Mississauga City Hall, one of the most walkable municipal buildings in Ontario
In late March 2024, with a streak of mild, sunny days, I was eager to get outside and walk. As I have long been interested in local politics and planning issues, public transit, active transportation (especially walking advocacy), I thought I would try to get to every city, town, and township hall in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area (GTHA) without a car.
This was a fun project, even if there were times I felt really frustrated at times by poor transit and long hikes. The highlight of my quest was a tour of Mississauga City Hall from Councillor Joe Horneck. Mississauga’s civic centre is one of Ontario’s most iconic — and walkable — government buildings.
Mississauga Council Chambers
Of the three levels of government (federal, provincial, municipal), the municipal level has the most impact on the day-to-day lives of most Canadians; it is also the closest level of government to all. Residents can depute at committee meetings, get meetings with their local councillor and city staff, and obtain building permits, marriage licenses, or pay bills at city and town halls. Therefore, they should be as accessible as possible, especially to those without cars.
Only one GTHA town hall (Caledon) was completely inaccessible without a car, though several other town halls required long walks from the nearest transit stop, making them inaccessible to some residents. But I could get to Brock Township, the least-populated and most-rural municipality in the GTHA, thanks to Durham Region Transit’s On-Demand service, though I had some difficulty there.
The complete list of GTHA city and town halls, along with photographs and a map can be accessed here.
Earlier this year, I wrote about a major malfunction at a new Viva Rapidway station near Downtown Richmond Hill. The Major Mackenzie station on Yonge Street was built one block south of the busy east-west arterial road; passengers taking Viva buses were forced to walk from Major Mackenzie Drive south to the intersection of at the intersection of Elmwood Avenue and Hopkins Street, push a “beg button” and wait to cross to the bus platforms in the middle of Yonge.
The reason for this unusual situation was that the Yonge Street right-of-way narrows through Downtown Richmond Hill. At Major Mackenzie Drive, northbound Viva buses must enter mixed traffic for approximately two kilometres before returning to a median busway. (The northbound traffic signal at Major Mackenzie has a dedicated transit phase that allows Viva buses to exit the median ahead of general traffic.) This required the median Viva bus stop (called a VivaStation) to be located considerably south of the intersection of Yonge Street and Major Mackenzie Drive.
Back in February, temporary barriers and YRT transit enforcement officers were used to dissuade transit customers from Back in February, temporary barriers and YRT transit enforcement officers were used to dissuade transit customers from taking the faster and direct, yet more dangerous, route to Major Mackenzie Drive and connecting east-west buses by crossing midblock north of the platform, the faster and direct, yet more dangerous, route to Major Mackenzie Drive and connecting east-west buses.
The Major Mackenzie VivaStation and layout, February 2021
To my pleasant surprise, York Region fixed its mistake. Though the revised station is not ideal (it is still a long walk from Major Mackenzie Drive itself), a new walkway alongside the east side of the bus right-of-way from the VivaStation to the Major Mackenzie intersection makes the transfer to and from buses on Major Mackenzie much simpler.
Looking south from Major Mackenzie Drive
Just north of the bus platforms, a signed crosswalk allows passengers to go from the walkway and northbound platform to the southbound platform on the west side of the bus right-of-way.
Looking north towards Major Mackenzie Drive at the new crosswalk, which allows passengers to go between the southbound bus platform to a new walkway connecting the Major Mackenzie VivaStation to its namesake street.
Permanent metal rails prevent passengers from crossing Yonge Street until they get to the signalized intersection at Major Mackenzie. But transit enforcement officers were nowhere to be seen on this visit, on a Friday afternoon.
Metal barricades deter pedestrian crossings outside of signalized crosswalks.
Unfortunately, to make room for the walkway between the station and Major Mackenzie Drive, the northbound bicycle lane was cut, and replaced with “sharrows.” Though the new bicycle lanes on Yonge ended at Major Mackenzie (not enough room if you have to maintain four through traffic lanes through a historic town centre), this diminishes the gains cyclists made with the reconstruction of Yonge Street for the BRT lanes.
When surface transit projects — like the Viva Rapidways — are designed to fit into existing suburban roadways, compromises to the passenger experience are made. At Richmond Hill, this meant maintaining two traffic lanes in each direction while trying to squeeze a bus rapid transit station into the roadway. This resulted in the original blunder, which should have been thought though earlier in the planning stages.
The fix is not perfect, but it at least addresses the problems with the Major Mackenzie BRT station. Perhaps, one day, we will plan for transit, walking, and cycling first in places like Downtown Richmond Hill, rather than planning for private motor traffic first.
On Thursday, August 12, I rode the train to the very end of the Richmond Hill Line to check out GO Transit’s newest station.
In 2017, I made a similar trip to Gormley Station, just to the south of Bloomington GO, soon after that station opened to the public. Four years ago, I was critical of Metrolinx’s failures to support the urban intensification of the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area (GTHA) by building new stations on the Greenbelt, on lands that will not support transit-oriented development.
Though I came away from Gormley Station disappointed, I wanted to see Bloomington Station for myself and give it an honest assessment. I came away with mixed feelings.
Most GO Stations outside the old City of Toronto put free car parking ahead of all other considerations. Some stations, such as Unionville, were even moved to sites where large surface lots could easily be built. Hamilton GO Centre, opened in 1996, was an exception: an urban station that combined a restored heritage building with a large bus terminal. A few other newer stations, such as Mount Pleasant in Brampton and Mount Joy in Markham, still had large surface parking lots, but also had easy walking connections to adjacent neighbourhoods. In Guelph and Kitchener, GO Transit used existing downtown stations instead of suburban stations, and Allandale Waterfront Station is located right across the street from Barrie’s gorgeous Kempenfelt Bay.
Gormley and Bloomington Stations represent a return to GO Transit’s old ways of putting parking ahead of all other considerations, despite Bloomington’s modern design.
Metrolinx, the provincial agency responsible for planning and constructing transit infrastructure in the GTHA and for operating GO Transit, opened Bloomington Station on June 28, 2021. The station is located on Bloomington Road, adjacent to Highway 404, on the boundary between Richmond Hill and Aurora.
The station is built around a three-storey parking garage tucked into a hill, with the train platform and station amenities (an enclosed waiting room with washrooms and a ticket counter) on the second level. At the lower level, there is a six-bay bus loop almost directly below the rail platform, minimizing the distance between train and bus. Elevators, stairs, and ramps connect the three levels of parking, the bus bays, and the train platform.
The station’s central atrium, which contains the pedestrian passages between parking levels, station, and platforms, is the architectural highlight. Above the parking areas, solar panels collect some of the energy required to light and heat the station.
Atrium at Bloomington Station, with parking spaces on both sides
In its blog, Metrolinx expressed pride in the new station, noting it was built to achieve LEED Gold certification through features such as energy efficient lighting, a water-permeable surface lot, stormwater management, and a pond for local wildlife with an underground passage to help animals migrate away from the station complex. Like most new GO platforms, Bloomington’s train platform is heated to allow snow and ice to melt, reducing salt usage. Finally, as far as suburban GO stations go, Bloomington’s footprint is quite compact. It cost $82.4 million to build the new station.
Plaque adjacent to wetland at Bloomington GO StationPermeable surface at Bloomington’s outdoor surface lot and passenger pick-up and drop-off area
Despite these innovations, a LEED certification can only go so far when the GTHA’s newest transit station is only accessible by car, with over 1,000 parking spaces. Though transit ridership is down significantly during the ongoing pandemic, especially on GO’s Richmond Hill Line (which operates only in the weekday peak-period direction and currently uses four-car trains), there are no ongoing connections from Bloomington GO Station operated by GO buses or York Region Transit.
Though several GO rail stations do not have any local transit connections only Bloomington and Gormley have no bus connections at all. (In April 2020, YRT discontinued the limited-service Route 15 that ran past Gormley Station). At Acton, Georgetown, and Lincolnville, which also do not have any local transit connections, passengers can still connect to GO buses for points beyond, or make a return trip.
The only bus operating at Bloomington Station’s loop is GO Route 61, which provides supplemental weekday service between Union Station and Bloomington GO. But the last Route 61 bus leaves for Union at 1:55 PM.
There was no bus connection to be found at Bloomington GO Station
The nearest in-service bus stop is over one hour’s walk away, near Bloomington Road and Yonge Street. At least there was a paved shoulder along the busy five-lane road between the GO station and Bayview Avenue, where motorists were driving well in excess of the 80 km/h speed limit.
Looking east towards Bloomington GO at Leslie Street
At Bayview Avenue, a sidewalk leads westerly to Yonge Street, with new residential subdivisions lining the south side of Bloomington Road. I noted a bus stop as I was walking west towards Bayview Avenue; alas, it was only for a high school special route.
YRT stop at Bloomington Road and Bayview Avenue signed “school special only”New residential development along Bloomington Road featuring large houses with three-car garages was clearly designed for cars, rather than people
As I was nearing Yonge Street, I noted that the new subdivisions were set back far from the road, with many of the houses built with three-car garages. Building enough transit ridership here to support even a limited service bus route is going to be very difficult.
One hour and 8 minutes later, I arrived at the bus stop at Yonge Street, the closest place to Bloomington GO Station where I could get a bus to continue my journey.
The end of a long walk from Bloomington GO Station
Bloomington Station’s small footprint and environmental features might actually make it an ideal basic station design for more urbanized locations in the GTHA, where the compact design and logical layout could support easy bus connections and short walks to residential and employment areas. I liked the simplicity of the bus connections at Bloomington — if only there were any buses to connect to.
But Bloomington’s LEED Gold certification means little when it does not support sustainable development or sustainable access to the station.
Though its location adjacent to Highway 404 may entice some commuters to switch to parking at Bloomington and commuting downtown by train, Gormley, just one station to the south, already achieves a similar purpose.
For now, Bloomington Station is just a Garage Mahal — a grand monument to the old way of doing things at GO Transit.
At least the new Yonge Street Rapidway would serve York Region’s busiest transit corridor, supporting new high-density development in Richmond Hill. Unlike on Highway 7 or in Newmarket, there are no two-phase pedestrian crossings on this part of Yonge. Unfortunately, a botched connection between the new Rapidway at Major Mackenzie Drive created a new problem for the YRT/Viva transit network.
This issue — along with the other problems with York Region’s Rapidways that I discussed previously — should be held up as lessons on what not to do when building new transit rights-of-way in street medians, be it on Hurontario Street in Mississauga and Brampton, planned BRT lines on Dundas Street in Mississauga, or Queen Street in Brampton.
Previously on this blog, I wrote about how new public institutions like hospitals and university campuses are built in isolated, auto-dependent areas without regard to provincial land use policies. In St. Catharines, a new modern hospital on the city’s western outskirts replaced two urban sites, despite available opportunities that would be more accessible to at-need populations. In Orillia, Lakehead University built its campus on the edge of that small city, far from other institutions or its charming downtown core. Similar decisions are being made for new hospitals and university campuses in Niagara Falls, Windsor, and Milton.
But Metrolinx and GO Transit, its regional transit subsidiary, often fail too to meet the provincial goals of intensification of urban centres and major transit nodes, containing urban sprawl, and promoting sustainable transportation. In Downtown Brampton, an anchor mobility hub, Metrolinx plans to build a new surface parking lot — demolishing several houses and two office buildings in the process — to satisfy commuters’ demands for free parking.
This failure is especially evident on the newly extended Richmond Hill Line, where one new station — Gormley — opened late last year, and another — Bloomington — is now under construction. Both stations do not support any evident land use policy (both are located on the environmentally sensitive Oak Ridges Moraine); they continue GO Transit’s heritage of building stations that serve car owners, but remain largely inaccessible to pedestrians, cyclists, or local transit users.
I recently took the train north to Gormley to inform my critique of GO Transit’s new stations. I came away even more disappointed than I had expected.
GO Train at Gormley Station
Sean Marshall 