Tag: Urban Planning

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
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
Subways

Increasing subway capacity

If the subway seems crowded, we've got ways to increase capacity.
The subways may seem crowded, but we've got ways to increase capacity.

We get a lot of people asking about how the subway extensions will affect the current service and levels of capacity. We understand that extending the line will allow more people to ride and there are plans in place to manage ridership growth and help increase current capacity during peak times, especially at Yonge and Bloor.

Our plan includes opening the Spadina subway extension first to divert riders who begin their commute in the north. We expect this to divert 1,300 peak hour riders away from the Yonge line. There will also be 2,900 parking spaces along the Spadina extension, to divert more riders away from the Yonge line.

A new signaling system will allow trains to run closer together, reducing the wait time between trains. More frequent trains help spread out ridership, reducing the bunching-up effect. The new trains will allow people to walk from one end to the other – making use of space between the train cars that’s currently not possible. In addition, only every second train will go north of Finch Station during the morning peak, meaning every other train arriving at Finch during the morning peak will start its southbound trip empty.

That is a very short overview of some of our plans to increase capacity. Please let me know if you are interested in how any particular plan will work. I like talking about solutions that will make getting around better for everyone.

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
General

Time-lapse animations a big hit with the Region

I really had no idea what they would say. We’ve recently been working really hard on creating images of what parts of York Region will look like when the rapidway/subway projects are completed and mixed-use development is built. And on April 16, I showed examples to York Region’s Rapid Transit Committee.
The final frame of the time-lapse animation in Markham
The final frame of the time-lapse animation in Markham


I’ll save you the suspense and just say that their eyes lit up and all the Mayors wanted to know when they would get a copy of the final images and time-lapse videos. In fact, one of the reporters there requested electronic copies of the three images shown. Guess we’ll see that in print this weekend.


For us, they have been developing time-lapse animations of how Markham, Vaughan and Newmarket will change over the next 5-10 years as communities are built around transit.

In only a few seconds, the time-lapse animation shows how these different areas will change as subways and rapidways come to York Region. They are still works in progress and will look even better when completed in a few weeks. So be sure to check back on our website to see the videos, and I’ll let you know here when they’re done.

I like going to meetings like this because it gives us a chance to talk with elected officials, members of the public and the media about how our progress is going and to hear their thoughts.

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?

Categories
Announcements Press

$3 billion for transit from Ontario Budget

When reviewing the Ontario Budget, one thing became abundantly clear with respect to public transit – there’s a serious commitment to it. The budget set aside more than $3 billion in funding for transit over the next two years!

The budget says the government will be “focusing on quick-start projects”. These are infrastructure projects that are already well planned and in a position to create immediate economic stimulus and create jobs. That’s exactly where vivaNext shines.

I applaud the Ontario Government for making such a significant funding commitment to public transit. Doing so will not only help provide an economic stimulus and create jobs, it will also help future generations to be less dependent on driving vehicles.

The cover of the 2009 Ontario Budget
The cover of the 2009 Ontario Budget
Categories
Urban Planning

Great cities are planned…and then built

We’ve all heard the old adage, “Rome wasn’t built in a day.” While popular proverbs can be annoying, there is usually a good reason why people throw them around so much.

Did you know that despite the fact that Rome was built thousands of years ago, it is a shining example of urban planning. The Romans were remarkable, designing their cities in a grid, with two main thoroughfares crossing the city to facilitate the flow of traffic.

The “Rome” axiom is one of the favourites we like to throw around here in the office. Like any infrastructure project, a lot of planning and hard work goes on before a shovel is put in the ground.

Philosopher Leopold Kohr once said: “Men do not love Rome because she is beautiful; Rome is beautiful because men have loved her.” Just as the Romans carefully planned and nurtured their city, we have been working very hard and considering feedback from the community along the way in every detail of the vivaNext plan.

As the plans are put into action over the next few years, we hope that you will be proud of the high quality transit system that we’re building together.

Can you think of a more fitting adage?