The Yonge & Major Mackenzie vivastation opened two weeks ago in Richmond Hill. Due to space constraints, the station was built at the next intersection 200m south. While the design was problematic, opening day operations have shown how bad this decision was... #Transit

In design, passengers transferring between VIVA & YRT buses on Major Mackenzie are expected to walk south on Yonge to Hopkins St, cross the street, and then walk north into the Vivastation. In reality however, most chose to cross mid-block, entering the station at the north end.

To rectify this, temporary construction cones and cone bars were installed at the north end of the station on both sides of the roadway. This did little to deter people from crossing here, with many instead choosing to walk down the rapidway lanes instead.

Additionally, two police officers were positioned at the north end of the rapidway. From my observations, they were there purely for education, and no tickets were issued for improper entry of a transit facility. I've seen reports on twitter of YRT enforcement also being present.

Although the presence of police seemed to be a deterrent for most, I still observed five people over a 1/2 hr who chose to enter the rapidway from the roadway, and honestly I don't blame them. The walk down to the intersection and subsequent wait to cross is a very big deterrent.

To legally walk from the Vivastation to the eastbound YRT stop at Major Mackenzie using the crosswalk at Hopkins took me 2 minutes 53 seconds. This was even with the pedestrian signal already displaying the walk sign when I arrived.

To legally walk from the westbound YRT stop at Major Mackenzie south to the Vivastation took me 5 minutes 21 seconds. Here, I had an automatic walk sign crossing Major Mackenzie but had to push the button at Hopkins for a walk signal to access the Vivastation.

The Hopkins street intersection is one of the biggest flaws in this design. It is a semi-actuated intersection, meaning that the lights will change only when a car is waiting to turn, or the pedestrian button is pushed. The lights are timed to change with those at Major Mackenzie

Because the lights are synced with Major Mac, the green time on Yonge from my observations was 2 minutes. This means that if a pedestrian were to push the crosswalk button to access the Vivastation, they could wait up to 2 minutes before they receive a walk signal.

Hopefully, YRT will revisit the design of this station to help improve the transfer experience here, as this is one of the busiest transfer locations in the region. At a minimum, having the pedestrian button at Hopkins activate automatically would be a good step forward.

Bad design choices penalize transit riders, and the design of this station is a prime example of this. I'm hoping that the use of police officers for education won't escalate into enforcement, and that YRT will instead work to create a safer access to the north end of the station