About
Reverse Zone, weblog on urban planning, sustainability, and technology.
Martin Laplante
Subscribe
to an RSS feed of this weblog.
Links
A few favourite links.
- Planetizen
- Cyburbia
- LookWAYup dictionary
- RES Policy Research Inc.
- Medical Reference
- AI Topics
- Pattern Language
- Scale Down, Windsor
- Raise the Hammer
- Price Tags
- Urban Squares
- NYC Streets
- Grush Hour
- Save Griffintown
- DNS Help
Friends' Blogs - David Wilson
- Viktor Toth
- Michael Geist
Recent posts
- Will Canada Reach Kyoto Targets With New GHG Inventory Figures?
- The Delicate Balancing Act of Downtowns and the Death of Griffintown
- Internet Identity Keystone Kops
- LA Transit Plan Aims to Save 725 Metric Tons of GHG Annually by 2030
- New York City's Congestion Pricing Plan Dies Yet Again
- New York Discovers Existing Direct Democracy Zoning Rule
- Driving is Going Down in the US
- The Commuting Turnaround in Canada
- Vancouver Churches Get a Licence to Break the Law
- Carbon Capture and Storage For Canada
- Prince of Wales Promotes Health, Wealth, and Courtesy
- Physical Measures Reduce Trips by How Much?
- Tall Buildings Incompatible with New Urbanism
- Direct Voter Control of Comprehensive Plans Fails
- TOD Mindset Moving Away From Pedestrian-friendly Focus
- Land Use Responsible for Biofuel Carbon Debt
- Places to Grow - Pictures Tell the Story
- How do the New Fuel Efficiency Standards Compare with California and Europe?
- Why We Still Need Separation of Uses
- Wikia Search Launches, Minus the Unique Features
- Malls as Make-believe Town Centres Minus the Wrong Kind of People
- NASA's scrambled data: it's not rocket science
- What Did John Baird Know and When Did He Know It?
- Is the Pope For or Against Urgent Climate Change Action?
- Dense Condos Do Not Revitalize
- Carbon Offsets in Ontario
- Is Carbon Sequestration Completely Useless?
- Hot Air - How to Beat Climate Change By Burning More Coal
- Congestion Pricing, Privacy, and Mesh Wireless Networking
- Cycling Will Kill You, But Not Cycling Will Kill You More
2008/03
2008/02
2008/01
2007/12
2007
2006
2005
Complete List of Posts
The Commuting Turnaround in Canada
Statistics Canada in a recently released analysis of the 2006 Census, reports that fewer people commute to work than in 2001. The proportion has gone from 73.8% in 2001 to 72.3% in 2006, a drop of 1.5%.
Break out the champagne, things are turning around! Not so fast. A smaller percentage are driving, but they are driving
5.6% further.
In the past 5 years, the number of people commuting 25km or more has gone up by 18%, according to a different recent study. And population is growing most quickly in the cities with the longest commutes. Sprawl is alive and well.
People may use the car less to commute to work, but the vast majority of kilometres driven are not for work but for other tasks like shopping and leisure. Home-to-work and work-to-home trips account for 23% of kilometres driven by light vehicles.
A reversal in the upward trend of kilometres travelled was predicted a few years ago, at least in the US. The aging population is a factor, and the average number of passengers per car can't keep on going down now that it has almost reached 1.0. But actual reductions in total kilometres driven as a result of conscious action are slow in coming.
So, bottom line, a smaller percentage in commuting does not necessarily mean less total kilometres travelled because of all the other factors. Not necessarily, but was there a reduction? According to the quarterly Canadian Vehicle Survey statistics, the answer is "maybe yes". Look at the boring graph, total vehicle kilometres driven, in billions, per quarter. The latest quarter 2007 Q3 seems a little lower than the preious quarter and than the same quarter a year before. Q3 is typically higher than Q2, and last year it wasn't. But looking at the graph, it's a little early to declare a trend.
Tags: Transportation Vehicles Sprawl Canada