Transforming Transit

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Transforming Transit

Virgilio, Isabella

URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10429/2554

Date: 2024-04-30

Abstract:

This thesis's research aims to investigate how to connect people from suburban neighborhoods to city centers using public transportation. Tommy Gärling discusses the implementation of changes that promote public transit increasing quality of life for a city collectively (Gärling 37). This thesis investigation looks at the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) and the negative perception residents have of public transportation, seeing it as reserved for those who cannot afford to drive (Fylan and Caveney). The question guiding this thesis asks how GTA residents can be motivated to use public transportation. To do this using design, a secondary issue looks at how architectural changes can effectively address temporal and social challenges associated with public transportation. Confronting these challenges is done by understanding how the rider’s experience can be used to create a positive perception. This thesis gathers data on the current perception of public transit by analyzing photography and video of the experience. Temporal and social issues are further researched to discover ways that they can be addressed with design, leading to a model that outlines how these issues can be rectified. Study of successful public transit systems allows this thesis to create conceptual designs that can create a more positive perception. This research finds that although temporal and policy-related issues are important in creating a successful system, improving a rider’s perception can be done using design. People who perceive the system well are more likely to be loyal and overlook issues when they inevitably arise. They are more likely to create an emotional attachment to the service, recommend it to others, and feel an overall sense of customer satisfaction. This is relevant to the discipline of architecture as it creates an understanding of how design can be used to resolve challenges that are not originally physical, allowing designers to think more critically about problems outside of architecture and find ways to solve them using their expertise.

Description:

This thesis's research aims to investigate how to connect people from suburban neighborhoods to metropolitan city centers. It will examine how suburban residents utilize different modes of transportation, along with the infrastructure and policies that facilitate and promote these transportation choices. This stems from disciplinary sources previously researched relating to agency, interaction between strangers, and a person’s experience. Within this area of interest, the focus centers on the current transportation infrastructure in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA). The aim is to explore the various issues and solutions that can enhance GTA neighborhood's infrastructure, using design to make people more willing and excited to use public transportation to get downtown rather than using their car. This thesis will focus on the town of Richmond Hill, Ontario as a case study for design interventions that can be implemented in various GTA cities or any public transportation system. Key terms that will define this research will be interaction, the connection and direct involvement between strangers who are found to be in close proximity (Putz), and agency, defined as the feeling of choice and control over one’s environment through reflecting and acting upon their current situation (Parsell et al.). Most strongly, experience will be used as a key term, defined for this thesis as the subjective understanding of a rider’s social, personal, and physical environment during a trip. A book entitled "Threats from Car Traffic to the Quality of Human Life" by Tommy Gärling discusses the idea that implementing changes that promote public transit would likely cause an increase in quality of life for a city collectively, however this may cause a perceived decrease in an individual's quality of life, implying that current drivers would have to forfeit some of the individual advantages to driving a car to see the collective benefits of a town that relies on public transportation. (Garling, 37) With this, an article by Sinziana Rasca and Naima Saeed called "Exploring the Factors Influencing the use of Public Transport by Commuters Living in Networks of Small Cities and Towns, Travel Behavior and Society" lists some of the factors that would encourage current personal vehicle users to switch to public transportation. These include the physical distance to stops, infrastructure available, run time, trip time, and access to destinations. These needs, although important regardless, make larger impacts to different categories of public transportation users. According to an article entitled "Customer Loyalty Differences Between Captive and Choice Transit Riders," the two types of riders are captive riders, those who take public transport because they do not have access to a personal vehicle, and choice riders, those who take public transit because they choose to after weighing the options of other methods of transportation. This article agrees with the previous, noting areas such as reliability, accessibility, and comfort as the key factors for people deciding to take public transportation. Most people who use public transportation fall somewhere along the spectrum between choice and captive riders, with varying importance to certain factors. For example, a teenager who has access to their parent’s car may value the cost of a ticket much more than an adult who is taking the train to avoid parking charges. These understandings inform the research of this thesis by having background of how suburban residents currently perceive public transportation and what would benefit from intervention. As well, this describes the various types of people that these designs will be addressing and how design can be informed by their needs. With what is known, this thesis’ research will center around discovering effective ways to connect suburban neighborhoods to downtown cores using the current public transit networks. This will, in turn, create a more positive perception of the system leading to a culture of regular use. This will be done by analyzing and subsequently modifying the current system to create an improved brand and identity for the GO Train, the GTA’s current rapid transit system. The question that will guide this will be asking how residents of the Richmond Hill neighborhood can be motivated to begin using public transportation for their daily commute. To do this using infrastructure and design, a secondary question asks how architectural design changes can effectively address temporal and social challenges associated with public transportation. This will be done by understanding how the individual experiences of a rider can be used to create a positive perception of public transportation. The importance of this research comes from the fact that creating a more accessible public transit structure in the GTA will mitigate the reliance on cars and allow people to connect with the resources of Toronto more easily. People living in the GTA often must travel to Toronto for work, school, leisure, or cultural activities. Implementing these changes will, in turn, reduce the number of vehicles travelling to Toronto, helping with traffic issues as well as allowing for space in the city that is currently occupied by vehicles (roads, parking lots) to be repurposed and given back to the community. This thesis uses a variety of methods to address the research questions. To begin, gathering data on the way that people use public transportation and their perceptions of it emerges the important factors and design flaws that needed to be addressed. This is done through photography and film, understanding the current conditions and grievances that people face when using public transportation. From there, literature review of these issues is crucial in understanding these issues further and the realm that they are connected to. With this, temporal and social issues are further researched to discover ways that they can be addressed with design. This leads to a model that outlines each of these issues and how they can be rectified. Having a clear understanding of the issues, further research and experimentation allows for more personalized information of the issues and potential solutions. These include simulating elements of public transportation to distill specific experiences and using sketches of hypothetical situations to gauge the validity of the solutions. Precedent studies of both successful public transportation systems and other types of transportation allow this thesis to create conceptual designs that can be applied to respective parts of the public transportation system to create a more positive experience. These solutions include designing amenities in train stations and re-orienting the seating layout of the train car among others. Finally, research regarding branding and identity outside of the physical train car and station will allow this thesis to re-brand the GO Train as a company, providing potential riders with what they need to have a positive experience when taking the train. A large quantity of research regarding the negative aspects of public transportation systems shows that frequency, span, and reliability are the main aspects that discourage people from using public transportation. The argument with this is that regardless of the physical design of the public transportation, these issues are crucial to creating an objectively “good” system. For example, a train that takes longer than 15 minutes to arrive, or is more than 15 minutes delayed, is not a system that residents can rely on and trust. This research regarding temporal and social issues is valid and the major limitation of this thesis. Regardless of the design, it is difficult to create a system that users can trust if it does not address these temporal issues. Understanding this was a crucial step of this research, and with this, the thesis was able to accept the faults of the public transportation system and focus on the perception of the train. For example, one of the issues addressed is related to how long people must wait at the platform for their train to arrive. Although design is not able to make this time shorter, designing amenities and conveniences within the train station help to make the wait time feel shorter and give people a more positive perception of this wait time. This research is valuable in understanding what elements of public transportation can be improved with design infrastructure in terms of rider’s perception of the system. People who perceive the system well are more likely to be loyal and overlook issues when they inevitably arise. They are more likely to create an emotional attachment to the service, recommend it to others, and feel an overall sense of customer satisfaction. This is relevant to the discipline of architecture because it creates an understanding of how design can be used to resolve issues that are not originally physical and allows designers to think more critically of issues within their designs and find ways to solve them using their expertise. Creating a model of elements that can tend to the needs of public transportation riders will allow people to have a more positive perception of the system. When this occurs, a culture of regular use and loyalty will emerge, and people will use and be satisfied with the time spent on public transportation.

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