Canadian Workers Commuting Further

Census data showed that workers were commuting farther to work in 2006 than in 2001, and a slightly decreasing proportion were driving their car to work. The median distance travelled by workers to their place of work in 2006 was 7.6 kilometres, up from 7.2 kilometres in 2001 and 7.0 kilometres in 1996. (The median is the point at which half are above, and half below.) Workers in Ontario had the highest median distance in 2006 at 8.7 kilometres.

Mode of transportation
Despite an increase in number of drivers, a lower proportion were driving to work. The census found that 14,714,300 people in the employed labour force commuted to their place of work, a 9.4 percent increase from 2001.

The vast majority, an estimated 10,644,300 workers, drove to work in a car, truck or van. That was a 7.2 percent increase from 2001, the equivalent of 714,900 more drivers on the road across Canada. However, this increase was well below the gain of just under 1 million between 1996 and 2001.

Despite this growth, the proportion of workers who drove to work declined from 73.8percent in 2001 to 72.3 percent in 2006.

Upward trend among workers travelling as passenger or using public transit
The 2006 Census found that 1,133,200 workers travelled to work as a passenger in a car, up 22.6 percent from 2001.

An estimated 1,622,700 people usually travelled to work on some form of public transportation, such as bus, streetcar, subway, light rail transit, commuter train or ferry, a 15.4 percent increase. Over the five-year period, the proportion that took some form of public transit increased from 10.5 percent to 11.0 percent.

The rest, an estimated 939,300, walked to work, up 6.6 percent, and 195,500 bicycled to work, a 20 percent increase.