Tag: Rapidway

Categories
Live-work-play Urban Planning

Montreal tops list of “9 Great Streets Around The World”!

Crowds pack Boulevard Saint Laurent during a street festival. Photo courtesy of Djof.
Crowds pack Boulevard Saint Laurent during a street festival. Photo courtesy of Djof.

Project for Public Spaces (PPS), an internationally-recognized non-profit organization that helps communities get the most out of their streets, both as transportation links for all modes of commuters and as vital places for people to enjoy, recently compiled its list of “9 Great Streets Around The World”.

Affectionately known as “The Main”, Montreal’s Boulevard Saint Laurent tops PPS’s list for a number of reasons including its Access & Linkages, Comfort & Image, Uses & Activities, and Sociability.

With vivaNext, this kind of placemaking will also take place along York Region’s busiest corridors as people come to live, work, shop and play in close proximity to great transit service. In addition to great access, vivaNext will bring attractive boulevards, planted medians and an enhanced pedestrian experience including continuous, wide sidewalks.

We wouldn’t be at all surprised if Highway 7, Yonge Street and Davis Drive top the PPS list of great streets in years to come!

Categories
General

The best way to holiday shop will get even better with vivaNext!

If you’re like most York Region residents, your holiday shopping list is long and involves trips to multiple retail locations.

Leaving your car at home and taking transit instead is the best way to avoid traffic jams and parking problems. It’s also a lot less expensive since you don’t have to pay for things like gas, valets, tickets, and even towing.

With a YRT\Viva ticket, you can travel on any YRT or Viva vehicle in any direction for a two-hour period with just one fare. How convenient and inexpensive is that?! Simply remember to hang onto your ticket or transfer as proof-of-payment so you can hop on and hop off vehicles.

As great as transit already is for holiday shopping, it will get even better with vivaNext. The subway extensions, rapidways, and proposed light rail transit lines will make it even faster and easier to get around York Region’s busiest corridors and beyond.

In fact, we wouldn’t be at all surprised to see a certain somebody in a red and white suit using our transit system to do his holiday shopping in future!

Categories
General Rapidways

Get assistance from your Community Liaison!

Our goal is to ensure that you can quickly and easily find answers to all your vivaNext questions on our comprehensive and constantly updated website. However, we also recognize that there may be times when you need to speak directly to someone about a specific related matter.

That’s why we have a vivaNext Community Liaison, Andrea Witty. Whether you’re a property owner, business operator, tenant, or any other community member directly affected by vivaNext construction, Andrea is readily available to assist you with any question regarding rapidway planning and construction.

Here’s how to reach her:

Andrea Witty
Community Liaison
Telephone: 905-886-6767  Ext. 1022
1-877-464-9675
Cellphone: 416-554-1890
Email: andrea.witty@york.ca

Throughout vivaNext construction, you will also find Andrea out in the community providing York Region residents and businesses with ongoing project information.

If you met Andrea, what would you ask her?

Categories
Community Events

Bring on the warmth!

Look for people walking near this bus to donate mittens, gloves and hats for those in need.
Look for YRT\Viva staff walking near this bus at York Region holiday parades to donate mittens, hats and gloves for those in need.

Planning to attend one of York Region’s many holiday parades over the next few weeks? If so, you can help our operating partner, YRT\Viva, spread winter warmth to those in need by bringing new mittens, hats and gloves to be donated to charitable organizations in York Region.

YRT and Viva, York Region’s two great transit services, work together as one amazing system to provide seamless connections across all nine municipalities, and easy access to other transit systems operating in neighbouring regions including Toronto, Durham and Peel.

VivaNext, York Region’s plan for the next generation of Viva rapid transit service, will truly put the rapid into rapid transit and make it even faster and easier for you to travel to, from and within York Region.

Whichever holiday parade you go to, just look for YRT\Viva staff accepting donations from the crowds while proudly walking and waving alongside the beautifully decorated blue Viva vehicle – at 40-feet long, it’s hard to miss!

Categories
Announcements Rapidways Subways vivaNext.com

Get all the latest news about vivaNext in our fall e-newsletter!

Wondering when and where we’ll start to break ground on the vivaNext rapidways? Or how they are already affecting urban transformation in such key destinations as downtown Markham?

In our fall e-newsletter, which has just been posted on our website at vivanext.com, you can find quick and easy answers to these vivaNext-related questions, and many more.

For example, you can learn what people just like you have to say about commuting to and from work in York Region, and whether or not they think our rapid transit projects will make things better or worse.

Perhaps you’re especially looking forward to the proposed Yonge subway extension? If so, then you’ll enjoy our look back to where it all began more than fifty years ago.

We even reveal the lucky Grand Prize winner in our ‘Next Best Thing To Summer’ contest. It’s all there, along with a handy sign-up form so you can conveniently receive future issues of our e-newsletter in your Inbox, along with customized email updates about vivaNext projects of particular interest to you.

Once you’ve had a chance to read our latest e-newsletter, we encourage you to submit topic suggestions for future issues right here on our blog.

Enjoy!

Categories
Community Events

The holiday season kicks off this Sunday in York Region with the first of five Santa Claus parades to take place during the month of November.

To help the big guy in the red and white suit greet all of the thousands of people who will line the various parade routes to see him, vivaNext helpers have been invited to join him. They’ll be walking in front of our beautiful blue Viva vehicle specially decorated for the parades and impossible to miss.

Each helper will be wearing a 4-sided cube costume measuring 24” wide by 30” high that showcases the vivaNext changes coming to York Region. As they walk along and wave to the crowds, their cubes will rotate in formation to reveal four unique and colourful streetscapes in Newmarket, Vaughan, Richmond Hill and Markham – each one representing the urban transformation that vivaNext rapid transit projects will help to create.

We  hope they will be as much fun for you to watch, as they will be for our parade marshal to coordinate. We look forward to seeing you en route!

Parade Schedule:

November 8 – Vaughan – starts at 2:00pm
click here for a parade route map
November 15 – Richmond Hill – starts at 1:30pm
click here for a parade route map
November 21 – Newmarket – starts at 11:00am
click here for a parade route map
November 28 – Markham – starts at 11:00am
click here for a parade route map
November 28 – Aurora – starts at 6:00pm
click here for a route map

Categories
Ways to win

Everyone wins with vivaNext!

A member of team vivaNext talks to people at a booth at the Markham Home Show in front of our contest banner.
A member of team vivaNext talks to people at our Markham Home Show booth in front of our contest banner.

The last day to enter our exciting vivaNext ‘text to win’ contest was this past Friday, October 30, 2009. Over the course of the contest period, which began on October 9,  2009, we received 1,434 text entries – an incredible response.

In all, 22 daily prizes were randomly awarded including Tim Hortons and mall gift certificates, movie passes, and YRT\Viva monthly passes.

After the contest ended, our Grand Prize winner of the new iPod nano®* was randomly selected from all daily contest entries. We look forward to announcing their name just as soon as they have received their prize.

Meanwhile, we’d like to thank all participants who entered our ‘text to win’ contest and remind everyone that with great things like faster transit, better connections and attractive boulevards en route, everyone wins with vivaNext.

Disclaimer:* “iPod nano” is a registered trademark of Apple, Inc. All rights reserved. Apple, Inc. is not a participant in or sponsor of this promotion.
Categories
Community Events Ways to win

vivaNext segway team drives awareness at Vaughan Mills

Our vivaNext segway team was so successful at driving awareness for our projects at Markville Mall and the Markham Home Show earlier this month, we decided to put them to work once again at Vaughan Mills this past weekend.

Take a peek at our short video and see for yourself what a hit they were with passing motorists and pedestrians alike.

BTW, this is the last day of our contest. If you haven’t entered yet, there’s still time to do so by texting* the word “vivaNext” to the number 101010. Good luck!

* Wireless service provider charges may apply.
Categories
Ways to win

Last week to enter to WIN great prizes

A woman entering our contest at Markville Mall over Thanksgiving long weekend.

This is the last week of our vivaNext ‘text to win’ contest, which began October 9, 2009 and ends this Friday, October 30, 2009. So far, 17 lucky people have won great daily prizes. Plus, along with all other contestants, they still have a chance to win the Grand Prize – the new iPod nano.*

For a complete list of the prizes we are awarding, please visit our website. While on our website, you will also find out all of the latest project information, including rapidways and subway extensions up to Highway 7.

Remember…you can enter once every day during the contest period. The more days you enter, the more chances you have to win. To enter, simply text** the word “vivaNext” to the number 101010. Good luck!

* “iPod nano” is a registered trademark of Apple, Inc. All rights reserved. Apple, Inc. is not a participant in or sponsor of this promotion.
** Wireless service provider charges may apply.
Categories
Community Events Rapidways Subways Ways to win

Be on the lookout for our vivaNext ‘segway’ team at Vaughan Mills this weekend

Two members of our segway team texting to win. When you see them near Vaughan Mills Mall this weekend ask how you could win the new iPod nano®.Two members of our segway team texting to win at Markville Mall. When you see them near Vaughan Mills Mall this weekend ask how you could win the new iPod nano®*.

Over the past two weekends, our vivaNext ‘segway’ team made appearances outside of Markville Mall and the Markham Home Show. Even in the pouring rain, they were a tremendous hit, attracting a lot of attention from Markham area residents. This, in turn, allowed us to drive awareness of vivaNext projects and communicate how to enter our new contest for a chance to win the new iPod nano®*. It’s so easy you could do it right now. All you have to do is text the word vivaNext to the number 101010.**

Now our vivaNext ‘segway’ team is preparing for their next appearance outside of Vaughan Mills this coming weekend. On Saturday and Sunday, they will be out in force to talk with Vaughan area residents about vivaNext projects in their area including the Spadina subway extension and the Highway 7 rapidway, which will both extend to the Vaughan Metropolitan Centre. As well, our vivaNext team will have a booth set up inside the mall from Friday through until Sunday, to ensure that we are able to talk to as many people as possible about our projects.

We hope to see you there!

Outside mall segway hours:
Saturday, October 24      noon – 4pm
Sunday, October 25        noon – 4pm

Inside mall booth hours:
Friday, October 23         10am – 9pm
Saturday, October 24     10am – 9pm
Sunday, October 25       11am – 7pm

* “iPod nano” is a registered trademark of Apple, Inc. All rights reserved. Apple, Inc. is not a participant in or sponsor of this promotion.
** Wireless service provider charges may apply.