'More than Waiting for the Bus' - Rethinking Sites Surrounding Bus Stops

Abstract

Encouraging the use of public transit is key for developing more sustainable and resilient cities. However, transit users have to endure harsh and unpleasant conditions during their long waits for public transit. "More than Waiting for the Bus" is an ideas competition aimed at exploring ways to encourage citizens to use the bus all year long in Montreal and to make waiting for the bus more enjoyable by rethinking the sites surrounding various bus stops. This competition took place within "CoLLaboratoire", a broader interdisciplinary research project that can lead to scalable environmental solutions. More than 70 teams from about 20 countries participated in this competition. Additionally, the competition sought to constitute a “Best Practice Guide” that will include a synthesis of design principles submitted by each team. This paper aims to present the competition and its outcomes. It is focused on the design principles submitted which can help designers and planners of public transit systems, both locally and globally, to innovatively and practically improve the wait for transit and thus improving the quality of life of city dwellers on a daily basis. The design principles submitted by the competitors are presented, explored and analyzed according to categories, fitness and their frequency of occurrence.

Keywords: Improving Bus Stops, Reinvigoration of public spaces, Quality of Public Transit, Design Competition, Design Principles