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Commute mode by place of work

M

Memph

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Looks like Statscan has data on this, at least for Canada's biggest cities: http://www12.statcan.gc.ca/census-recensement/2006/as-sa/97-561/tables-tableaux-notes-eng.cfm#set4

Toronto: http://www12.statcan.gc.ca/census-r...s-cartes/CSD-CT/TorontoPOW_Sustainable_ec.pdf

If Statscan knows that certain census tracts have commute mode shares that fall within a certain range, that suggests they know they exact number. I don't know where I can find that data though, census tract profiles only have commute mode share by place of residence, not place of work.

Considering places like Trinity-Niagara, Beaconsfield Village and the Junction have 50%+ mode share by transit/biking/walking, despite not being served by GO trains or the subway, I suspect places like the Financial District would be well above 50%. If places like the Financial District only have 10-20% of commuters driving for instance, that suggests that improving transit to that area won't do much (except maybe encourage more development). Does anyone know what/where the exact numbers are for various parts of Toronto (esp the downtown areas)?
 
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Memph said:
I don't know where I can find that data though, census tract profiles only have commute mode share by place of residence, not place of work.
Click to expand...
Place of work (including postal code) was in the 2006 long form census.
 
https://www12.statcan.gc.ca/nhs-enm/2011/as-sa/map-carte/index-eng.cfm#tabs2

You can get the exact % of people taking transit+walking+biking to work from the 2011 National Household Survey, both by place of residence and place of work (and from that the %driving+carpooling+other(other = motorcycle?.

So the Financial District has 26.9% driving, the lowest of any census tract in Toronto, and other downtown census tracts are around 30% driving.

That's about the same as Downtown Montreal, a bit better than Downtown Vancouver and quite a bit better than Downtown Calgary.

Basically you have about 150,000 people driving into Downtown for work, so still a decent amount with room for improvement.
 
This is interesting
http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/tra...t-heaven-will-be-paved-with-facts-james.html#

Looks like most of the drivers in downtown are not 905ers as I suspected and unlike many people believe.

About 3 times as many people commute into downtown by transit as by car, and that ratio is about the same for the 905 as for the 416, however, there's a lot more downtown workers from the 416 than 905, hence more drivers coming in from the 416.

There's (very slightly) more people driving into downtown from North Toronto (south of 401) than the entirety of Peel during the morning peak...
There's also (very slightly) more people driving to jobs downtown from downtown than the entirety of Durham during the morning peak...
 
Memph said:
This is interesting
http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/tra...t-heaven-will-be-paved-with-facts-james.html#

Looks like most of the drivers in downtown are not 905ers as I suspected and unlike many people believe.

About 3 times as many people commute into downtown by transit as by car, and that ratio is about the same for the 905 as for the 416, however, there's a lot more downtown workers from the 416 than 905, hence more drivers coming in from the 416.

There's (very slightly) more people driving into downtown from North Toronto (south of 401) than the entirety of Peel during the morning peak...
There's also (very slightly) more people driving to jobs downtown from downtown than the entirety of Durham during the morning peak...
Click to expand...

Very interesting indeed. Here are their surprise findings:

Surprise findings
  • 9,252 auto trips are made in morning peak hours from north Toronto to downtown. More than all such trips from Peel Region (Mississauga, Brampton and Caledon) combined.
  • More downtowners (4,679) drive to downtown jobs than commuters from Durham Region (4,558).
  • 29,177 walk , bike or take cab to downtown jobs each morning — up 31 per cent in five years and more than double the 1986 number.
  • About 74 per cent of TTC passengers at Finch, Downsview and Scarborough Town Centre stations are downtown-bound, but just 51 per cent at Don Mills (which may explain/reflect the low Sheppard Subway ridership). Travellers who transfer into those stations from the 905 region are even more likely to be headed downtown.
  • In 1986, 21 per cent of Toronto (416) residents had no cars. By 2011 car-free households had grown to 23 per cent. Downtowners are the least car-dependent, at 45 per cent car-free, though in 1986 the car-free percentage was 47%.
Click to expand...
 
Not that surprising to me... road congestion is primarily a suburban (and highway) problem, and GO does a relatively good job of providing travel times that are competitive with driving. In contrast, for many trips within Toronto driving (even in rush hour) is faster than the milk run transit that the TTC provides.

I would also imagine that income is a factor - those who live in the inner suburbs and drive downtown are more likely to afford the cost of parking.
 
James said:
Very interesting indeed. Here are their surprise findings:
Click to expand...

I am genuinely surprised by these two stats:

  • 9,252 auto trips are made in morning peak hours from north Toronto to downtown. More than all such trips from Peel Region (Mississauga, Brampton and Caledon) combined.
  • More downtowners (4,679) drive to downtown jobs than commuters from Durham Region (4,558).
Click to expand...
 
mjl08 said:
I am genuinely surprised by these two stats:
Click to expand...

I have more questions than answers from this survey. I wish I had the raw data!

450,000 jobs are downtown.

80,000 auto trips downtown from outside of downtown
240,000 other trips downtown from outside of downtown (assume transit although minimal may be walking/biking)....from the 75/25 split

130,000 people living downtown (is that right?)
- 30,000 bike or walk
- 5,000 drive
- 95,000 use transit.

Gives us some insight. There are about 250,000 rides on GO a day (divide by 2...125,000 a day).

So for those living outside of downtown 1/2 of transit users use GO and 1/2 use the TTC (subway mostly)
And 95,000 living downtown that use the TTC

Net per person split of transit is 210,000 on TTC and 125,000 on GO.

Is that right? I knew GO is that important but I didn't think it would be that important.

(I also didn't realize the number of people on the TTC that are fairly short trips....shouldn't these be break-even profitability? Then where does the money go at the TTC?)
 
The proportion of 905-area commuters who drive to work in downtown Toronto has dropped to 25 per cent; in 1986, it was 45 per cent.
Click to expand...

I bet the actual number of 905-area commuters who drive to work in downtown has stayed roughly the same during this period. Highways can only move so many cars and they tend to be used as the preferred mode until they reach saturation volume and grind to a halt. Then some people move to transit. As a result highways are always just at the saturation point and will always be at the threshold of coming to a complete stop. If that's true then building more transit capacity will never solve traffic congestion, but it will allow a lot more jobs to be located in the City.
 
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howl said:
I bet the actual number of 905-area commuters who drive to work in downtown has stayed roughly the same during this period. Highways can only move so many cars and they tend to be used as the preferred mode until they reach saturation volume and grind to a halt. Then some people move to transit. As a result highways are always just at the saturation point and will always be at the threshold of coming to a complete stop. If that's true then building more transit capacity will never solve traffic congestion, but it will allow a lot more jobs to be located in the City.
Click to expand...

It could be either that the number who drive is the same but percentage is lower due to more jobs downtown. Or maybe rather you have more 905 commuters to downtown and fewer 416 commuters?
 
muller877 said:
I have more questions than answers from this survey. I wish I had the raw data!

450,000 jobs are downtown.

80,000 auto trips downtown from outside of downtown
240,000 other trips downtown from outside of downtown (assume transit although minimal may be walking/biking)....from the 75/25 split

130,000 people living downtown (is that right?)
- 30,000 bike or walk
- 5,000 drive
- 95,000 use transit.

Gives us some insight. There are about 250,000 rides on GO a day (divide by 2...125,000 a day).

So for those living outside of downtown 1/2 of transit users use GO and 1/2 use the TTC (subway mostly)
And 95,000 living downtown that use the TTC

Net per person split of transit is 210,000 on TTC and 125,000 on GO.

Is that right? I knew GO is that important but I didn't think it would be that important.

(I also didn't realize the number of people on the TTC that are fairly short trips....shouldn't these be break-even profitability? Then where does the money go at the TTC?)
Click to expand...

http://www.dmg.utoronto.ca/pdf/tts/2006/travel_summaries_for_the_gtha/Toronto/PD_1.pdf
According to this (2006 data mind you), 31% of downtown workers are from the 905, 27% from outer 416, 28% from inner 416 (non-downtown) and 15% from downtown.

As for the 5000 downtowners driving, I think that's driving to downtown, there's others driving to destinations outside downtown for work.

According to the above link it's 43% of morning peak trips to downtown by local transit and 17% by GO train (2006 TTS).
 
muller877 said:
(I also didn't realize the number of people on the TTC that are fairly short trips....shouldn't these be break-even profitability? Then where does the money go at the TTC?)
Click to expand...

It subsidizes the long trips! Those people coming in from outer 416 all the way downtown on the same fare.
 
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