Operation Innovation

What makes a house a home?

For Innisfil residents and farmers the future means the Orbit, a plan that will transform the quaint town into a mixed-use community that will accommodate up to 40 million square feet of newly constructed space. It also includes a partnership with publicly subsidized Uber rides to give residents access to whatever they need.

In this episode we hear from award-winning architect Alexander Josephson and the city of Innisfil about their plans to turn a rural Canadian town into a smart city of the future called the Orbit.

Make sure to follow us online at @Innisfilecdev on Twitter and Instagram as well as visit www.innisfilaccelerates.ca for more details about the podcast.

This week's guests: Alexander Josephson (award-winning architect, PARTISANS), Colleen Shaffer (Transit Partnerships Manager, Uber), Stuart Reece (local resident, Innisfil) and Jason Reynar (Chief Administrative Officer, Innisfil).

Transcript

Takara Small (Host) (00:02):
The mother of  invention is necessity. So the saying goes history, credits Plato with that bit of wisdom. I don't think the ancient Greek philosophers had to worry much about town planning solutions, but I'm sure he'd understand some of the difficulties facing Innisfil. Number one, you want to provide your taxpayers with an effective way to get around, but the towns, so spread out that normal bus routes don't make sense. And number two, you know, the town is growing, but you don't want to end up as another commuter town with urban sprawl and no personality. So do you accept all that or try something different? Enter Uber and the Orbit.

Guest compilation (00:44):
There's so much opportunity to lead. And I think that the benefit for the glory far outweighs any pressure from the skeptics Innisfil is an interesting look at it, kind of risk aversion, and also ambition. I think the most wonderful things emerge in the most unexpected places feels like we are at the beginning of something very big. 

Takara Small (Host) (01:08):
Hi, I'm Takara small and this is episode two of Tech Town. Three years back Innisfil realized the town had got to the stage where its residents really needed public transit. They look to getting some buses and running a few routes around the busiest parts of town. Things just weren't adding up though. The costs were pretty high and the efficiency was low. The population of Innisfil is very spread out and running set bus routes was only going to serve a fraction of the residents they needed it to, so they started to think outside the box, they partnered with rideshare app Uber,

Jason Reynar (CAO, Innisfil) (01:44):
A great example, I think of, uh, just finding, um, the right, uh, solution to a problem that so many people are trying to solve, um, through partnerships. So, um, you know, the typical municipal approach to transit is to buy all your own vehicles, hire your own staff, you know, or contract out to a traditional transit company like a bus company or that kind of thing. Um, but Innisfil is, uh, geographically quite large, like we're the size of Mississauga in terms of the square kilometers, uh, over 200 square kilometers, but we don't have the population density, you know, 37,000 versus almost a million in Mississauga. So a typical transit model just isn't affordable. It doesn't make sense. And you would have buses driving around, you know, with almost nobody on them, uh, because you'd have to have so many different routes, uh, with a spread out kind of population.

Jason Reynar (CAO, Innisfil) (02:37):
So we've been looking for a solution there and, uh, just happened to have this conversation with Uber and we did a request for expression of interest and, um, they were really the only ones at the time. Remember this was back in 2015, which feels like, you know, a decade or a hundred years ago now, but it's only five years ago. But, uh, at the time they were really the, they were, there was fairly new on the block. Um, and they of course do this ride sharing thing of connecting people who are driving around anyways, uh, with a supply of the people that want to move around. Um, and so they, uh, partnered with us and now we have a system that, uh, delivers, you know, pretty much 24 seven, uh, you know, a service that's super convenient cause it's door to door. Um, the pricing structure is similar to transit where you can kind of go to key destinations at a flat fee and otherwise you get a discounted ride. Um, but it's been a really, uh, really, uh, exciting journey. 

And I was surprised, considering Uber is a billion dollar company. They have been really good at customizing and working with us to solve some of our kind of public sector problems. Um, it's one thing to be sort of a quasi taxi sort of company. It's another thing to be a public transit system, right? So we need accessibility and we need access for people. And those were the kinds of things that we've worked through with them, um, which has made it a great partnership.

Takara Small (Host) (03:59):
So here are some of the numbers, brace yourself. It's a 24-seven door-to-door service and an average 8,500 trips a month are made by Innisfil residents. About 35% of the cost is subsidized by the town with the customer, paying the rest themselves. The most vulnerable residents can apply to the fair transit scheme, which reduces costs even further. For the last two years, the town has budgeted approximately $900,000 annually to subsidize the rides. If it invested in a traditional transit service, it's estimated it would cost around $8 million a year to provide the same level of service as with Uber. Right now, the numbers clearly make sense from a financial point of view, from a service point of view. It's something that seems to really work for the local residents too. We spoke to Stewart Reese. He's been living in Innisfil for about six years now.

Stuart Reece (local resident, Innisfil) (04:55):
I think it shows a level of confidence with the town to say, you know, what we're going to do is we're going to go way outside the box here, and we're going to do something that no one else has done and not just Mickey Mouse out the gate, but we're actually going to partner with, you know, the big company that has, uh, you know, that is the brand for, um, ride share programs, things like that. So I think there's, um, it's impressive. It's really impressive.

Takara Small (Host) (05:22):
And it's not just the locals who are pleased with the arrangement as you would expect. Uber is more than happy to have all that extra business, but the company is also praised. Colleen Schaefer is transit partnerships manager at the company. Yeah. And Innisfil was way ahead of the curve with this one. When they came to us in 2016 with the idea for a collaborative partnership, it really pushed our own thinking. Um, and over the years we've learned so much from the town of Innisfil and his fellow who have been incredible partners by the way. I mean, our team continues to focus on public transit use cases and partnering with agencies using, you know, many of the same insights from Innisfil as a foundation for innovation. So, uh, over the years together, we've evolved the offering to better suit the needs of the Innisfil community.

Colleen Shaffer (Partnership Manager, Uber) (06:13):
Uh, especially as its population has grown and the need for additional services becomes more apparent. Were you surprised or were your colleagues surprised by the fact that this partnership generated headlines? Like not just across Canada, but I can say, you know, around the world. Yeah. I think for those, uh, unacquainted with, uh, Uber transit and, um, within his feeling of they've told us how unique this model is, but for us, it's not surprising at all the town has consistently been pushing the frontier of innovation and service to their community. Are there any concerns about a service like this working in a small town? Like how does it, how does it work perhaps better than a regular bus service? Yeah. In terms of concerns, I mean, we're constantly learning as we work with more cities and municipalities to improve mobility and to improve their experience, working with Uber, for example, we've improved how we share data over the years to give the town the visibility they need to effectively run their program.

Colleen Shaffer (Partnership Manager, Uber) (07:15):
Um, we've also tailored the service with them to balance convenience and the rider experience with a cost per trip and their budget. Um, this partnership has been highly flexible. So we've worked with the town to adapt the service over the years and address any concerns as they arise. There are still some question marks though. New solutions always bring new problems. One of the issues with this arrangement is that the more people who use it and the more successful is the more money it costs the town earlier, there's a year, they had to put a cap on monthly use. On the flip side of that, the current coronavirus pandemic has shown the benefits of being agile demand is down. So costs are lower than if they had buses and drivers that weren't being used. But is this a solution in the long term? If the town is expecting population growth in the coming years, maybe bus routes will make sense soon.

Jason Reynar (CAO, Innisfil) (08:11):
Yeah. I think that right, uh, ride sharing, uh, type, uh, public transit system is a long term solution. Um, I think as I've said, ultimately there may be some higher capacity vehicles. Um, but we know that even in bigger cities, uh, first mile, last mile is a, is a really good fit for ride sharing. So I suspect that we'll always have some kind of a ride sharing piece. Um, and our hope is that there may be some higher capacity vehicles that come online as the demand requires it. But in the meantime, uh, you know, we're able to, to manage, uh, the right size of transit system for the right size of population, uh, in Innisfil

Takara Small (Host) (08:51):
So that's why the transit strategists at the town have brought the same energy to the other big issue facing them: population growth and urban sprawl. Innisfil is expected to grow by 30,000 people in the next 15 years and much more in the long term. That's the kind of influx that can get messy if it's not managed properly. So to handle that they had an idea,

Interlude (09:14):
Probably the greatest, uh, it's not for you. It's more of a Shelbyville idea.

Takara Small (Host) (09:21):
No, no, not a monorail. They're creating a new urban space called The Orbit. It's kind of a futuristic city space based around a go station, which is going to be built in part of the town.

Alexander Josephson (co-founder, PARTISANS) (09:33):
What that does is it creates a transit hub essentially in the middle of nowhere. Innisfil is literally fields right now and the potential for it to just become a sprawl of spaghetti streets is very great.

Takara Small (Host) (09:42):
Alex Josephson, he's the architect behind the plan.

Alexander Josephson (co-founder, PARTISANS) (09:45):
And so The Orbit is this idea that the transit hub becomes this center of gravity. And that center of gravity is transit and mobility and everybody and everything, including the communities that are represented by these hamlets in Innisfil, orbits around this new, um, what you might call a transit hub. And it's about giving a futuristic name that captures the gravity that that transit creates to the inside the community.

Takara Small (Host) (10:16):
One of the fears you might have when starting a project like this is what it will do to the character of the region, the residents who already live in Innisfil, didn't all sign up to live near a high density, futuristic, urban space, a lot of them like the peace and quiet. So how do you sell it to them?

Jason Reynar (CAO, Innisfil) (10:33):
Yeah. Great, great question. And something we're very sensitive to. Right. Um, and I, and I, what I would say is that it's a lot easier to put a higher density and to do some real longterm visioning in an area that doesn't have people in the backyard in their backyards looking at it right now. So, you know, it's very difficult to take, um, say a nine story tower and plop it into what is a single family dwelling, you know, kind of subdivision. People get really upset about that, right? For obvious reasons. That's not what they expected. That's not what they bought. That's not what they imagined, uh, which is a huge problem. Uh, so, but we can drop, you know, 30,000 people into this new area because nobody's going to be staring at it from their backyard. Um, uh, and people know that the stuff that they love about the sort of smaller, uh, small town charm is only going to be preserved if we do something differently as we move forward. 

So, you know, they got in sort of with the subdivision house, but now they want to preserve that. And so, you know, that community feeling, and the only way to do that is to think differently about how growth is going to happen. And, and I think the people who really, you know, kind of engage and, and, uh, and think carefully and thoroughly about this issue, start to realize that, Oh yeah,

Jason Reynar (CAO, Innisfil) (11:54):
This isn't going to work. Like we're not going to keep our little piece of paradise forever, unless we really think differently about higher density growth, because the growth will come. Uh, and it's the question of how the growth comes. Not if right,

Takara Small (Host) (12:06):
Right now, local attitudes are mixed. Some residents are happy, some are still dubious. Stuart. Reese is one of those looking at it in a positive way.

Stuart Reece (local resident, Innisfil) (12:15):
The people that I've talked to, I think that they are, um, they're reluctant, right? A lot of the people have lived in Innisfil for a long time. And, you know, I remember talking to an older gentleman, uh, on the 25th side road, and he said that he'd lived in his house for 30 years. And when he first moved here, uh, the 25th side road was dirt and was a gravel road right now. It's a pretty busy street and obviously it's paved. Um, and they're going to need to widen it probably at some point. So people like that who've been here forever. And this was a small town. This was a cottage town. I think a lot of people want to keep it that way, but like so many things, you know, all good things come to an end. Or, and I wouldn't say that the modernization or the change is a negative thing, but the, the thing that I'd like to, that I would say to my neighbors, when we chat about it is, you know, we need to do this, it's going to happen.

Alexander Josephson (co-founder, PARTISANS) (13:11):
So we need to plan it so that we can protect the green space so that we don't have unchecked, uh, sale of, of agricultural lands and developments of just more houses that, um, put a strain on our streets and our like, you know, create more traffic and so on. We need to find good ways to do it. Right. I, I, I mentioned the analogy of, uh, you know, it's gonna rain tomorrow. So, uh, do you want to put a tarp up or do you want to put on a raincoat or do you want an umbrella or just a toque and a jacket it's going to rain? 

How do you want to manage it? So I think, um, uh, I think that people will see that. And I think that that's the real argument, people are gonna move here. Anyway, we can't, you're not going to stop people from moving here. Um, you can't move the whole town farther North and farther away from the city. So people are gonna move here. So, uh, how do you want it to, to roll it?

Takara Small (Host) (14:03):
Part of convincing those skeptics will no doubt be showing them how it actually functions better than your regular urban sprawl. We'll go back to Alex for that.

Alexander Josephson (co-founder, PARTISANS) (14:12):
It's all about access in straight lines to the train, to the train station, instead of being forced to travel in a zigzag, uh, or in a grid, it's a direct line for anybody. And it's about an egalitarian inequality as well. Like if, if, if you are 800 meters away, you are the same distance as anybody else, 800 meters away in the orbit versus other plans, especially spaghetti plans. 

It could take you 15 minutes to get a bicarb from 18 eight, from 800 meters away versus someone who's a, you know, 800 meters on the other side and, and, and really close to a, uh, a main street. So, you know, it really is about focusing on what kind of system of roads and pedestrian, um, avenues are most efficient for people to walk on and get to a train station and most efficient for a car to get to a parked car park, near a train station, instead of getting cars to highway,

Takara Small (Host) (15:08):
The intricacies of planning for the future is complicated, but Innisfil has a plan in place to get it done. It's becoming the town's hallmark that the plan is an ambitious one. They're clearly open to bright ideas and are looking to develop lots more.

Sherif El Tawil (Senior Director, DMZ) (15:23):
They've approached it in a multipronged approach that we've never seen anywhere in the world. So it's attracting the right talent. It's attracting the right to programming. It's becoming a platform for startups

Takara Small (Host) (15:36):
Next week. We're going to hear how Innisfil is partnered with the DMZ. One of the tech industry's top incubators to give a home to local startups and help them flourish.

Takara Small (Host) (15:45):
See you then!