hkskyline
September 11th, 2005, 10:15 PM
Workers commute in a new direction
Lower costs for homes, businesses increase traffic in suburbs, Statscan says
JEN GERSON
2 June 2005
The Globe and Mail
Living and working in the suburbs, Derek Smith avoids the worst of city living — except the commute.
In his nearly two-hour daily trek from Aurora to Mississauga, Mr. Smith listens to classic rock on the radio as he bypasses the big city altogether.
He says he's only been on the subway once in his life.
Take public transit to work? “Not feasible,” said the salesman for software company Oracle Corp. “I would have to go downtown by GO train, then I'd have to travel back to the airport. It would probably take me a full day just to get here.”
His situation is becoming more common, part of a growing trend in how Canadians commute. A Statistics Canada report released yesterday shows that jobs are on the way out of big cities, and so are many commutes.
While the majority of jobs in Canada are centred in major metropolitan areas, the suburbs, with easier access to highways and cheaper land, are attracting more businesses and more commuters. And Statistics Canada found that the farther the job from the downtown core, the more likely a commuter would use a car instead of public transit, walking or cycling.
“Altogether, 58 per cent of commuters drove to work when their job was located less than five kilometres from the city centre. This rose to about 80 per cent when the job was more than 20 kilometres out,” the report stated.
While high-paying skilled jobs remained the domain of Canadian cities between 1996 and 2001, manufacturing and retail jobs are relocating. “In Toronto, for example, the proportion of manufacturing workers in areas at least 20 kilometres from the city centre rose from 51 per cent in 1996 to 57 per cent in 2001,” the report stated.
The dominance of trucking partially explains the move, said Eric Miller, a civil engineering professor at the University of Toronto. Cheaper land and access to highways, he says, are big draws for factories and even office buildings.
“The suburbanization trend has been playing out for a long time,” he said, noting that shopping malls followed the exodus of residences into the quasi-rural outskirts of cities in the 1950s. Commercial and industrial sprawl is a logical continuation of that trend.
“Once jobs disperse all over the place, there's a tremendous amount of travel going on that's not being served by transit. People get trapped into using automobiles . . . which leads to massive congestion,” Mr. Miller said.
For Brian Pincott, an activist with the Sierra Club of Canada who is trying to fight urban sprawl in Calgary, gridlock is only part of the problem. “Cities are trying to solve the problem by building more roads. It's like trying to solve obesity by increasing belt size.”
Uncontrolled residential urban sprawl is only exacerbating the problem, he said.
“You have to drive everywhere [in Calgary],” Mr. Pincott said, adding that transit is inadequate. “It's getting more and more difficult to get to your job.”
He said he would like to see suburban areas create mixed-use areas as they grow, to keep work, shopping, homes and schools clustered more closely together.
But as the population of suburbs begin to rival those of small cities, the allure of open park land and better schools may get lost amid unchecked growth and gridlock.
“These suburbs are starting to become cities,” Mr. Miller said. “They really haven't been built as cities because they've been planned as suburban developments.”
In Toronto, which has one of the most heavily used public transit systems in the country, ridership in suburban and outlying areas has increased, said TTC spokeswoman Marilyn Bolton.
“Many years ago, Mississauga and Scarborough were considered suburbs. Now they're part of the city,” she said.
Overall public transit use in Canada have remained constant, however, since urbanites are increasingly forgoing cars in favour transit, the report said.
Vancouver's public transit system is one of the most widely dispersed, covering approximately 2,800 square kilometres, said Ken Hardie, spokesman for TransLink, the Greater Vancouver Transportation Authority. Buses and SkyTrains take commuters to a handful of major centres, instead of one central core, making frequent service difficult.
“The ideal situation is having people live close to where they work,” he said. “But at the end of the day, that's a personal choice.”
The report focused on 27 cities, particularly the eight largest: Quebec, Montreal, Ottawa-Hull, Toronto, Winnipeg, Calgary, Edmonton and Vancouver.
Commuting by the numbers
The increase in the number of commuters by distance of job from city centre, 1996 to 2001.
< 5 km 5 to 10 km 10 to 15 km 15 to 20 km 20 to 25 km >25
Quebec -2,200 9,100 3,400 1,500 -100 1,400
Montreal 31,900 17,500 21,200 23,400 14,900 25,500
Ottawa-Hull 11,900 17,700 5,900 15,300 11,600 1,300
Toronto 72,700 10,300 9,200 9,400 92,300 116,000
Winnipeg -3,300 15,700 2,700 1,600 1,500 500
Calgary 29,700 15,200 29,000 2,200 2,400 3,900
Edmonton 4,200 18,800 16,200 6,900 -300 9,800
Vancouver 4,800 14,200 13,100 2,300 26,900 12,300
Lower costs for homes, businesses increase traffic in suburbs, Statscan says
JEN GERSON
2 June 2005
The Globe and Mail
Living and working in the suburbs, Derek Smith avoids the worst of city living — except the commute.
In his nearly two-hour daily trek from Aurora to Mississauga, Mr. Smith listens to classic rock on the radio as he bypasses the big city altogether.
He says he's only been on the subway once in his life.
Take public transit to work? “Not feasible,” said the salesman for software company Oracle Corp. “I would have to go downtown by GO train, then I'd have to travel back to the airport. It would probably take me a full day just to get here.”
His situation is becoming more common, part of a growing trend in how Canadians commute. A Statistics Canada report released yesterday shows that jobs are on the way out of big cities, and so are many commutes.
While the majority of jobs in Canada are centred in major metropolitan areas, the suburbs, with easier access to highways and cheaper land, are attracting more businesses and more commuters. And Statistics Canada found that the farther the job from the downtown core, the more likely a commuter would use a car instead of public transit, walking or cycling.
“Altogether, 58 per cent of commuters drove to work when their job was located less than five kilometres from the city centre. This rose to about 80 per cent when the job was more than 20 kilometres out,” the report stated.
While high-paying skilled jobs remained the domain of Canadian cities between 1996 and 2001, manufacturing and retail jobs are relocating. “In Toronto, for example, the proportion of manufacturing workers in areas at least 20 kilometres from the city centre rose from 51 per cent in 1996 to 57 per cent in 2001,” the report stated.
The dominance of trucking partially explains the move, said Eric Miller, a civil engineering professor at the University of Toronto. Cheaper land and access to highways, he says, are big draws for factories and even office buildings.
“The suburbanization trend has been playing out for a long time,” he said, noting that shopping malls followed the exodus of residences into the quasi-rural outskirts of cities in the 1950s. Commercial and industrial sprawl is a logical continuation of that trend.
“Once jobs disperse all over the place, there's a tremendous amount of travel going on that's not being served by transit. People get trapped into using automobiles . . . which leads to massive congestion,” Mr. Miller said.
For Brian Pincott, an activist with the Sierra Club of Canada who is trying to fight urban sprawl in Calgary, gridlock is only part of the problem. “Cities are trying to solve the problem by building more roads. It's like trying to solve obesity by increasing belt size.”
Uncontrolled residential urban sprawl is only exacerbating the problem, he said.
“You have to drive everywhere [in Calgary],” Mr. Pincott said, adding that transit is inadequate. “It's getting more and more difficult to get to your job.”
He said he would like to see suburban areas create mixed-use areas as they grow, to keep work, shopping, homes and schools clustered more closely together.
But as the population of suburbs begin to rival those of small cities, the allure of open park land and better schools may get lost amid unchecked growth and gridlock.
“These suburbs are starting to become cities,” Mr. Miller said. “They really haven't been built as cities because they've been planned as suburban developments.”
In Toronto, which has one of the most heavily used public transit systems in the country, ridership in suburban and outlying areas has increased, said TTC spokeswoman Marilyn Bolton.
“Many years ago, Mississauga and Scarborough were considered suburbs. Now they're part of the city,” she said.
Overall public transit use in Canada have remained constant, however, since urbanites are increasingly forgoing cars in favour transit, the report said.
Vancouver's public transit system is one of the most widely dispersed, covering approximately 2,800 square kilometres, said Ken Hardie, spokesman for TransLink, the Greater Vancouver Transportation Authority. Buses and SkyTrains take commuters to a handful of major centres, instead of one central core, making frequent service difficult.
“The ideal situation is having people live close to where they work,” he said. “But at the end of the day, that's a personal choice.”
The report focused on 27 cities, particularly the eight largest: Quebec, Montreal, Ottawa-Hull, Toronto, Winnipeg, Calgary, Edmonton and Vancouver.
Commuting by the numbers
The increase in the number of commuters by distance of job from city centre, 1996 to 2001.
< 5 km 5 to 10 km 10 to 15 km 15 to 20 km 20 to 25 km >25
Quebec -2,200 9,100 3,400 1,500 -100 1,400
Montreal 31,900 17,500 21,200 23,400 14,900 25,500
Ottawa-Hull 11,900 17,700 5,900 15,300 11,600 1,300
Toronto 72,700 10,300 9,200 9,400 92,300 116,000
Winnipeg -3,300 15,700 2,700 1,600 1,500 500
Calgary 29,700 15,200 29,000 2,200 2,400 3,900
Edmonton 4,200 18,800 16,200 6,900 -300 9,800
Vancouver 4,800 14,200 13,100 2,300 26,900 12,300