Communities in North America and across the globe, endure to control and manage the pandemic. However, commuters continue to try and stay grounded and transit passenger numbers are likely to remain low. Public transit and transportation solutions could focus on a different metric for usefulness - Human-centric transit design.
By 2050, it's predicted the population will reach 9 billion, with 75% of the world's inhabitants living in towns and cities. With this continuing shift to urban living, cities will face far more significant social, economic, and environmental pressures with or without a pandemic.
COVID has forced people to avoid crowds and work from home, resulting in greater suburban migration and transit agencies experiencing declining ridership and profits. Our recent global survey of some 8,000 consumers showed people are spending less time in transit. While fewer cars on the road is good for individual carbon footprints, higher ridership on public transit is essential to reduce congestion and air pollution. This low ridership has fueled extreme budget shortfalls, forcing many transit agencies to revisit their expansion plans for the next decade, not necessarily by downsizing but refocusing operations to restoring a better passenger experience.
Transit Recovery – In 15 years, transit might look very different. For all we know, Hyperloop might be mainstream by then. By focusing on the user rather than the system's utility, there are simple changes we can make now with a big impact. Transit recovery varies and is unique to place across our global portfolio. As people return to work, commuter preferences shift, resulting in increased use of private vehicles over public transit, taxis and ride-sharing services. To remedy this, we need to work together with our City Planners and Transit Agencies to bring about more substantial benefits for commuters that exceed the stereotypical offering of getting people from point A to point B.
We need to question our designs for stations and multi-modal transit hubs and investigate the possibility of our solutions becoming destinations. Our spaces should accommodate people's behaviors and motives and cater to specific community needs that include the whole spectrum of users, from tech-savvy digital citizens to older adults with limited mobility and IT literacy.
The time to create awareness is now - as recovery plans emerge and governments worldwide, particularly in North America, continue to focus on mass transit as a stimulus and opportunity to build back urban confidence in our digitally and socially networked communities. Through innovative city planning and restoration of urban infrastructure, reduction of carbon emissions, provision of hygiene and smarter transit design solutions, we can offer transit with a better human-centric experience.
So what is human-centric design and what does it look like?
In our most evolved digitized world to date, the 'one-size-fits-all' presumption no longer works, requiring a shift to find smarter ways to move people and goods across cities, countries, and continents. Human-centric design in transit puts the user directly at the heart of our solutions and decision-making. By adopting this approach, we can create efficient and resilient transit solutions mutually beneficial for passengers and operators to shape loveable and livable communities.
Framework to design and quantify a human first experience:
- User-centric through all elements from ticketing to highly intuitive wayfinding
- Efficient, cost-effective, and accessible to the broadest population to support a growing and vibrant city
- Mode agnostic, so passengers can switch between walking or cycling or taking a bus, tram, or car. This provides flexibility and is also inherently resilient if a failure in one mode or maintenance is required
- Effective in providing real-time information to enable seamless end-to-end journeys across all modes
- Destinations that celebrate place, history and heritage
- Places that promote safety, hygiene and accessibility
- A process that priorities user requirements rather than the product specification
- Future Energy tied to government driven mandates to shift from fossil fuels
- Movement analytics and improved passenger experiences at crowded destinations
- Activation of transit space by understanding commuter psychology
- Data Analytics to determine how spaces can change with people
Transit offers a sustainable way of accommodating growth, creating place, and supporting investment in infrastructure. As opportunities arise, solutions do not always occur from new networks or programs but from improving and densifying existing networks. This could include adding more stations along an existing transit line to offer communities accessibility or an urban catalyst to develop communities around transit.
GHD provides a new perspective to investigate the psychology of design in transit by combining our understanding of behaviors and movement strategies, data analytics and technology and tools to experience the impact of transitioning to future energy with a focus on users.
While all of the above assumes commuters will revert to their previous habits, the default being the private car, the pandemic to us is an opportunity for a reset. So let's explore everything from how we work to how we travel by putting human experiences first.
Our mission – Recover or attract more people to the system. Beyond the A to B commuter, to make it more enjoyable.
Meet the authors:
Brendan Texeira
Rail and Transit Stations + Facilities Lead
Brendan.Texeira@ghd.com
+1 416 814 4351
Brendan leads GHD’s Ontario Rail and Transit team, with a focus on station and facility design. He is the Client Relationship Manager for Metrolinx – overseeing their entire portfolio which includes stations, facilities, fleet transitions and future energy investigation. With 18+ years of experience leading multidisciplinary teams in the assessment, design, construction, and rehabilitation of municipal, public sector, and private sector Infrastructure Brendan has worked with ambitious developers, clients, and organizations across GHD’s global portfolio.
Courtney Gosselin
Transportation Market Sector Leader
Courtney.Gosselin@ghd.com
+1 778 309 6277
An urban and transportation planner, Courtney has always been fascinated by how people move and how behavioral patterns influence and mold the urban fabric. As a 15+ year city builder, Courtney has experience managing large design transit and transportation delivery teams, overseeing a broad portfolio of Transit, Ports, Rail and Road infrastructure projects for her clients. Courtney employs movement analytics, such as user/passenger modelling and big data, to help her clients better understand various design scenario concepts and outcomes to ensure their capital's best investment.
