Tag: transit-oriented development

Categories
Construction General Rapidways

turning on the Lights

Street lights are one of those infrastructure elements that the public may not give a lot of thought to, but in truth their design contributes significantly to the overall streetscape.  And because our project is being used to transform Highway 7 East from a highway to an urban corridor, all the vivaNext design components including the street lights have been given a lot of thought.  But before design considerations can be focused on, safety is the first priority to be achieved by street lighting. Here’s an overview of the role lighting plays in the vivaNext vision, and the street lighting elements you will see installed on all the rapidway corridors.

Designing street lighting, like all the major elements in the vivaNext project, is used to achieve a combination of practical and design objectives.  Lighting is first and foremost a public safety consideration. There are strict national and local standards against which street lighting is designed including how much lighting is required for different conditions (for example, different measures are used to determine the lighting levels for roadways compared to intersections and sidewalks).  Once the levels are known, lighting designers will develop a design, which includes variables such as pole height, spacing and “lux”, which is the amount of light to be provided by the fixture.

Once the lighting design is done, streetscape design objectives can come into play in order to marry the technical requirements with the architectural priorities needed to achieve the desired streetscape “look”.  In the case of vivaNext, the streetscape objectives are for a modern, stylish and uncluttered look that will contribute to the feeling of the corridors as being urban destinations, and make them distinctive from other Regional roadways.

To achieve all these safety requirements and design objectives, we have selected a special street light pole and luminaire (the light head or fixture), and arm that holds the luminaire, to be used along all the rapidway segments.  The poles will be a little higher than the ones they’ve replaced (9.9 m high versus 8.0 m), and they’re made of metal with a dark grey powder-coat finish for long-wearing good looks (and less maintenance).  Unlike most poles which are octagonal shaped and tapered to the top, these are round and cylindrical for a sleeker, more modern look.  And the lighting head or luminaire on top was chosen to complement the sleek modern look of our canopies.

Under its good looks, the street lights have a photo sensor to automatically turn on and off when it’s dark.  And the bulbs – which are little larger than the light bulbs you have in your home – only need to be replaced every 4 years.

So next time you’re sitting at a stop light or at a bus stop and you’re looking at the beautiful new streetscape, you’ll know more about all the decisions that were needed to turn on the lights!

Enjoy!!

 

Categories
Urban Planning

Let’s talk transit

I was recently watching a video about the importance of transit in communities [see the link below], and was reminded what a difference it makes to every person to have convenient, fast transit nearby. Those of you who take transit every day are likely nodding as you read this, but if you’re not a regular transit user you may wonder how it can benefit you.

If you have to drive every day, then the road in front of you has one less car for every person who takes transit. It may be hard to picture, but next time you drive down an urban street, imagine that the people driving cars around you are riding transit and waiting at transit stops instead.

Transit is important to people with different incomes, and at different stages of life. Not only is it a smart way to save money, sometimes it’s the only affordable option to get to school or work. Having the option to take transit can be liberating, especially if you’re unable to drive due to age, medical conditions or disabilities. Some may use transit mostly in their youth, whereas others may find themselves using it later in life.  The wonderful thing is having choices.

Where you live plays an important role too. Transit is more popular in urban areas where driving and parking are frustrating. If you live just outside an urban area, transit can be your ticket to town, without having to pay for parking or taxis.

So as the video says, transit is important for communities – and that includes you, those you live with, neighbours and coworkers.

Video by the Canadian Urban Transit Association: youtu.be/HQtYFVNU7XQ

[poll id=”40″]

Categories
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.

Categories
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.

Categories
General Uncategorized Urban Planning

A Transit-Oriented World

Transmetro Bus Rapid Transit system in Guatemala City, Guatemala
Transmetro Bus Rapid Transit system in Guatemala City, Guatemala

There are many cities where the fastest, most convenient way of getting around is by transit. Cities are planned and built over time, so no two cities are the same, and each one is planned based on identified needs or goals. A transit system built to meet an existing need may be effective in the short-term, but once a community is already built it can be complicated and costly to keep up with population growth by adding new transit infrastructure. To meet the long-term goal of an attractive destination to live, work, and play, transit systems need to be built beforehand to shape future development.

If they’re planned well, transit systems can be built with the ability to expand along with demand – for example from Bus Rapid Transit to Light Rail Transit. Building a transit system that will shape the community is the mindset, and the term we use for this is Transit-Oriented Development, or TOD.

TOD is a relatively new term but in one form or another, cities have been planned around transit for centuries. In historic Europe, roads, bridges and rail lines were built for wars, religious pilgrimages, and shipping goods, and where these roads met, communities grew. In Toronto, streetcar suburbs were created in the early 1900s as streetcar lines extended to new city limits with annexation to the north, west and east.

Currently, TOD is springing up all around the world on different landscapes and in different climates – Brisbane, Guatemala City, Hong Kong, and London to name a few. In North America, cities such as Vancouver, San Francisco and Arlington have a strong history of planning communities around transit, paving the way for similar developments in Edmonton, Calgary, Vancouver and Montreal. Closer to home, TOD is taking root in several communities such as Vaughan, Richmond Hill and Markham.

We’ve seen the sprawl that results when development happens without transit systems, and we can see worldwide examples of development springing up around transit routes and stations. Transit-Oriented Development is the urban planning of the future, but it’s strongly rooted in history – the traditional idea of a community with everything within walking distance or a short (fast!) ride away.

If you lived in a transit-oriented community, what amenities would you like to have nearby?

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
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
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.

Categories
Live-work-play Urban Planning

Transit-oriented development coming to Hercules, California

Many communities around the world are making an attempt at combating urban sprawl. An excellent example is in a town near San Francisco, California. They are preventing urban sprawl and revitalizing a formerly industrial waterfront by creating a pedestrian-friendly, transit-oriented city.

What separates Hercules from other cities is that they are reclaiming land that was previously used for other functions instead of building on unused land that is “green”.

The town is also taking transit-oriented development to another level with a transit hub that will include a ferry terminal, an Amtrak rail station and buses destined for surrounding communities. Next to the terminal will be homes, offices, restaurants, retail stores and public space. Having everything close by encourages residents to walk instead of using the car, shop locally and meet their neighbours.

Having transit options, especially going to San Francisco, is a step in reducing traffic on some of the continents most congested roads.

Reducing congestion and commute times are ideas the vivaNext project will also bring to York Region.

What do you think about Hercules and the new urbanism in this suburban town?<-->