Tag: BRT

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Fun & Games General Live-work-play Rapidways Uncategorized Urban Planning

VivaNext has Olympic spirit!

vivaNext Olympics

The summer Olympics bring together the best and brightest of athletes around the world in a variety of summer sports, ready to compete. As we cheer on Team Canada in the vivaNext office, we notice some similarities between the dedication that each athlete has to his/her sport and the dedication that we have to our new vivaNext rapid transit system.

Athletes, whether participating in summer or winter Olympics, are forced to endure the elements when it comes to practice. Whether braving through cold to ski or melting in the heat practicing beach volleyball, these athletes continue to give it their all. Likewise, vivaNext has to work with the elements as we go through construction. In the summer months, it’s important that our construction workers stay cool under the hot sun. On days when it rains, construction can be at a stand-still, forcing us to work even harder the next day.

Just like any athlete, we have a team of coaches and supporting staff that are making the vivaNext vision a reality. From the engineering to communications teams to onsite supervisors, our success is a group effort. Although only the athlete may receive a medal, it is often a team effort, with coaches included, to help them reach the podium. Similarly, it is a team effort to ensure that the vivaNext transformation is a success.

And of course, there is something to be said for the speed at which athletes that cycle, row, or run track travel. They are constantly looking to move faster and improve their travel times. Our rapidways will help reduce congestion and provide a reliable rapid transit network along our corridors as well. We’ll reduce travel time by up to 40%, and make reaching your destination easier and more efficient.

At the vivaNext office, we are supporting Canadian athletes through our own office Olympics. Departments are virtually going head-to-head to earn medals for different sports. How are you supporting Team Canada? Is there an athlete that you’re rooting for? Let us know by commenting below!

If you’re interested in learning more about the vivaNext projects, visit us at www.vivanext.com. You can also sign up to receive e-mail construction updates here.

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Community Events Construction Rapidways Uncategorized

Davis Drive rapidway construction – ready, set, go!

Davis Drive rapidway construction

Last year we accomplished a lot on Davis Drive, and as of this spring we’ll be moving full speed ahead on construction to build the rapidway. Starting soon, you’ll see a lot of utility companies along the corridor working to relocate gas, power, telecommunications, etc. Later this summer, we’ll be working on the Keith Bridge near the Tannery and doing some work near Southlake hospital. Watch for updates about all of this work, with more details to come.

 The Davis Drive rapidway will be complete in 2015, and we’re bringing an exceptional rapid transit system that will connect to other parts of York Region and help shape Newmarket’s growth. There’s a lot of work happening until 2015, and during construction we’ll do our best to keep disruptions to a minimum. We also want to keep everyone informed, so if you have questions or concerns we hope you’ll contact your Community Liaison, sign up for updates to get the latest construction information and come to our Davis Drive open house on May 15.

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Construction General

Davis Drive – noticeable change in 2011

Davis Drive in 2011

Davis Drive was a busy place in 2011, with lots of noticeable work done to prepare for rapidway construction. Rapidways will be built from Yonge Street to just past the hospital, and most of our work has been along this section.

Davis Drive will be widened starting in 2012, and we needed to do a few big things first: build retaining walls, widen the Keith Bridge, and relocate utilities.

Widening Davis Drive will mean moving sidewalks and boulevards farther apart. In locations along the south side of Davis Drive where the ground slopes toward the road, retaining walls were needed so that we can move utilities. Five retaining walls are now built using stone blocks or textured concrete, with railings to be added to walls over two feet in height.

A new section of the Keith Bridge was built in 2011, including 106 tonnes of rebar steel reinforcements, and 110 truckloads of poured cement. Even though the final touches are still to come, the historical architectural features are noticeable in the new bridge construction. The Keith Bridge will be fenced this winter, and traffic will move to this bridge section at a later date.

Utilities, such as hydro, gas, sewage, and telecommunication lines, need to be moved to prepare for road widening, and in some cases they needed to be relocated as part of the Keith Bridge or retaining wall construction. Geotechnical testing – examining the condition and consistency of road and boulevard surfaces – has also been underway along Davis Drive so that our engineers know what to plan for when they widen the road.

This winter our contractors are working on 2012 construction schedules and continuing with utility relocation and geotechnical testing. When warmer weather arrives we’ll be ready to begin widening Davis Drive, and you’ll begin to see the overall transformation of Davis Drive into a welcoming urban place.

Happy Holidays everyone – we’ll see you in 2012!

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Urban Planning

Bus Rapid Transit: South America leads the way

Inside a BRT station in Curitiba – photo by www.ThomasLockeHobbs.com

The vivaNext rapidways project is one of a relatively small number of Bus Rapid Transit projects here in Canada, or for that matter in North America. There are BRT systems in Canada and the US, but the number of cities with BRT systems planned is relatively small, compared to the number of cities that would benefit from better transit.

What’s really interesting is how many cities around the world use BRT – cities with enormous populations and transit usage. Transit experts at EMBARQ (the Sustainable Transport wing of the World Resources Institute, an environmental think tank) estimate there are 120 cities around the world with BRT systems. And South America has taken to BRT enthusiastically, with BRT systems in 32 cities – more than a quarter of the total BRT systems around the globe.

One of the earliest BRT systems in the world was built in Curitiba, a large city in the south of Brazil with a population of just under 2 million within a larger metropolitan area. Other systems have been built all over South and Central America, including in all the major cities like Guatemala City, São Paolo, and Bogotá. There’s no doubt those systems are a spectacular success – transit ridership numbers in South American cities are huge. The Curitiba system carries a whopping 2.3 million riders per day, using 72 kilometres of median bus rapidway. Or how about São Paulo, with 104 kilometres of bus lanes, and a daily ridership of 5.7 million!

Besides a convenient way to get around, cities with bus rapid transit have been shown to have reduced commute times, lower tailpipe emissions and fewer traffic fatalities. And a key part of the success of these successful systems is that transit was built early on, and the surrounding land use was shaped by rapid transit. People became accustomed to taking transit, and transit-oriented development followed.

It’s exciting to think of the benefits vivaNext rapid transit projects will bring to our region. We know that there are differences in climate, landscape, and culture between South and Central American cities and York Region, but there are examples of BRT elsewhere in the world, and I’ll talk more about those next week.

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General

Celebrating Canadian transit

Examples of Canadian transit systems

With Canada Day just behind us, this is a great time to talk about the emerging enthusiasm across Canada for the importance of great transit.  If you’ve ever travelled outside of Canada to the world’s largest cities, there’s no doubt you will have seen how some large urban areas have really incredible transit systems – established networks that mean you truly never need to drive anywhere, and where transit is the easiest, fastest way to get around.  

But let’s talk about what makes good transit systems a priority, and how Canadian cities are increasingly investing in transit solutions.  The first factor that comes into play in transit design, is population density.  There’s no doubt that the more people who live or work in a defined area, the more transit can be effective.  Because Canadian cities don’t yet have the population of the really big international cities, they traditionally haven’t built the extensive networks that exist in places such as London or New York City. 

The problem is that this is a chicken and egg situation. Many people only want to live in an area where there’s convenient transit but transit planners – at least in the past – have often waited for an area’s population to increase before they invested in transit.   

Fortunately, many Canadian cities are realizing that they need to invest in transit before the population increases happen.  At the same time, they are increasingly encouraging the kinds of development that will support higher densities and that result in compact, pedestrian-friendly communities where people are more likely to leave their car at home and take transit.

Cities across Canada are building and expanding their transit networks, and using all sorts of different methods to encourage people to hop on board transit – from LRT and BRT, to ferries, subways and commuter trains, and even bike rentals. 

In Montreal, the transit provider STM has launched a new partnership called the Transportation Cocktail, which recognizes that there are all sorts of ways for people to get around apart from private autos. The Cocktail offers great deals combining tickets for transit and Bixi, the bike rental program.

Calgary’s C-Train is an enormous success, with the LRT in 2009 having counted one billion passengers since service was launched in 1981. It has the highest ridership of any LRT in North America. One of the success factors – apart from Calgary’s quickly growing population – is that rides in the downtown area are free!  Another great fact about the C-Train is that it gets all its electricity from wind power.  Now that’s a really small carbon footprint.

In Vancouver, the SkyTrain, which is a system of fully automated trains running mostly on elevated tracks, connects to a wonderfully diverse transit system that gives people lots of choices.  The entire system includes buses, trolley buses, a commuter rail system and the Sea Bus, a passenger-only ferry. 

The SkyTrain has been credited with helping to spur a significant amount of transit-oriented development to Vancouver – BC Transit says that more than $5 billion of private money has been invested within a 10–15 minute walking distance of the SkyTrain and SeaBus. 

Both Ottawa and Edmonton are currently extending their LRT lines, with the project in Ottawa involving tunneling through the busy downtown.

And what about the technology choice we’re using with Viva – BRT? 

Although it’s relatively new to Canada, cities all across the country are discovering the benefits of choosing BRT.  Some form of BRT has already been added to the transit services in many Canadian cities, with more extensive BRT services being planned or built across the country, from Victoria to Quebec City.

So in the future you’ll be able to visit cities across the country without having to get in a car, enjoying the sights by using our increasingly comprehensive transit services.  

If you’re interested in reading more about BRT in Canada, be sure to read this article from the Canadian Urban Transit Association.

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General Press Rapidways

Transit ridership is way up: great news for everyone

Viva passengers getting on and off the bus at Warden Station in Markham

If you’re reading this blog, you have likely already seen the news release on our vivaNext.com website, describing the steady increase in transit ridership in York Region. But just to restate, on June 14 we announced that Viva ridership has increased 26% since this service was launched in September 2005. Overall ridership for both York Region Transit (YRT) and Viva Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) has increased by 10.5% from January to April 2011, compared to the same period in 2010.

This increase is great news for a number of reasons, whether or not you’re a transit rider.

First, the more people take transit, the more successful our services will be – more riders means more revenue, which in turn can be put back into our route planning and frequency, making services even better for riders.

Second, more people leaving their car keys at home and boarding YRT\Viva means less air pollution for everyone. We all know how important air quality is to our health – especially during hot summer months.

Third, every loaded bus is equal to 70 cars. So even if you’re personally not a transit rider, every time you drive alongside a bus loaded with passengers, that’s 70 cars that aren’t in front of you. The result is less congestion and easier driving for people who need to get around by car.

The fourth, and in some ways the most important reason, is that increased ridership suggests a culture shift – a really important one for the future of this region, and how we manage growth.

There’s no doubt that the culture in York Region, in the past, was quite car-based. That’s not at all unusual in an area that expanded quickly as part of the GTA suburban growth; where new subdivisions were designed for people who travelled by car, and where it was convenient to drive to most places.

But that kind of urban design can only happen when there’s lots of room – room for big wide roads, room for huge parking lots, and room for all the homes and driveways. Not to mention room for all of the cars. With the growth coming to York Region, that design just isn’t sustainable – we don’t have enough room to accommodate everyone without making some adjustments. So going forward, our new growth will be managed with urban, higher density developments, clustered along major roads. These new developments are being planned to make it very convenient for people to live, work and play without needing to get in a car. Our vision is that people will be able to travel between their job, shopping and recreation while using transit.

The fact that our transit ridership is going up shows that our long-term plan is working, and that people are finding it easy to get around by hopping on board YRT\Viva.

With our rapidways and the Spadina Subway extension already under construction, and efforts being made to get funding for the Yonge Subway extension, transit is only going to get better and better, which is great news for all of us.

Categories
General Rapidways

New fences make good neighbours

Example of paddock-style fencing

As we widen Davis Drive, one of our many priorities is to remember that for many people, Davis Drive isn’t just a busy street; it’s their home or workplace. Keeping that in mind, we’re doing whatever we can to be good neighbours while we build the Davis Drive rapidway.

That’s why last week we started installing paddock-style fencing around 19 properties on Davis Drive. We previously removed the buildings from these properties to make room for road widening, so they’re now vacant lots. Over the winter, they were surrounded by temporary construction fencing, but our intention was always that once demolition was done and warmer weather arrived, more attractive, permanent fencing would be installed.

Besides being attractive, the fencing is functional, keeping the properties secure and tidy. The new fences are set a bit back from the road to leave room for utility relocations and construction activity. As the project continues, we’ll use some properties to store construction materials, to stage crews and occasionally to park construction vehicles.

What will be done with the properties after the rapidway is complete? Well, that depends – each property is its own special case, with many factors for York Region and Metrolinx to consider and ensure the best possible use for the community.

In the meantime, your Community Liaison, Andrea Witty, is often out and about on Davis Drive, so if there’s something about the project that you’d like to talk about, please contact her.

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General Rapidways

Why Bus Rapid Transit?

Warden Station: York Region's first built example of a rapid transit station

With GTA transit issues in the news so much lately, I’ve been asked why York Region chose to build Bus Rapid Transit instead of some other form of rapid transit. To help you understand how we decided to build vivaNext rapidways, here’s a bit of a primer on what BRT is, and why it’s great for York Region.

To begin with, Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) is defined as a public transit system that provides fast, frequent service, is able to move a lot of people, and runs on its own dedicated tracks or lanes. Other examples of rapid transit include subways and light rail transit (LRT). Some of the biggest cities in the world, including those with huge subway and LRT services, are increasingly turning to BRT as a key way to transport people quickly and reliably. And many major international cities, like New York City, are transforming their rapid transit systems by including BRT, at a fraction of what a rail system would cost. With limited resources and a lot of people to move, BRT is becoming seen as the smartest transit investment cities can make – like “a subway with a view.”

In general, the best BRT services have a number of things in common, including comfortable bus stations with amenities, well designed vehicles, a mechanism for rapid fare payment, use of Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITSs), dedicated roadway space, and frequent all day service. All aspects of a good BRT service are designed to work together to make travel faster than regular bus service. BRT vehicles need to be easy and convenient to enter, with close-to-level boarding, and rapid fare payment managed “off-board” (before passengers board). These elements help passengers get on and off more quickly, making the “dwell time” (the length of time the vehicle spends at a stop) as short as possible. And dedicated lanes through the most congested areas – as we will have here in York Region – are seen as the highest standard for BRT services.

Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITSs) are a whole story on their own, and one of the most interesting aspects of planning a BRT service. In a future blog, I’ll talk about these technologies and their huge impact on the performance of a BRT system.

Other rapid transit services such as subways or light rail may also have most of the same elements. But the main advantage offered by BRT is it can be expanded in segments as funding becomes available, and implemented quickly compared to other rapid transit services. Developing a rapid transit system in segments allows capital costs to be spread over time, which also leaves time to refine the design between each segment.

Being able to expand with funding, and the relatively fast timelines to implement, is especially important to York Region. More and more people are coming to York Region every year, and as much as this growth will bring many benefits, it also means our roads are getting more crowded – which is bad for everyone. We wanted to plan for a system that we could get up and running quickly and affordably.

The flexibility of BRT also works well for us, since development is taking place at different stages across York Region. Building BRT in segments means we can focus on the areas with the worst traffic congestion now, and then expand the system to service other areas as their population grows.

Everyone loves trains and subways, but those technologies don’t make sense in every situation. The decision to use a particular technology has to take into account the number of riders and local circumstances on the existing roadways. Subways cost a lot and are the best option where there are huge numbers of transit riders (such as south of Highway 7 on Yonge Street, or between Downsview Station and Highway 7 West in Vaughan). Most other transit routes in York Region don’t have the big city volume of riders needed to justify a subway. Light rail transit also calls for higher ridership numbers, but not as high as that needed by subways. Depending on future growth, in the future we may decide to convert our dedicated rapidways to LRT.

All in all, York Region’s BRT system will make travelling around York Region faster – at a price that we can afford. And with the first built example of a vivastation and rapidway section already in service, our new BRT system is going to be ready for passengers before you know it. We think that’s a plan to be proud of.

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General Rapidways Stations Uncategorized

New vehicle + new rapidway + new station = Training

New Nova bus being used for training at Warden Station in Markham
New Nova bus being used for training at Warden Station in Markham

It wasn’t that long ago that vivaNext was listing required specs for new Viva vehicles and testing design ideas for a rapid transit station. It feels like just yesterday that we were deciding station platform widths, highlighting accessibility requirements both on and off Viva and modelling the streetscape of the rapidways.

Now, some of the new vehicles have already arrived, the first new rapid transit station has been built in York Region and the first stretch of rapidway has been completed.

The new vehicles (made by Nova Bus) have great features – larger windows, a wider centre aisle, great lighting, and an accessibility ramp at the front door instead of at the middle. They’re powered by advanced clean diesel propulsion systems that produce fewer emissions, and we’re proud to say they’re manufactured in Canada. For drivers though, it also has new, unfamiliar on-board systems and controls.

The new vivastation is completely different from a typical transit shelter. It’s a rapid transit station, complete with heated waiting area, messaging boards and safety and accessibility features. It will serve our community for generations to come. However, with the platform being much higher than a street curb, Viva drivers must practise pulling into the station and review procedures related to its operations.

The rapidways allow Viva vehicles to bypass congested traffic as they operate in their own lane. Something drivers are also becoming more familiar with, now that the first stretch of rapidway is completed at Warden Ave. and Enterprise Blvd. in Markham.

Yes, training is a key focal point right now to ensure opening day goes without any unexpected inconvenience to our customers. Driver training on all of these elements has been underway for a while, and the Nova Buses are gradually being introduced into service. In just a matter of days now, we’ll see customers using the new Warden Station, boarding a new Viva vehicle and travelling down the new rapidway.

If you’re in the Warden Avenue and Enterprise Boulevard area, join us on opening day and bring your camera! Stay tuned for the official announcement and we’ll see you on the new platform on opening day with something special.

We love to hear from you, so if you’ve seen a Nova Bus or the new Warden Station, tell us what you think by replying to this blog, or by posting a comment on Facebook or Twitter. If you have a photo of yourself or your friends on the Nova Bus, we’d love to see those too!

Categories
Rapidways Stations Urban Planning

Designing a rapidway

Designing a rapidway

Earlier this year, I wrote a series of blogs about planning for growth, discussing York Region’s long envisioned goal of a true rapid transit system. The system would have to connect regional centres and move the expanding population around quickly, without increasing car traffic. The plans for this rapid transit system have been in the works for several years, and given our population, we know that bus rapid transit (BRT) offers the right technology at this time.

But how did we get from knowing we wanted to have a BRT system, to the actual design of the rapidways?

The first design considerations went back to our basic goals for a rapid transit system: to move a lot of people around efficiently, and to not add to gridlock on the roads (in fact, to reduce gridlock). The easiest and fastest way to create rapidways on existing roads would have been to convert the curb lanes, replacing two lanes of traffic. While this option would have met our first goal of moving people around quickly, it would have also decreased existing road capacity – which would defeat our second goal of not adding to gridlock. This meant that we would have to add lanes to include the rapidways.

Once we knew that, the next design consideration was where to put those new rapidway lanes. Again, we referred back to our first goal: to move a lot of people around quickly. The basic benefit of rapid transit is that it provides a consistent, reliable way of getting from point A to point B. Riders know how often the vehicle will arrive, how long the trip will take, and they know they can count on it, no matter how heavy the traffic. So what are the design considerations to ensure a consistent, reliable ride?

One key design requirement is to provide level boarding, meaning that passengers don’t have to climb up or down steps onto the vehicle; for example, subways have level boarding. With level (or close to level) boarding, people have better access, regardless of their level of mobility or whether they are pushing a baby carriage. Level boarding allows more people to get on and off quickly and results in shorter dwell time, which means vehicles spend less time at stations. In short – level boarding helps make the service faster, which in turn helps vehicles keep to a schedule, and provide a consistently reliable, frequent service. These improvements make transit more appealing to more people – which meets our first goal.

But to provide level boarding, the platforms have to be close to bus floor height – which is about a foot off the ground (most sidewalks are closer to 6″ high). To provide higher platforms, our stations needed to be separated from sidewalks. Theoretically, we could have built higher platforms on the edges of sidewalks, but there are reasons why this isn’t ideal: our stations would take up too much of the sidewalk, which could interfere with local businesses. Therefore, the best place for our stations would be to have them physically separated from the sidewalk. In our case, this meant locating stations in the middle of the road. The benefit of having the stations in the median, is that passengers won’t have to walk all the way across the road to get to a station – they can meet us half-way.

But by adding the rapidways down the middle of the road, we then needed to widen the roads to accommodate both the rapidways as well as the existing traffic lanes. All of which takes us to our final design, which is have our rapidways running along the median, with median stations, and special left turn and u-turn lanes at intersections to allow drivers to safely and easily turn across the rapidways.

Of course, going this route has required more steps, including acquiring the land needed to widen the roads. But the end result is going to be a rapid transit system that meets our goals of providing fast, consistent transit, without adding to existing traffic congestion. And that’s a design solution that we can all be really proud of.