Room: Paris
Sponsor(s)
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Session Description
OPTA’s Rising Stars
Moderator: Hosted by CUTA’s Youth & Emerging Leaders Sub-Committee
Discover the future of public transit through the work of OntarioÂ’s emerging leaders! Hosted by CUTAÂ’s Young and Emerging Leaders Sub-Committee, this session showcases three dynamic professionals making a real impact in their communities and across the industry. Hear their stories of innovation, fresh perspectives, and creative solutions shaping the transit landscape. Following a short panel discussion, join us for a networking social, your chance to connect with industry peers and the leaders of tomorrow. DonÂ’t miss this opportunity to exchange ideas, expand your network, and be inspired!
Drivers of Transit Construction Inefficiency: Impacts and Solutions
Speaker: Jedwin Mok – University of Toronto
The expansion of mass transit infrastructure is crucial for accommodating the rapidly growing population in Canadian metro areas and promoting a shift toward sustainable modes of transportation. However, these initiatives are becoming increasingly costly, threatening the timely delivery of necessary infrastructure to bridge the current sustainable mobility gap. Our research argues that CanadaÂ’s chronic cost escalation and schedule risk are not simply the result of difficult geology, procurement, or isolated project decisions. They are often the predictable outputs of an institutional environment in which standards are fragmented, knowledge is lost, and conditions are negotiated on an ad-hoc basis. The actionable solutions we will share are the result of our intensive mixed-methods research program and focus on learning from best-practice jurisdictions from around the world.
Enhancing Cross-Boundary Transit Wayfinding Opportunities Across the Greater Golden Horsehoe
Speaker: Cole Clemenhagen – Toronto Metrolitan University
This project was conducted as part of a TMU Planning Studio course. For this client studio project, combining primary observations from journey mapping and thorough case study secondary research, we assessed inter-agency wayfinding in the Greater Golden Horseshoe, highlighting opportunities for regional integration and consistency on this front. Our findings analyzed the role of not just signage and maps, but also digital and in-vehicle wayfinding tools, audio and verbal communications, and physical design principles of stations. Overall, treating wayfinding as a complete user experience from the viewpoints of different user typologies, there is great potential impact from this work in the Canadian context to assist agencies in tackling user satisfaction in navigating public transit as a priority, with wayfinding as a tool to encourage mode shift towards transit.
Implementing Transit Signal Priority on Surface Level Transit in Toronto
Speaker: Varsan Jeyakkumar – University of Toronto
With more surface level transit being implemented in Census Metropolitan Areas across Canada, it is important to ensure these options are fast and reliable. Transit Signal Priority provides means to accomplish this, but it requires a consideration of the unique circumstances at each intersection. Improper implementation can lead to either no meaningful improvements or significantly worsen congestion on local roads. Using examples globally, this project analyses different TSP sequences, how it relates to the technology inside vehicles, and where each sequence could be used. This presentation uses examples in Toronto such as Jane and Finch and the Golden Mile Area, such as demonstrating the impacts of Delayed Left Turns in that area. This project seeks to raise awareness of Transit Signal Priority and bring a more data-driven approach to make transit faster and more reliable.
How GTFS can be used for insight
Speaker: Rikki MacMullin – Better Transit Ottawa
Better Transit Ottawa is an advocacy group of students and young transit enthusiasts that have developed various tools to track fleet utilization, visualize on-the-ground operations, and identify challenges in OTP and reliability. While the tools are focused on Ottawa, they have all been built around public GTFS data, and could be easily exported to other transit systems. Our tools include the Block Explorer, used for tracking blocks/paddles, the Fleet Availability Tracker, used for identification of critical times of day for OttawaÂ’s bus shortage, and the OTP calculator, used to highlight issues with particular routes and service gaps due to cancellations. Our tools translate the complexity of transit operations to easily explainable terms, and are already in use by councillors and the general public in Ottawa. We will be showcasing our tools and discussing how they can be used by agencies as well as individuals and transit advocates to pursue the most effective improvements.
Speaker(s) / Presenter(s)
Jedwin Mok – University of Toronto
Cole Clemenhagen – Toronto Metropolitan University
Varsan Jeyakkumar – University of Toronto
Rikki MacMullin – Better Transit Ottawa
Moderator(s)
Patrick Yutiga – CUTA’s Youth & Emerging Leaders Sub-Committee