Increase slight for commuting transit use – stats

New figures from Statistics Canada show the number of Vancouver workers who use public transit to get to work increased only slightly – three per cent – between 2006 and 2011, at 19.7 per cent. Says SFU City Program Director Gordon Price: “We spent the last half of the 20th century working to maximize car use - and we did.  So it’s going to take a bit of time to reverse that.” He says it’s difficult to compare Vancouver with slightly higher rates in cities like Toronto and Montreal that were extensively built prior to the war and invested in rapid transit sooner, “but we're catching up,” adds Price, who also teaches a fall course on transportation issues in Surrey. “One also has to be careful about comparing general averages across regions, including the low-density sprawl, with the areas concentrating on development and focusing on transit, walking, etc. Results there - particularly in Vancouver and the central core - are dramatic. Downtown now has traffic volumes that are equivalent to that of 1965.”

Gordon Price, 778.782.5081; gordon_price@sfu.ca