Vancouver’s transit challenge

Getting more passengers to use transit means ensuring that transit facilities are affordable, integrated, accessible, and above all, meet the needs of the people using them.

The Metro Vancouver region has a reputation in North America for its high levels of transit use and its well-developed multi-modal transit network. Metro Vancouver’s transit authority, TransLink, aims to build on this and has set an ambitious target for 50% of all regional travel to be made by sustainable modes (walking, cycling, and transit) by 2040. Achieving this will require a significant increase in network capacity and a step change in the provision of services and facilities to fully meet the future needs of TransLink’s passengers.

To help them on this ambitious road, Translink has asked Steer Davies Gleave, supported by a team of national and international subconsultants, to develop its Transit Passenger Facilities Design Guidelines to ensure consistent application across projects and environments for all modes, including SkyTrain, bus, trolleybus, BRT, LRT, and SeaBus.

To be successful, the guidelines will need to engage the imagination, interest, and commitment not only of planners and designers, but also of transit and facility operators, clients, and stakeholder bodies. The guidelines, currently under development, will provide direction for the design process in context, not only setting out objectives and references to relevant standards and specifications, but also support the identification of design opportunities, stimulating rather than restricting the creative process.

In support of this process, the guidelines will provide references to established TransLink standards as well as to examples and criteria for good practices.

Scheduled for completion in December 2010, the guidelines will include guidance across a range of design themes as well as a series of overarching design principles that include:

Design excellence and innovation

‘High quality’ planning and design should lead to outcomes which are both costeffective and affordable, where the cost of design is considered as part of the overall cost of a project and included in the whole life assessment of project cost-in-use.

Integration

The most efficient planning and design results are achieved when transit and its surrounding urban context are fully integrated, each adding value to the other.

Inclusive design

Development of transit facilities and places which provide ease of access and use for all people.

Modal hierarchy

Putting passengers and pedestrians first means prioritizing access and facilities based on the needs of different travel modes and their integration. This requires the clear establishment of modal hierarchies/policies to help designers in making trade offs.