Metro Vancouver commuting patterns

[officedweller]

Article from the Vnacouver Sun with charts and maps:

http://www.vancouversun.com/news/met...978/story.html

http://blogs.vancouversun.com/2014/0...ting-patterns/

Maps reveal Metro Vancouver’s commuting habits
Suburban residents more likely to head to other cities for work than come into Vancouver

By Chad Skelton, Vancouver Sun
January 8, 2014

The stereotypical commuter coming into downtown Vancouver from the suburbs is the exception rather than the rule, according to an analysis of commuting data by The Vancouver Sun.

The data, from the 2011 National Household Survey, shows suburban residents are much more likely to work in the same city as they live — or to commute to another suburb — than they are to come into Vancouver each day.

Indeed, of the roughly 650,000 employed residents of Metro Vancouver’s suburbs, only one-fifth come into Vancouver for work, although rates are higher on the North Shore and the nearby suburbs of Richmond and Burnaby. Such diffuse commuting patterns are in stark contrast to those found in other major Canadian cities, and make providing transit services more challenging.

For example, only 13 per cent of Surrey residents work in Vancouver. In comparison, 21 per cent of those who live in the Montreal suburb of Sainte-Therese work in Montreal, 48 per cent of those in Markham work in Toronto, and 59 per cent of those in Airdrie work in Calgary.

Commuting patterns for select Metro Vancouver cities are shown in the graphic.

Read more: http://www.vancouversun.com/Maps+rev...#ixzz2pqVkWwaG

[Pinion]

Yep, Vancouver's poor road and transit infrastructure (to Vancouver, not within) makes me heavily favour working on the north shore to the point that I took a small pay cut to do so.

Vancouver's infrastructure also made me rule out a good job in Delta, since I'd have to go through it.

[aberdeen5698]

Originally Posted by officedweller

Article from the Vnacouver Sun with charts and maps:

This strikes me as being mostly a good-news story. It means the livable region strategy of creating regional town centres to create a supply of jobs closer to where people live has actually paid off. It also means that congestion is probably less than it would otherwise be, and we're able to do better than we might have even without that freeway network going right into downtown.

If only we could somehow magically break the logjam on transit funding the way the provincial government seems to be able to do with every highway bridge they lay their eyes on...

[officedweller]

Sort of -
the surburban jobs probably aren't at the regional town centres, since only Metrotown and Surrey Central have any appreciable office space.

[squeezied]

The article is not too surprising. Vancouver's land area is small. If say Vancouver were to amalgamate with Burnaby and Richmond, Vancouver would have a higher percentage of people working in and commuting to the amalgamated city. Municipalities with larger land areas will have a higher chance of people commuting within their own cities, a good comparison would be White Rock and Surrey.

[red-paladin]

Originally Posted by officedweller

Sort of -
the surburban jobs probably aren't at the regional town centres, since only Metrotown and Surrey Central have any appreciable office space.

Not everyone works in an office building. Most people don't.

[officedweller]

Actually, that was part of my point (that the jobs are elsewhere)

[GMasterAres]

This is somewhat a discussion of roads, but I believe if you read the article again they simply say commuter. Would that not then mean it includes all transit commuters too?

I'd argue that those numbers for Vancouver and Burnaby reduce considerably from a road standpoint when you assume a large number of those commuters actually take SkyTrain not their cars.

Or am I missing the sentence that says "this is for car commuters only?"



It does lend itself to the notion that the mayors of Burnaby and Vancouver being up and arms about more road infrastructure in the suburbs were wrong in their saying it would "only being more cars to our city." since clearly most people commuting South of Fraser, stay in South of Fraser. Heck most Surrey commuters stay in Surrey itself.

[GMasterAres]

Originally Posted by officedweller

Actually, that was part of my point (that the jobs are elsewhere)

Yup. I've shown statistics in other threads where just 25 years ago 65% of jobs in the region were in Vancouver. Today that has dropped to 32% and continues to decline. That means today 68% of all jobs are not actually in Vancouver and are in all the other cities like Burnaby, North Van, Delta, Surrey, Coquitlam, Langley, etc.

Office jobs? Sure most are in Vancouver, but as was pointed out, most people don't work in large office towers. Most jobs are blue collar and retail.

[vanman]

So the vast majority of Vancouver residents stay within Vancouver for work. So much for the "reverse commute" myth.

I agree that this data shows that polycentrism is working for Metro Vancouver. Imagine how terrible traffic would be if the majority of suburban residents commuted into Vancouver proper every morning.

[EastVanMark]

Originally Posted by Pinion

Yep, Vancouver's poor road and transit infrastructure (to Vancouver, not within) makes me heavily favour working on the north shore to the point that I took a small pay cut to do so.

Vancouver's infrastructure also made me rule out a good job in Delta, since I'd have to go through it.

Sadly I believe you're not alone in making such decisions. The good news is your pay cut will likely pay for itself once you factor in the money you save by not sitting in traffic like you perhaps would have otherwise.

[Pinion]

Originally Posted by EastVanMark

Sadly I believe you're not alone in making such decisions. The good news is your pay cut will likely pay for itself once you factor in the money you save by not sitting in traffic like you perhaps would have otherwise.

Yes, that was part of the calculation. I only fill up on gas once per month now and I spare myself a lot of stress trying to get to work on time. The difference in money I have after expenses is negligible.

[officedweller]

Originally Posted by jhausner

Or am I missing the sentence that says "this is for car commuters only?"

Nope - you're right - it's all commuters.

How else to explain the high percentage of New Westminster commuters working in Vancouver? i.e. they live there because of SkyTrain.

[trofirhen]

What I found interesting on the maps, was the larger numbers of commuters from most areas seem aligned with the rapid transit such as it currently exists.
Even Port Coquitlam, with the upcoming Evergreen Line,(transit users or not) has Vancouver as its main commuting destination.
Pertinent also was that from Vancouver city, the commuting line densities were thin (and therefore small in number) indicating the intended trend for people to live
in the central city (and everything else west of Boundary Rd, of course).
The Vancouver>Richmond commuting volume is modest, but the Richmond > Vancouver commute is immense, implying the volume and importance of the Canada Line.
Commute volumes largely in accord with the existing rrt system - already a good symptom.

[officedweller]

Originally Posted by trofirhen

Even Port Coquitlam, ...

Westcoast Express