Torontonians who regularly commute are likely to spend over a year and a half of their lifetime riding transit, a new report says.
The public transit app, Moovit, looked at millions of trips by its users across 50 cities in 17 countries, analyzing trends in commute times, wait times, number of transfers, payment and transit improvement factors. In Canada, the platform analyzed data in the Greater Toronto and Vancouver areas.
As a result, the app created the 2024 Global Public Transport Report which found that Toronto commuters have the second worst transit commutes among Canadian and U.S. cities, with a total travel time of 55 minutes one way.
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Toronto was only five minutes short of Vancouver which holds the top spot at 60 minutes. Meanwhile, Miami was in third place for a travel time of 52 minutes.
Using Toronto’s average commute time, the platform calculated how long commuters spend on public transit throughout their lifetime and came to the conclusion that Torontonians will spend an average of one year and seven months riding public transit.
When it comes to wait times, transit commuters in Toronto, New York, Boston, and Chicago all have the same average wait time of 14 minutes. Across North America, those who live in Miami wait the longest at 21 minutes, and Seattle riders wait the shortest at 12 minutes.
According to the report, Canadian transit riders would be more encouraged to ride transit more often if there was a higher frequency of vehicles (29 per cent), lower fare costs (26 per cent) and accurate and reliable arrival times (19 per cent).
This report comes days after the Toronto Transit Commission announced it would be deploying plainclothes fare inspectors across the transit network in order to crack down on fare evasion.
TRAFFIC EXPECTED TO WORSEN BY 2044
In addition to long commute times, traffic congestion in Toronto is expected to get worse by 2044, based on a new report conducted by the Canadian Centre for Economic Analysis (CANCEA).
The report predicts that the number of commuters will increase by 1.9 million over the next 20 years in Ontario. In particular, there will be an additional 510,000 Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area (GTHA) commuters facing traffic congestion, a 33-per cent rise compared to current levels.
Overall, the report finds that traffic congestion could cost the province $108 billion annually by 2044. Currently, nearly 50 per cent GTHA commuters experience heavy traffic congestion, the report says.
