that people enjoy being out and about.

How will this affect you? In a pre-TOD scenario, a typical day could start with a drive to work, then a drive to a restaurant for dinner, ending with a drive to a movie or concert before driving back home. With more TOD, you would have the choice of taking transit to work, then walking around the corner from the office to dinner, then strolling across the street for a show before grabbing a coffee and getting home again by transit. Same day, two different ways of getting around.

The point is that transit and TOD don’t have to change the way people live in York Region, but it will give us all more choices – in what we do, where we do it, and how we get there. We think that’s good news for everyone.

Categories
Rapidways

Rapidways just around the corner

enterprise-009_new

Earlier this summer, our communications team visited the site of a rapidway being built along Enterprise Drive in Markham. The sun was shining and work was well underway as a construction crew installed the roadway’s curb and gutter. Dick Clark, general superintendent of construction, filled us in on the work being done and shared his thoughts on transit in York Region. You can check out the video here.

Last week, we returned to Enterprise Drive to see the progress of work since our last visit. Beautiful summer weather has allowed construction to forge ahead without any major interruptions. What does this mean? Incredible progress!

The Enterprise rapidway is really starting to take shape. Some sections have been paved with the base coating, and preparatory work has already started for the installation of station platforms!  We brought our camera along to once again give you the inside scoop. Click here to view the latest video.

We often talk about the future on this blog – how York Region is planning for future growth, what future development may look like, and the importance of the vivaNext plan in our community. Sometimes, this future may seem like a distant reality, but the truth is that it’s never been closer. The Enterprise Drive rapidway is on schedule to be completed by the end of this year – which means that vivaNext rapidways in York Region are just around the corner.

Categories
Going Green Rapidways Urban Planning

Colouring Viva blue – and green

70-cars-before-and-after

The vivaNext rapidways being built across York Region are good news for the environment.  More people taking transit means less pollution. One Viva vehicle can replace up to 70 cars on the road – that represents a huge reduction in carbon emissions. With fewer cars on the road, gridlock, fuel use and air pollution caused by idling cars are all reduced.

There is also a direct connection between how our communities are developed, and the impact we have on our environment. Sprawling communities mean that people tend to travel farther between work, home and play. The more spread out a community is, the harder it is to provide efficient public transit. So, people become increasingly dependent on cars, and the developments that get built are more likely to be car-oriented. The more that happens, the less convenient it is for people to take transit. Eventually, entire communities become dependent on cars, and are less likely to use transit, cycle or walk to get around. More cars mean more gridlock, more pollution and more carbon emissions.

On the other hand, communities that are developed around great transit are more likely to include compact, pedestrian-friendly neighbourhoods.  Mixed-use developments and shorter distances between work-live-play destinations make it easier to get around and make transit a more appealing and convenient choice for a greater number of people.

The result: more people out and about, enjoying their energetic and dynamic local neighbourhood, and walking in the fresh air to ride in a comfortable, low-emission Viva vehicle.

And for people who continue to drive, their trips will be shorter due to the compact, mixed-use developments that have sprung up around transit – so once again, car usage will be reduced, resulting in less pollution and fuel consumption.

All of this is good news for the environment, for our health, and for our lifestyle.