The Mike Haddad Show: This is relevant to my interests.

Yesterday, in a true testament to just how much of a loser I am, I went to the opening of York Region Transit’s new un-bus service Viva. They call it the un-bus because they want to make a distinction between Viva and their regular bus service. In a nutshell, it is suburbia’s answer and alternative to the expensive subway. Laurence, working for the TTC and being god of all things transit related, decided that we should go up armed with cameras and ride the shit out of the system (which only had part of two lines open). I have to say that I’m impressed with the service, and the fact that they got it up and running now while Mississauga Transit and Brampton Transit are still trying to figure out what the hell they’re doing.

Viva works like this: there are 2 (soon to be 5) routes. Its part of the 1system transit family, which only includes YRT and Viva but means that one fare lets your ride both of the services. Along each of the routes, there are vivastations that have oneRide machines to sell ready-for-use tickets. Six of the transit terminals have multiRide machines that sell the full range of fairs. You can also get on to Viva by using a transfer from a YRT bus.

The un-buses are of Belgium design, and painted a bright blue colour to help you distinguish the Viva un-bus from a YRT bus. Much like the subway which it is mean to stand in for, it has sets of large double doors that open all at once to allow for quick easy boarding instead of boarding just at the front like a regular bus. The articulated un-bus (read: long double bus) have tables set up for people who want to do work en route, with wi-fi coming soon. Or if you happen to be Laurence and Mike, you can put stuff on the table just because they're there, and you are so fucking cool because you're riding Viva on the first day (and you just happen to know more about it than any of the un-bus drivers and information employees).

The seats on the un-bus are incredibly comfortable (so much that it was hard to ride the TTC from York University to Downsview Station afterwards). There's a screen at the front of the bus that displays what the next station is, as well as a computer-female voice recording of the station as you arrive. The GPS system tells the bus when to play the recording, and also helps update the displays at the stations telling you how long it's going to be until your next un-bus arrives. It's also supposed to help with traffic priority at the lights, but for that to work the un-bus drivers need to be taught to stay in the proper lanes first.

I'm going to be honest when I say that I'm looking forward to them reconstructing the routes to give the Viva vehicles separate lanes, most likely in the middle of the road much like the streetcar LRT lines along Spadina, The Queensway, maybe the Harbourfront (I can't remember, but I don't think so) and soon to be St. Clair. You'll notice I said vehicles this time, instead of the un-bus. That wasn't a mistake. Part of the reason that Viva is being introduced in phases is because YRT wants to build up the ridership to turn Viva into an LRT line. I'd say subway line, but that would require tons and tons of ridership in an area that loves suburban sprawl. The centre Viva lanes already have money set aside for them, and would make traffic priority much easier to do. It would also make it the BRT system that they market it as, instead of just a glorified express bus route. But I still love it, and the concept. V is for Viva, and I'm going to Viva all night long.