An artist rendering of a viva vehicle riding on the rapidway
Recently, we received $1.4 billion in funding to build rapidways. But what are rapidways? It is the term for centre of the road, rapid transit-only lanes that we will build for Viva vehicles to travel in.
It’s rapid because, without being stuck in traffic, Viva will be able to zip through congested areas making it the better way to get around York Region.
Rapidways will put the rapid into rapid transit. Right now, our vehicles compete with all the other cars and trucks on the road. During times of high volume, the rapid transit vehicles will be able to glide past gridlock and actually make for a faster commute than in a car. It’ll be like driving in the carpool lane, but without even other drivers. Similar to how the carpool lane will save you time, we project that the rapidways will make Viva trips 40% faster.
The system is designed to allow for higher capacity light rail trains to replace buses on the rapidways when ridership warrants it. I will follow-up with a more extensive post about this soon.
Students from Cardinal Carter Catholic High School show us their "V" for viva.
Today’s guest bloggers are Andrea Witty, Community Liaison Specialist, and Kathryn Webber, Project & Public Relations Coordinator, who spent Earth Day at Cardinal Carter High School in Aurora talking to the students about the new rapidways that are coming to York Region.
We shared time-lapse animations that showed what Vaughan, Newmarket and Markham will look like in 5-20 years when the rapidways and subway extension projects are built. Being able to actually show the end result of our plan makes talking about it way easier.They loved the images and the peak into the future.
Students were excited about the long range plans to increase connections and make it easier to travel across the region for shopping and work, getting to university and to get to Toronto.
While the vivaNext plan will save people time and prevent stress from being in gridlock, the plan is a part of a long-term sustainable solution to save something much more important than time – our planet.
York Region operates York Region Transit (YRT) as a local transit service and Viva, which is a rapid transit service. Typically, Viva is fed passengers by YRT, which travels in and out of neighbourhoods. Both services are operated by YRT, a branch of York Region’s Transportation Dept., and work together as one system to provide you with seamless connections across all nine municipalities.
As strange as it may seem, York Region Rapid Transit Corporation is separate from YRT and Viva, and does not operate the service. York Region Rapid Transit Corporation is responsible for designing and building the rapid transit plan [vivaNext].
That’s us. We’re responsible for designing, developing and building the future rapid transit system in York Region. Through a process of public consultations, we gather input from the community to ensure that the needs of local businesses, residents and other groups are being met and their concerns are addressed. The new system allows you to move between regions and within York Region faster than ever before. That’s thanks to subway extensions and rapidway lanes, where transit vehicles can move without getting caught in traffic.
As each vivaNext project is completed, YRT takes on the operations, and also develops service plans for where and how often each route will travel. For you, it means a seamless and well-connected service.
A BRT isn’t just any old bus system. It’s a highly complex system that quickly transports thousands of people reliably every day. The best systems, cough…vivaNext…cough have dedicated bus only lanes to avoid traffic congestion and maintain a fast level of service. While no transit system is perfect, BRTs are some of the most effective systems around. They’re lower cost than rail, have a high capacity, offer riders speed and reliability and have the flexibility to be redirected where needed.
A view of what a Rapidway will look like
You may not know this but York Region is one of only a dozen communities in Canada that has what is called “Bus Rapid Transit”, fondly referred to as BRT in the transit industry. In fact, York Region’s BRT stands shoulder to shoulder with communities like Calgary, Montreal, Halifax and Vancouver.
When we were laying the groundwork for vivaNext, we naturally took a good look at the BRTs throughout Canada. One of the most extensive transit systems in the country is located in our nation’s capital. While Ottawa has been getting plenty of bad press due to a recently resolved transit strike, Ottawa’s bus system is truly a marvel. Ottawa faces challenges related to urban sprawl – to compensate the city has built a 30 km dedicated bus-only lane that winds its way throughout the city and adjacent communities.
According to an analysis done by the Canadian Urban Transit Association, Ottawa’s BRT system can carry up to 10,000 passengers and 185 buses per hour in each direction.
Vancouver is also doing some truly remarkable work. Vancouver’s BRT system was first introduced in 1996 in advance of a planned rail transit system. In response to the population growth, the Province of British Coloumbiaannouncedthey will invest $1.2 billion in 9 Rapidbus BC routes by 2020.
What is clear when you look at both cities is that BRT is an essential part of any transit system. Municipal bus service, BRT, LRT, subway and trains – they all play an important role in an overall transit network to supply adequate, cost-effective service that’s fast and convenient.
What great cities have you visited that had wonderful transit systems?
