Tuesday, June 7, 2005

SPOTLIGHT: Commuting

Transit challenge for cities

COMMUTING patterns in Canada’s largest urban centres have become more complex as a result of stronger employment growth in the suburbs than in city core areas, according to a new report analyzing work and commuting in urban areas.

Jobs are still strongly concentrated in downtown core areas in most urban centres. However, between 1996 and 2001, the relative economic importance of inner cities declined, as the number of jobs in the suburbs increased at four times the pace that they did in the core areas.

Between 1996 and 2001, the number of jobs within five kilometres of the city centres of census metropolitan areas rose increased by 156,000. On the other hand, the number of jobs outside five km rose by 733,200.

As a result, more and more people are commuting cross-town to these suburban areas.

And in most instances, cross-town commuters have been driving to work rather than taking public transit. This tendency to commute by car increased the farther jobs were located from the city centre.

Driving to work

Altogether, 58% of commuters drove to work when their job was located fewer than five km from the city centre. This rose to about 80% when the job was more than 20 km out.

This report, based on census data, is the seventh in a series that develops statistical measures to shed light on important issues for Canada's cities.

Statistics Canada has worked on this project in collaboration with the Cities Secretariat, Infrastructure Canada.

The report concluded that large urban areas face a challenge in promoting public transit use among workers employed outside of the downtown core. When the job was within five km of the city centre, 24% of commuters took public transit.

However, this fell quickly to 14% when the job was between five and 10 km from the city centre. Public transit take-up rates were lower still for jobs farther than 10 km from downtown.

Public transit

Public transit captured larger shares of riders destined for the city cores of Toronto and Montreal. However, few commuters in these metropolitan areas took public transit to jobs located more than 20 km from downtown.

Despite the decentralization of jobs and more car traffic to jobs in the suburbs, the proportion of commuters who took public transit remained stable between 1996 and 2001. That is because a larger share of commuters heading for the city centre took public transit.

One characteristic of increasing employment in suburban locations was the shifting of manufacturing activities to the suburbs.

In Toronto, for example, the proportion of manufacturing workers in areas at least 20 km from the city centre rose from 51% in 1996 to 57% in 2001. Retail trade also shifted towards more suburban locations.

You can read the report “Work and commuting in census metropolitan areas, 1996-2001” on our website.

For more information, contact Andrew Heisz (613-951-3748) Business and Labour Market Analysis.

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© 2004, 2005 Statistics Canada.