Vancouver’s Olympics were the equivalent of hosting three Super Bowls a day – for 17 days, said the planners tapped to ferry people through the city during the busy period.

“Everyone knew it was going to be a big task at the beginning,” said Mike Madill, the TransLink VP who headed the Olympic transportation effort.

“It’s one thing to know it in your head and another thing when you actually come down to building the plans in detail and implementing them.”

In preparation, TransLink, which began its Olympic planning during the bid phase, studied people-moving events like the Symphony of Fire for the best ways of moving large numbers of people.

He said that while some things could have been done better, at the end of the day, the transportation plan was a “supreme effort.” For their work, Madill and his team received an award of achievement from the Transportation Association of Canada.

Their effort has also had a lasting impact on transit ridership in the region.

According to TransLink’s stats – excluding the data spike during February’s Olympics – ridership increased 11 per cent last year from January to August.

A recent survey by the Vancouver Board of Trade found that 60 per cent of the 750 respondents tried new methods of transportation during the Games. The survey found that 44 per cent of respondents stuck with their new transportation post Olympics.

“We can’t just supply the transit,” said Matt Craig, a senior transportation planner with TransLink. “There need to be behaviour change that happens with it. We saw that happen during the Games and it has continued on after. Transit is just one piece of it … there are a lot of options out there. We think that message got out.”

Among the other Games-related legacies, Madill points to the relationships built between the transit authority and the 700-odd businesses and organizations with which it worked to find different ways for people to get to work during the Games.

TransLink also moved further into social media as a way of interacting with riders. It now has even has full-time Twitter operator.