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York Region Transit: Viva service thread

Is there going to be a new stop between Clark and Steeles once World on Yonge is finished? it would make sense. Also, thinking about King Rd, they're building houses at the south end of king now, just north of Bond Lake, and now theres a bug adult highschool and medical office building at the north end, was wondering if they might get rid of the stop at king Rd and split in into two stops, one at the south and north of the strip there (its pretty far to walk)
 
From the Remington Centre thread:

Markham, ON (DATE) – The Remington Centre, one of the biggest retail developments in Canada, announced today that over 80% of available retail condominiums have been pre-sold. In addition to pre-selling over 500 units, The Remington Centre has made key agreements with the Town of Markham that will position the property as a commuter hub. For public transportation users, GO Transit and VIVA public transportation will both have stations on-site.
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Anyone have any idea what a VIVA route here would look like?
 
Good question. I think there's a place for a Kennedy-16th-Rutherford VIVA route between Milliken and Vaughan Mills. That might be the only way any YRT corridor gets a service upgrade anymore.
 
That would make a lot of sense. It could even go through Markham Centre, along highway 7 briefly, and then past Seneca College (which plans to expand its campus) up through the Buttonville redevelopment (they also want VIVA service), then across 16th to Vaughan Mills. That would connect a lot of major trip generators as well as three GO stations (Milliken, Unionville and Rutehrford) and the Purple, Pink, Green and Blue VIVA lines. It could even duck down Bayview and go to Richmond Hill Centre as well.
 
canarob said:
That would make a lot of sense. It could even go through Markham Centre, along highway 7 briefly, and then past Seneca College (which plans to expand its campus) up through the Buttonville redevelopment (they also want VIVA service), then across 16th to Vaughan Mills. That would connect a lot of major trip generators as well as three GO stations (Milliken, Unionville and Rutehrford) and the Purple, Pink, Green and Blue VIVA lines. It could even duck down Bayview and go to Richmond Hill Centre as well.
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Kennedy and 16th/Carrville/Rutherford do not need VIVA service. Run the existing buses more often outside rush hour instead. All the major routes like 4, 8, 20, 85, 88, 90, 91 should have buses at least every 15 minutes Monday-Sunday outside rush hour and the high frequency routes should have thick lines on the YRT service map. VIVA Blue and VIVA Purple are really the only routes that make sense to be part of the VIVA system (Orange should be taken over by Brampton Transit permanently and Green/Pink turned into regular routes). Putting fancier buses and fancier bus shelters and putting duplicate local/express service that is not needed on more routes takes away money that is better spent improving service.
 
andrewpmk said:
Kennedy and 16th/Carrville/Rutherford do not need VIVA service. Run the existing buses more often outside rush hour instead. All the major routes like 4, 8, 20, 85, 88, 90, 91 should have buses at least every 15 minutes Monday-Sunday outside rush hour and the high frequency routes should have thick lines on the YRT service map. VIVA Blue and VIVA Purple are really the only routes that make sense to be part of the VIVA system (Orange should be taken over by Brampton Transit permanently and Green/Pink turned into regular routes). Putting fancier buses and fancier bus shelters and putting duplicate local/express service that is not needed on more routes takes away money that is better spent improving service.
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I agree. It makes no sense to have upgraded BRT along busy routes if you don't provide the feeder routes into the trunk BRT lines. It makes even less sense to have to put a BRT along a moderately busy route just to get the service levels up.
 
fellow urbanists,
try this next time you find yourself on the Viva Blue: if you're going north, get off at Major Mac and walk to the next stop (crosby Ave). This one stop length is the original town of Richmond Hill, its actually pretty nice, theres some interesting things to see along the way. Its a great halfway point between the terminuses, you can get a coffee and go pee and look around. This little stretch is one of the only urban places in York Region that is actually nice to walk through, because it was built before cars.
 
Dandy Horse said:
fellow urbanists,
try this next time you find yourself on the Viva Blue: if you're going north, get off at Major Mac and walk to the next stop (crosby Ave). This one stop length is the original town of Richmond Hill, its actually pretty nice, theres some interesting things to see along the way. Its a great halfway point between the terminuses, you can get a coffee and go pee and look around. This little stretch is one of the only urban places in York Region that is actually nice to walk through, because it was built before cars.
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Downtown Richmond Hill is alright, but is hardly 'one of the only' places in York Region like this. They are littered across the county. In fact, I'd say ours is pretty average all things considered. Old Newmarket, downtown Woodbridge, and old Markham beat downtown Richmond Hill hands down. This isn't even including the small towns and villages beyond the sprawl, which still have their downtowns relatively in tact (Kleinburg, Stouffville, Sutton, Schomburg, etc).
 
Dandy Horse said:
fellow urbanists,
try this next time you find yourself on the Viva Blue: if you're going north, get off at Major Mac and walk to the next stop (crosby Ave). This one stop length is the original town of Richmond Hill, its actually pretty nice, theres some interesting things to see along the way. Its a great halfway point between the terminuses, you can get a coffee and go pee and look around. This little stretch is one of the only urban places in York Region that is actually nice to walk through, because it was built before cars.
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I'll take a look around some time for sure, though as mentioned by Electrify, there are also other places around York Region with historic main streets that are nice destinations, including historic Unionville Main Street.

Also, on the topic of 16th Ave, I think increased frequency is definitely needed if anyone is going to take the route seriously, but I think that will come in due time as more development takes place on that route. I've been badgering YRT about this for years, and for a while we were at 20 min frequency during peak hours. I don't think it's at 20 anymore, maybe more like 25.

With the huge growth plans that Markham has, something has to be done about the transit service otherwise we're going to have a huge traffic mess once Buttonville and King Square get underway.
 
taal said:
Here's one thing I'm worried about, anyone who rides Viva already knows 'red / pink' painted concrete exists around the bus stops ... the problem, it looks like crap ...

It's start out a nice color but after a week or two .. puke ... actually you can already see it in the BRT around downtown Markham.
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Funny that you mention this.

Today while I was riding the purple, I noticed inside the Warden/Enterprise jug handle. They've dug out sections of the asphalt and have started testing different types of ground for the rapidway. There's a REALLY REALLY bright pink they've begun testing, as well as these stones but I don't know what they're for.

I'll try to get a photo tomorrow.
 
wait how does Old Newmarket beat Old Richmond Hill when Newmarket doesn't have a grocery store, lcbo, thrift store, more than one bar, new condo buildings, TD bank, brand new arts theater, inexpensive apartment buildings, a highschool, and a direct bus link to a subway station?
I mean, I love old Newmarket, but its sadly just a shell of a town, hollowed out by cars and short sighted planning decisions. everything important in that town is on the periphery in really ugly 'plazas'.
 
Took a couple joy ride on VIVA on Wed to check a few things out.

The ROW for Enterprise short section is a short rough section and expect to see a rebuilt every few years. The traffic light is a joke.

Having motion detection on the shelter area are going to wear out very fast. For the extra money, would enclosed the roof over the station 100%

Had my first ride on the Nova Artic and it has less get up and go on hills than NFI of all things. My trip from RHC to Barnard was on a peak loaded Van Hool bus and changing to an Nova for the rest of the trip to Newmarket. The Nova was near peak when I got on it and only 15 riders when we hot Newmarket. Most of those got on along the route after Barnard.

On my return trip aboard a Nova, we left Newmarket at 6:10 pm with 9 riders. When we hit Barnard, 27 riders had got on/off the bus along the route to the point we still had 6 riders from NM. By the time we hit Steeles we had carry 31 riders and only had 4 of the original riders from NM were 3 got off with another 4 riders. We hit Finch with only 4 riders, with 1 being from NM. That a 70 minute ride.

[video=youtube;Gq4X-tX2r9U]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gq4X-tX2r9U[/video]
[video=youtube;qx8-kZ1HRQE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qx8-kZ1HRQE[/video]
 
I don't know much about the actual service but the livery, design of stops and overall branding of the YRT and Viva services really put TTC to shame.
 
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