Tag: Bus Rapid Transit

Categories
Announcements Surveys

York Region residents cite congestion as reason to improve transit

Traffic congestion

We all know that traffic congestion is getting worse. The major arteries, including Yonge St., Davis Dr. and Highway 7, are packed during peak hours of the day and congestion is only expected to get worse. That is a key reason why York Region is taking steps to improve rapid transit and build livable cities.

We wanted to know what you had to say about congestion, so we recently conducted a survey.* When asking York Region residents how they rate traffic congestion on a 10-point scale, over 75% of them said it was between a six and a 10, where 10 was high traffic congestion. In fact, four times more people rate traffic congestion as “high” than rate it as “low”. And almost 25% of the people surveyed rated congestion as an eight on the scale.

When asked about solutions, the largest percentage of respondents said that more and better rapid transit was the answer. People also cited bicycle lanes and more roads as other solutions.

It sounds like we are on the right track to providing those who work and/or live in York Region the solutions they need to avoid congestion.

What do you think about traffic congestion around York Region and what else should be done? Tell us what you think.

*Survey deemed accurate to within 5 percentage points

Categories
Going Green Live-work-play Urban Planning

Save time and relieve stress by getting rid of the commute

An artist rendering of what the live-work-play community at Markham Centre will look like when complete. Rendering courtesy of the Remington Group.
An artist rendering of what the live-work-play community at Markham Centre will look like when complete. Rendering courtesy of the Remington Group.
Construction at Enterprise, which will be within walking distance of the above rendering of Markham Centre.
Construction at Enterprise, which will be within walking distance of the above rendering of Markham Centre.

Are you tired of sitting in congested traffic trying to get to work or to visit with friends and family?

I don’t like to think that we are simply designing and building a rapid transit system. We are helping to create live-work-play communities. That’s the basic term for living in a place where everything is nearby. The goal is to create more time in your life and reduce reliance on a vehicle to get around.

Other names for this concept are a mixed-use development or new urbanism. The idea is the same: it is about making communities that let you live within walking distance of work, shopping, restaurants, cinemas, parks and other activities. And when you do have to travel, there are transit options nearby such as subways, rapidways and GO trains.

Unlike many parts of Europe where it’s the norm, it will no doubt require a mind-shift from many Ontarians. But I can tell you that it’s already starting with the youth. They get it from a logical, environmental and social standpoint. I get the sense that they place greater importance on quality of life and that excludes sitting in a vehicle for hours every day.

This shift has also started in our local communities – Markham, Mississauga and Richmond Hill for example.

What examples have you seen? What are your kids saying about it?

Categories
Going Green Rapidways Stations

Gimme Shelter

Rendering of a vivastation showing the middle section, which will be enclosed and heated.
Rendering of a vivastation showing the middle section, which will be enclosed and heated.

As you might have already heard, we are currently working on a video where the lead architect of the new vivastations talks about the design of the shelters for the rapidways we will be building over the next few years.

Since that video is not yet completed and there’s growing interest in how the vivastations will keep people protected from the weather, I wanted to take some time to talk about a few features of the new stations. In a way, here’s a trailer of the video…

There will be three different sections (modules) in each station. The middle section will be completely enclosed and heated, blocking the wind, rain, snow and cold temperatures.

Extensive consultation with the public told us that comfort and keeping warm are very important to riders, which is reflected in the design for the new service.

The stations will be large enough to provide adequate personal space and there’ll be an overhang reaching above the vehicles to protect people boarding and alighting on rainy days.

The stations are also more environmentally friendly. Energy efficient LED lights will brighten the station at night. The enclosed section will have automatic accessible doors at each end of the enclosure. They will still have sensors to open automatically, but as you can see in the picture, the hinged doors are on the side of the enclosed section. This will keep heat from escaping when someone triggers the sensor by walking along the platform. Accessibility has also been top of mind during the design process, ensuring that the platform and station design are accessible for individuals with disabilities.

Each platform will be 55 metres long with a 27-metre glass and steel canopy structure in the middle. This will make the stations easy to find and the curved canopy will blend well into the natural streetscape.

Last week, we had a full day of production, shooting interviews and b-roll for the video. Watch for the finished product on our website in the coming weeks.

Categories
General

Don’t risk it, take transit

Tough new drinking and driving laws recently went into effect giving people an even greater reason to take public transit.

The tougher penalties mean increasing fines and suspensions for anyone driving under the influence.

Why risk lives when there’s a simple, easy and safe alternative – public transit. Keeping people from driving after they have been drinking alcohol is critical to keeping our roads safe.

As OPP Sgt. Dave Woodford has said many times, most accidents are not accidents, they are collisions and completely preventable.

Hopefully this new law will make people realize that drinking and driving is not worth it – and illegal!

drink_drive_2009_05_12

Categories
Live-work-play Rapidways Subways Urban Planning

Transit helps make Centres & Corridors a successful concept

York Region and Toronto planners discuss how to best manage growth over the next few decades.
York Region and Toronto planners discuss how to best manage growth over the next few decades.

We recently had the opportunity to co-sponsor the Regional Forum on Centres and Corridors. The consistent message from speakers and the audience was that investment in public transit should be the first priority in making centres and corridors thrive. They also said designing and building town centres linked by fast, convenient public transit helps to shift people out of their cars.

Speakers from York Region and the City of Toronto along with renowned urban planners and architects spoke about managing growth in York Region over the next 20 years. They examined lessons learned from the past to help improve growth management strategies in the future.

To help manage growth, the Region has a plan to focus development around four “downtowns” away from valuable farmland and environmentally important greenbelts. These centres (in Markham, Newmarket, Vaughan, and Richmond Hill) include residential, business and recreational development connected by transit.

The new centres are being developed as live-work-play communities. We will be posting a blog in the near future that talks more about this idea.

To learn more about the Centres, Corridors + Subways program, please visit their website

Read the Official Regional Plan

Read the Transit-Oriented Development Guidelines

Categories
Rapidways

What’s a rapidway and how will it help?

An artist rendering of a viva vehicle riding on the rapidway
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.

Categories
General Going Green Rapidways

vivaNext educates students for Earth Day

“Cool”, “sweet” and “we love Viva “ – those were the responses to our vivaNext plan for bus rapidways and subway extensions. 

earthday1
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.

 

What did you do for earth day?

 

Categories
General

Wondering what the difference is between YRT, Viva & vivaNext?

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.

Categories
Rapidways

Why a BRT is not a bacon, relish and tomato sandwich

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
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 Coloumbia announced  they 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?