[yrt+viva=1system]

One thing that I'm disappointed about is the red asphalt. It doesn't look nearly red enough to distinguish itself from black asphalt, especially at the intersections.

Or are they adding another layer of paint to make it brighter?

Judging by the photos and my experience with working in asphalt development, it does look like YRT went with the option of paving with red asphalt rather than painting the roadway. The long term benefit would be the lack of fading and having to repaint but it is very expensive to pave in colour asphalt (yes there are other colours as well, you can even have white asphalt if you really wanted it and have the cash )

 

[reaperexpress]

According to the VivaNext website:

Next week viva vehicles will be doing test runs along the rapidway in advance of the opening later this summer.

So if any of you are looking to take sneak peek photos of the rapidway, this week is the time to do it.

One thing that I'm disappointed about is the red asphalt. It doesn't look nearly red enough to distinguish itself from black asphalt, especially at the intersections.

Or are they adding another layer of paint to make it brighter?

At the entrance/exit point of the rapidway @ Chalmers, they've painted the road bright pink to make sure cars don't enter the rapidway. Any idea if they are going to extend this painting work across the entire rapidway?

I don't think the bright red thermoplastic that they have placed west of Chalmers will be extended to the remainder of the busway, given that they have already painted road markings. They might place it under the 404, where is higher risk of cars accidentally turning onto the busway.

Judging by the photos and my experience with working in asphalt development, it does look like YRT went with the option of paving with red asphalt rather than painting the roadway. The long term benefit would be the lack of fading and having to repaint but it is very expensive to pave in colour asphalt (yes there are other colours as well, you can even have white asphalt if you really wanted it and have the cash )

The other interesting thing to note is that for that section at the west end of the busway, they placed red thermoplastic on top of already-red pavement. I assume the red pavement is either for ease of application (the entire busway is the same material) or just in case the thermoplastic wears off.

 

[christiesplits]

A bit of an aside, but I would take Viva's street furniture and shelters over Astral's any day.

 

[gweed123]

If my math is right...It's $1.8B for 41km of rapidways in total. All the reports say they are within the budget so...that's just under $44M per kilometre. That sound right? I doubt you'll find anything in the accounting (short of a detailed freedom-of-information request) that breaks down individual segments OR components.

Perfect, thanks! I figured it would come in around there, but just wanted to make sure. It certainly is the 'deluxe' version of BRT lanes (in-median, nice stations, etc), so I figured that would inflate the price a little bit.

 

[MafaldaBoy]

VIVA President Mary-Frances Turner has told the Globe and Mail that the rapidway will open this Sunday (August 18).

 

[innsertnamehere]

finally. maybe now people will start to see what is actually happening with the billions being spent on infrastructure. sadly it is such a small section I doubt it will do too much good, but when the next section opens to Warden I think you will start to see "choice" riders using the service.

 

[ShonTron]

finally. maybe now people will start to see what is actually happening with the billions being spent on infrastructure. sadly it is such a small section I doubt it will do too much good, but when the next section opens to Warden I think you will start to see "choice" riders using the service.

If shiny infrastructure alone gets more choice riders, I might believe you. I'm very skeptical though as YRT has been largely all about cutting service levels. One could hope that the rapidways attract new riders forcing service improvements, but I'm not holding my breath, especially if connecting services remain dismal.

That said Warden to Bayview isn't a bad place to start, as it would get around all the congestion around 7 and 404. I remain curious as to how well this will work.

 

[gweed123]

A few shots from this Monday:

 

[reaperexpress]

There seems to be a press conference occurring right now at the eastbound Leslie VivaStation. Lots of people standing on the rapidway, and police presence. It's the final stretch!

I'm curious to see whether the rapidway will shorten my commute on Monday. My guess is that it will have no impact, since I think the Bayview Vivastation detour via High Tech will still be in effect, and the schedules won't have changed to account for the rapidway. Furthermore, the rapidway won't really change the speed of buses, it will just increase reliability by eliminating the variable of traffic volume.

 

[innsertnamehere]

it will improve times, as there is signal priority (minorly, the buses will still wait for lights, but red lights will be shortened for them) and being at the front of the intersection also means that you can accelerate out faster and get to the next light faster. the buses will also never have to wait multiple cycles to cross an intersection like they might have to currently in dense traffic conditions.

 

[reaperexpress]

it will improve times, as there is signal priority (minorly, the buses will still wait for lights, but red lights will be shortened for them) and being at the front of the intersection also means that you can accelerate out faster and get to the next light faster. the buses will also never have to wait multiple cycles to cross an intersection like they might have to currently in dense traffic conditions.

I guess I was making two different points, hence the confusion.

1. The bus will not be any faster on Monday than it was this week, because the speed is dictated by the schedule, which won't change till September 1st.

2. The bus will not be much faster on September 1st than before the Rapidway construction began, because there were already massive queue jump lanes which kept Viva running efficiently even in total gridlock. Buses will spend more time at red lights because the introduction of protected left turns has decreased the amount of green time for Highway 7 compared to the old setup. Furthermore, since all left turns cross the busway, buses are now unable to benefit from the opposing direction having a short (or no) advanced left phase. They still need to wait for the same-direction left turn phase to finish before proceeding, unlike vehicles in the general traffic lanes. This means that now there can be situations where cars get a green light 12 seconds before buses*, (the lights always turn red at the same time, btw). Transit priority was in place in the old situation, so it is not a factor here unless the new system is substantially more effective.

I really hope the new transit priority is strong, but all the evidence seems to be suggesting that it will be nearly as weak as before.


* Assuming City of Toronto minimum values of 6 seconds minimum green, 3 seconds amber and 3 seconds all-way red for the left-turn phase. The difference in delay between cars and buses could be as long as 20 seconds if the same-direction left turn volumes are high and there is no opposing left turn phase.

 

[cplchanb]

I guess time will tell if the schedulers and planners at viva will be able to modify and create a faster moving brt.
one positive i can see though is that the buses have been removed from the road hence it will not be stuck in rush hour gridlock.
at the very least, they have created a future possibility of an easier lrt conversion compared to transit city where existing infrastructure is so tightly developed

 

[taal]

Yea thoughts of an LRT conversion are so premature, on a route where ridership is likely sub 10,000 per week day ... Purple is only around 6K or so I think.

Anyway, I really hope this will make transit more popular but I'm on the fence regarding whether that will happen. Again I know so many people in the area, the culture is just so different.

My gut feeling is peek weekday ridership has a chance of improving; But off-peak will still be very bad. Maybe 20-30 years from now when Downtown Markham and airport get redeveloped along with Yonge - Hi-way 7 things will change.

 

[Electrify]

Could they set it up so that if the bus is waiting at a red, only the transit signal goes green giving it priority over left turners? I've always thought it silly that we spend money on "transit signals" which do nothing more than duplicate the general signals above them.

 

[Electrify]

I sent out a tweet earlier asking if signal priority is turned on for this stretch, and they replied that it is. Unfortunately I didn't get my butt out of bed early enough to check it out, but I'll try tomorrow.