Tag: Vaughan

Categories
Urban Planning vivaNext.com

Futuristic view of York Region

Click on this button in the top right of our website and watch the video.
Click on this button in the top right of our website and watch the video.

For the past few months, we’ve been showing futuristic computer renderings of key growth centres within York Region and what they could look like years down the road with the rapidways. These renderings are really just a small part of a longer video that we have been working on that includes time-lapse animation segments showing the transformation of Newmarket, Markham Centre and Vaughan Metropolitan Centre.

You can now watch the full version on our website or scroll down to the bottom of this post. When you are on the website, just click on the icon at the top-right of every page that says “the future of viva”.

The video follows one girl’s journey as she grows up taking transit around York Region and witnesses these three key areas transform. As rapidways are built along Davis Drive, the streetscape is revitalized, a pedestrian mall with mixed-use development is built at Markham Centre, and high-rise condos and offices are built at Vaughan Metropolitan Centre. The video ends with the girl, now in her 20s, walking to a subway station at Richmond Hill Centre.

These changes won’t happen overnight, but if you wonder how our community could evolve with these transit improvements and development planning, you have to take a look at this video. The transformation is quite remarkable!

What do you think of the time-lapse animation segments? Can you picture yourself walking down the Markham Centre pedestrian mall or hopping on a subway at the Vaughan Metropolitan Centre? Let me know your thoughts on the future of York Region.

Categories
Announcements Live-work-play Rapidways Subways

And the new name is…

An artist rendering of what an intersection at the new Vaughan Metropolitan Centre may look like in the future. It is complete with subway and rapidway stops, high rise condos, offices, shops and restaurants.
An artist rendering of what an intersection at the new Vaughan Metropolitan Centre may look like in the future. It is complete with subway and rapidway stops, high-rise condos, offices, shops and restaurants.

The City of Vaughan’s downtown core will undergo a transformation over the next several years. Encompassing 125-acres, development plans include office and residential towers, shopping and entertainment complexes, plenty of green spaces and pedestrian walkways, and, of course, vivaNext rapid transit connections.

In recognition of all the exciting changes to come, Vaughan City Council determined that a change of name – from Vaughan Corporate Centre – was in order to better reflect the true vision and future of this key hub.

This summer, the City held a contest where people were encouraged to submit their suggestions. Almost 1,600 entries were received, including Central Vaughan, Vaughan Gateway, Vaughan Mosaic Centre and Vaughan Nexus.

In the end, Vaughan Metropolitan Centre was chosen as the winning entry by the City subcommittee that reviewed all the submissions, which consisted of business stakeholders and citizens.

“People wanted something that’s easy enough to remember and still reflected what we want to see from the downtown,” said Councillor Sandra Yeung Racco, who chaired the City subcommittee.

To view a video of the future transformation of Vaughan Metropolitan Centre, please click here or visit vivaNext.com.

Categories
Rapidways Stations

How level boarding at our new vivastations will further enhance service efficiency

With level boarding, the vehicle will pull up to a raised platform. This greatly increases the time it takes for passengers to get on and off the vehicle making for a faster trip.
This is a rendering of a viva vehicle stopping at a new vivastation. With level boarding, the vehicle will pull up to a raised platform. This greatly decreases the time it takes for passengers to get on and off making for a faster trip.

Viva is already a highly efficient rapid transit service thanks to features such as our off-board fare collection system. It’s going to get even better. In addition to our new vivaNext rapidways – which will take our beautiful blue Viva vehicles out of mixed traffic and put them on dedicated centre lanes so they can safely speed past congested traffic – our new vivastations will feature level boarding.

What do I mean by level boarding? Simply that the platforms at our new vivastations will be raised so they are about the same height as the floor of our Viva vehicles. This, in turn, will speed up the boarding process by eliminating the need for riders to climb steps or lift objects, and for Viva drivers to lower ramps for easier accessibility.

Level boarding is already successfully used throughout the world by other BRT, LRT and subway systems to enhance service efficiency. It only made sense to make it a feature of our new vivastations so that we can get you where you want to go faster and easier, and like never before.

Can you think of other things that might make your rapid transit experience even better?

Categories
Announcements Press Subways

Big step toward starting construction on the Spadina subway extension

Chair Fisch and the other dignitaries pose for cameras in front of a scale model of a tunnel boring machine.
Chair Fisch and the other dignitaries pose for cameras in front of a scale model of a tunnel boring machine.

Lovat, an Ontario-based company that makes tunnel boring equipment, has been awarded a $58-million contract to build four machines that will be used in the construction of the Spadina subway extension.

The announcement was made last Friday, August 7, at the Lovat plant by Ontario Transportation Minister Jim Bradley, joined by MP Bob Dechert, York Regional Chair and CEO Bill Fisch, TTC Chair Adam Giambrone and Lovat President Dick Cooper. Not only does this mean the creation of some 200 jobs in the GTA and a boost to the economy, it signals continued progress on the project as it’s scheduled to open in 2015.

Prior to the announcement, I had the pleasure of joining the group for a bit of a tour of Lovat. We met at one end of their Mississauga plant and walked through to the other end while learning about what’s involved in making tunnel boring equipment. Cameras and reporters were waiting at the end of the tour to hear each dignitary deliver a short speech about the announcement.

It was awe-inspiring to watch the dignitaries being interviewed in front of a massive tunnel boring machine. They’re HUGE. Just take a look at the picture below to see how big they are compared to the people near them.

Lovat has built similar and even larger machines for projects all around the world, from Algeria to Venezuela. “We are pleased to be a part of this significant mass-transit project, as it not only generates jobs and strengthens infrastructure locally, but also highlights Canada’s technological capabilities on a global scale,” said Cooper.

The first two machines are expected to be delivered in the fall of 2010, with tunnel boring to begin shortly after.

York Regional Chairman Bill Fisch speaks to the audience and TV cameras in front of an actual tunnel boring machine last Friday.
York Regional Chair and CEO Bill Fisch speaks to the audience and TV cameras in front of an actual tunnel boring machine last Friday.
Categories
Community Events

Team vivaNext will be at the Woodbridge Italian Festival this weekend

Soccer teams of every description will be out in full force this Saturday, August 1 and Sunday, August 2 at the annual Woodbridge Italian Festival, taking place at the Ontario Soccer Centre, 7601 Martin Grove Road, just south of Highway 7.

The vivaNext team will also be there from 3 to 11:30 p.m. each day to cheer participants on and talk to residents about vivaNext projects, including the Highway 7 rapidway, which will make it so much faster and easier to take transit to events like this one in the future.

In addition to such soccer highlights such as the “VIP Soccer Challenge” between Vaughan City Council and members of the media, festival attendees of all ages can look forward to two spectacular days filled with food, entertainment, fashion, music, games and much more. Plus, if you are there Saturday evening, you will get to see the Miss Woodbridge Italia Pageant. Best of all, admission for everything is free.

We look forward to seeing you there!

Categories
Community Events Ways to win

Thanks to all our visitors for a winning four days at the malls.

A young girl fishes at our Markville Mall Pond last Friday hoping to win one of our cool summer prizes.
A young girl fishes at our Markville Mall pond last Friday hoping to win one of our cool summer prizes.

This past Thursday through Sunday, vivaNext teams were out in full force at various York Region malls including Markville, Upper Canada and Vaughan Mills. Thousands of visitors stopped by our booths to putt golf balls and fish in our ponds for instant prizes like beach balls, flying discs and magnetic puzzles.

Of course, there was also plenty of great chitchat about vivaNext. People were really excited to learn that we’ll soon be breaking ground on the rapidways, which will make it up to 40% faster to get around York Region’s busiest corridors when completed.

If you missed us at the malls, not to worry because you could still win with vivaNext. If you haven’t entered our Next Best Thing To Summer Contest, you have until this Friday, July 31, 2009, to do so.

You could win cool summer gear in one of our daily prize draws plus our Grand Prize of a handy iPod touch® so you can get up-to-date vivaNext construction and project information wirelessly. Good luck to all our entrants!

Categories
Rapidways Stations

Where do you think we should place the bicycle racks?

One possible location for the bike racks is on the platforms as you can see in this rendering.
One possible location for the bike racks is on the platforms, as you can see in this 3D model.

As part of the vivaNext plan, beautiful new vivastations will be built in the centre of the roadway along the rapidways on Davis Drive, Yonge Street and Highway 7, as well as the proposed LRT lines on Don Mills Road/Leslie Street and Jane Street in York Region. From the top down, these vivastations have been designed around you. Among their many features and benefits, they will include bicycle racks for quick and easy transit connections.

Right now, we’re examining where to place these bicycle racks and would like to hear your thoughts. There are basically three options to consider.

Option 1 – Place them right on the platforms. This would allow you to conveniently lock your bicycle up right at your point of departure and simply board the next Viva vehicle. On your return Viva trip, you’ll arrive at the same station, but on a different platform. To get your bicycle, all you’d have to do is go back to the original departure platform.

Option 2 – Place the bicycle racks on the sidewalks at the intersections adjacent to the vivastations.  This option would make it more convenient for you to shop, run errands and meet up with friends after your return Viva trip before picking-up your bicycle.

Option 3 – Distribute the bicycle racks evenly on both the platforms and the sidewalks.

So which option do you prefer? Please take a moment to let us know because here at vivaNext, we value your opinion – even when it comes to bicycle racks!

Categories
Studies

Study shows you should expect to spend longer commuting

Traffic slowly moving along Highway 7.
Traffic slowly moving along Highway 7 in York Region.

If you think that your commute is taking longer, you’d be right and the bad news is that you’re not alone.

A recent survey conducted jointly by the Ontario Ministry of Transportation, the City of Toronto and the Regions of York, Durham and Peel confirms that average speeds on highways and roads all around the GTA are decreasing. On average, a trip now takes 11% to 21% longer than the exact same trip in 2002.

While this figure applies to the entire GTA, one of the worst long sections of highway is travelled by many York Region residents every day. The section travelling southbound along Hwy. 404 from 16th Ave. to Hwy. 401 during the morning rush hour is the slowest long stretch of highway in the GTA. Motorists see an average speed of 31km/h along this stretch during the morning peak period. Driving along Hwy. 404 during peak hours takes 3.5 times longer than during times when you are able to drive at the posted speed limit.

But York Region roads are not just congested by drivers heading in to and out of Toronto. The study looked at Highway 7 all the way from Durham to Peel Region, an 88 km stretch, and found that three of the five slowest sections were in York Region.

Average speeds on Hwy. 7 through York Region are often almost half of the posted speed limit and not just during rush hours. The study found that driving on Hwy. 7 in the middle of the day is almost as slow as driving it during the morning rush.

The simple solution as we see it is to get more people out of those cars that are causing the increase in congestion and get them on fast, convenient transit.

Do you agree that traffic is getting worse? What are some solutions?

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 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.