On July 30th Entro hosted a 1-hour panel, ‘Transit Readiness Post Pandemic’, the fourth instalment of our online webinar series. For years we’ve seen a greater focus on transit, with major investments in infrastructure and transit-oriented developments. Before the pandemic, it was becoming increasingly evident that transit was the more affordable, environmentally-friendly, safe and in many cases, convenient transportation option. COVID-19 has brought many of these qualities into question, the most obvious being public and employee safety. The transit industry is rethinking previous strategies and priorities, looking seriously at issues such as overcrowding, poor standards of cleanliness and other user concerns. Will this be enough to ease the common rider’s worries as regular transportation is re-opened? What does the public require from a communications and design standpoint to feel confident that the transit experience will allow for the distance and cleanliness measures required to prevent any further spreading of the virus? Beyond COVID-19, what does the transit experience of the future look like and what are the design strategies to ensure we keep up with changes in demand while still balancing the bottom line?
PANELISTS:
Laura Lehming, Design and Wayfinding and Marketing and Customer Experience at TTC
Ana-Francisca de la Mora, Associate Director and Practice Lead of Architecture at IBI Group
Michael J Ferreira, Vice President at Jensen Hughes
Sean Fine, Senior Associate at Weston Williamson + Partners
Jessica Schrader, Senior Project Manager at Entro
Vedran Dzebic, Head of Research and Development at Entro