It might not be the most welcome reading for those of us clinging to the last of summer vacation, but a Statistics Canada report on commuting released last week tallied and analyzed the growing chunk of our lives we spend getting to work every day.
The average Canadian commute on a typical day last year took 26 minutes, 27 minutes for Ottawa residents. Gridlocked Toronto topped the daily drudgery index with an average commute of 33 minutes, and 27 per cent of trips took 45 minutes or more.
The numbers also showed commute lengths creeping upwards, eating more of our time every year. Last year’s average daily round-trip from home to work and back, with errands like dropping off kids and picking up groceries thrown in, was 65 minutes, up from 63 minutes in 2005. In 1992, it was 54 minutes.
On average, public transit was slower (44 minutes) than getting behind the wheel (24 minutes), and in part explains why 82 per cent of us prefer to drive, but StatsCan researchers went beyond the bare numbers to how people felt about their commuting situations – or predicaments.
Those who suffered longer commutes and worse traffic tended to report higher levels of daily stress, but there were some interesting wrinkles.
Once commutes reached 15 minutes or longer, for example, transit riders were more likely to be satisfied with their trip than drivers. It might be a matter of lowered expectations among bus riders, or the discovery that it’s more pleasant to relax with a book (or your favourite free daily paper) than personally battle with the traffic every day.
City governments often speak of easing traffic congestion and pollution by coaxing more people out of their cars and onto the buses and trains, but the StatsCan report identifies a hurdle there: Of drivers who had never used public transit, only 15 per cent thought it would be a convenient way of getting around. Among drivers who had actually tried it, 47 per cent thought so.
So, drivers who experience transit are more likely to have a favourable impression of it. The question is, how do you let the others know what they’re missing? OC Transpo, which raised fares once again in July and starting next week enacts a significant program of service cuts, seems ill-placed to win many converts.
