What's a long commute for each city? What are the worst commutes you know of?

[megadude]

Definitely a subjective question. But based on your's and your coworkers' experiences, and your general feeling, what do you consider a long commute for each city?

I am curious what it's like for cities outside TO. Me personally, I drive to the GO station, take train and then walk. It's 1 hour in morning and 1:05 going back. My longest has been 1:15 for the last two places I lived. I don't consider this long for TO.

I think over 1:30 is long. Almost everyone I know is well below 1.5 hours (some are 10 minute walk), but I have known quite a few people to come in from farther GO stations or take bus and subway/streetcar from farther reaches of the city and it takes 1.5 hours or so. Anything past that I consider long.

I can google average commute time for some major cities, but I can't get a feeling of what's considered a long commute or what is an acceptable commute for smaller sized cities.

I would imagine for Regina or Saskatoon that anything over half an hour would be long if you're driving in. Though I imagine plenty of people drive 45 minutes or longer and just grin and bear it because they don't want to uproot their family for their new job in Saskatoon or wherever.

My company has a big office in another Ontario city of about 120k people. Of those I talk to there, most are a 15-20 minute drive. One is half hour because he lives by a lake so it's worth it. One is 40 minutes for family reasons but could easily live much closer and it'll still be very affordable. She considers it long but can live with it.

I know Montreal and Vancouver also have nightmarish traffic like TO. I have been in Montreal rush hour before. Not fun. But they are smaller cities than TO. So what is a long commute in those places?

For Calgary, are there a lot of people who want to live in the Rockies and so they tolerate their drive into the city?

What about Winnipeg? There's some big waters to the north that look like about a one hour drive.

And how about Halifax. Plenty of ocean front land. Do many people live on the ocean and drive say 45 minutes and it doesn't seem that long to them?


As for examples:

- I worked with someone who took bus from St. Catharines to Downtown TO everyday for over 10 years. Gotta be about 2 hours door to door.

- At TD, after Canada Trust was bought out and their leases in London expired, many of those offices moved to Mississauga. TD paid for a Greyhound every day for whoever wanted to work in Sauga. About eight people were coming in every day at 9am and got to leave at about 4:00. Not sure if this arrangement continued as I left a year later.

- My friend works with a guy at a tool and die shop in Oakville who comes in from Dundalk. That's 1.5 hours on a good day.

- Another friend used to live up around Midland and his coworker drove from just south of North Bay to Midland every day. 2.5 hours each way. Didn't want to uproot his three kids.

- I know of someone who worked and lived in Scarboro, but they love going to the cottage. So they knocked down their cottage on the lake and built a proper house on it. So their commute from Buckhorn to near Scarboro Town Centre is 1:45 to 2:00 when leaving around 6:30am. But it's worth it to him.

- One of our clients, who is rich like almost all our clients, told me his wife was flying from Niagara four or five days a week to TO Island Airport for about 6 months. Then cross over to the mainland and streetcar it from there. Originally she was driving and couldn't take it anymore. It was for consulting and for a sizable pay cheque of course.

- My old boss told me his friend lived on one side of Cook's Bay in Lake Simcoe. Had to drive around it to get to work in Keswick. In the winter, when it froze over, he'd just zip across on snowmobile. Kind of scary.

[kwoldtimer]

Within Waterloo Region, it would be a challenge to have more than a 30 minute commute, in normal traffic conditions. Considerably longer, of course, for those who chose to commute into or out of the Region.

[esquire]

I think an average car commute in Winnipeg is on the order of 20-40 minutes. Just shy of one hour is probably about as long as it gets for someone who lives and works in the Winnipeg area. There are people who live in one city in the region and work in another who could have a commute of over an hour, but that's less common.

Transit is way more variable as we have little in the way of rapid transit, so a crosstown bus commute involving two transfers could easily be north of 90 minutes.

But as to what constitutes a long commute? Here's my obviously subjective opinion:

Car: 40 minutes or more = long
Bus: 1 hour or more = long

[le calmar]

My commute is 45 to 50 min in the morning and 50 min to 1 hr in the evening. I think this is pretty close to the average for people living outside the central neighbourhoods. I would say over 1 hr could be considered a long commute.

[SignalHillHiker]

If there's no traffic, you can get almost anywhere in St. John's in 20 minutes. The city is long and narrow so commuting across its length could be longer, but across the width would be 5-10 minutes even during rush hour.

On a bad day it can take me 45 minutes to an hour to get to my parents place in suburban Mount Pearl from my work in the East End. Its infuriatingly slow. If you end up taking an inner-city arterial, could be two hours. You must go well out of your way to get on the outer ring road. On a good day that's 20-25 minutes during rush hour, 15 minutes tops at other times of day. To get to my home in Rabbittown from work, however, which is across the width, it only takes about 10 minutes at any time of day.

Longest commutes in St. John's are people who live in Conception Bay South (highway is packed during rush hour) and the Southern Shore (because that highway is only two lanes). Potentially a little longer are people who live well outside the CMA, an hour or more even in no traffic, but commute to the city daily. Lots in places like Harbour Main and Cape Broyle.

If I had to guess, I'd estimate average commute time in St. John's is 15-20 minutes.

[megadude]

Originally Posted by esquire

I think an average car commute in Winnipeg is on the order of 20-40 minutes. Just shy of one hour is probably about as long as it gets for someone who lives and works in the Winnipeg area. There are people who live in one city in the region and work in another who could have a commute of over an hour, but that's less common.

Transit is way more variable as we have little in the way of rapid transit, so a crosstown bus commute involving two transfers could easily be north of 90 minutes.

But as to what constitutes a long commute? Here's my obviously subjective opinion:

Car: 40 minutes or more = long
Bus: 1 hour or more = long

Good way of breaking it down. Distinguishing between driving and taking transit is key.

[megadude]

Originally Posted by le calmar

My commute is 45 to 50 min in the morning and 50 min to 1 hr in the evening. I think this is pretty close to the average for people living outside the central neighbourhoods. I would say over 1 hr could be considered a long commute.

Ottawa is another area I'm curious about. I assume many of the francos live on the QC side for either language/culture or cheaper real estate. But the topography also looks more interesting on that side of the river.

[FFX-ME]

Here are the average commute times in the largest Canadian cities. You could say that a commute longer than the average is long.


https://www.thinkinsure.ca/insurance...in-canada.html

Or even better here is the Stats Can data from 2011:
http://www12.statcan.gc.ca/nhs-enm/2.../tbl02-eng.cfm

[TorontoDrew]

Here is the most recent census data from StatsCan:
source: https://careers.workopolis.com/advic...ada-commuting/

1. Toronto
Average commute to work: 32.8 minutes

2. Oshawa
Average commute to work: 31.8 minutes

3. Montreal
Average commute to work: 29.7 minutes

4. Barrie
Average commute to work: 29.6 minutes

5. Vancouver
Average commute to work: 28.4 minutes

6. Calgary
Average commute to work: 27.0 minutes

7. Hamilton
Average commute to work: 26.9 minutes

8. Ottawa – Gatineau (Ontario/Quebec)
Average commute to work: 26.3 minutes

9. Ottawa – Gatineau (Quebec side)
Average commute to work: 26.7 minutes

10. Ottawa – Gatineau (Ontario side)
Average commute to work: 26.2 minutes



So where can you go if you want to spend less time in your car? Here are the Canadian cities with the best average commute times:


1. Thunder Bay
Average commute to work: 17.1 minutes

2. Regina
Average commute to work: 17.3 minutes

3. Trois-Rivières
Average commute to work: 18.6 minutes

4. Sherbrooke
Average commute to work: 18.8 minutes

5. Saguenay
Average commute to work: 16.9 minutes

6. Moncton
Average commute to work: 17.2 minutes

7. John’s
Average commute to work: 17.9 minutes

8. Saskatoon
Average commute to work: 19.9 minutes

9. Greater Sudbury
Average commute to work: 20.1 minutes

10. Kingston
Average commute to work: 20.4 minutes

[le calmar]

A lot of people commute from Wakefield which is about 30 min north of Gatineau and in a hilly/natural setting. If you hit the traffic during rush hour and you work in Downtown Ottawa, I imagine the commute would take over an hour, probably 1:15 to 1:30. Many residents of Wakefield are Anglo and don't speak French, but the area is known to be Anglo friendly, or at least very bilingual.

[esquire]

^ Nearly 20 minutes in Trois Rivieres strikes me as fairly long for such a small city that has a freeway running through it.

[TorontoDrew]

What about Oshawa?

[Architype]

I think for Vancouver, a commute of one hour by car would be considered quite long, at least in normal traffic, but for those who use transit, an hour of total travel time might be a regular occurrence to the outer suburbs. I've never had to endure anything over 20 minutes on a regular basis.

[esquire]

Originally Posted by TorontoDrew

What about Oshawa?

I just assumed that the numbers were driven up by people commuting into Toronto.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by le calmar

My commute is 45 to 50 min in the morning and 50 min to 1 hr in the evening. I think this is pretty close to the average for people living outside the central neighbourhoods. I would say over 1 hr could be considered a long commute.

Is that driving or transit?

[Taeolas]

For Fredericton, if you are busing, pretty much the longest commute (bus stop to bus stop) would max out at about 1 hour. All the routes go to a central station and then go out from there. So if you are at the end of 1 route and have to go to the end of another, you're looking at an hour.

For Car travel, you're probably looking at about 30 minutes max, depending on how far out you are coming from. The only real choke points in the city are the New Maryland Highway, Hanwell Road and Westmoreland Bridge. They (and the streets around Westmoreland especially) tend to clog up a bit around 8AM and again around 5PM, but are usually clear within 30 minutes total. Unless you live way out in the boonies, you can pretty much get anywhere in the city within 30, without too much traffic.

[harls]

Looking forward to this conversation in 30 years.

[jigglysquishy]

I'm at a 30-35 minute commute in Regina.

I know a few people who live in Regina, but commute to Moose Jaw for school.

[megadude]

Originally Posted by kwoldtimer

Within Waterloo Region, it would be a challenge to have more than a 30 minute commute, in normal traffic conditions. Considerably longer, of course, for those who chose to commute into or out of the Region.

I was in KW and area last year. Stopped by New Hamburg to have a look at the Nith River. I drove through a mature neighbourhood close to the river and then parked by the dam.

I got a good feeling about the place. I thought that if I ever lived in KW, I would want to live in a place like this, about a half hour drive in a place that had more of village type feel in a rural setting but not too far from the city.

[GlassCity]

In Vancouver, by car, I'd say anything over maybe 45 minutes would be considered long. Transit would probably be considered a long commute over an hour.

In Winnipeg, my impression is that a car commute over 30 minutes is considered long, and same with a transit commute over 45? I have a very small sample size though.