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Commuting Patterns and Places of Work of Canadians, 2006 Census: Findings

• Highlights
  • National, provincial and territorial portraits
  • Portraits of census metropolitan areas and their municipalities

• National, provincial and territorial portraits
  • Commuting patterns
    • Commuting distances continue to rise
    • The proportion of drivers is decreasing
    • Increase in proportion of workers using public transit or getting to work as a passenger in a car
    • A lower proportion of Canadians are walking, and a slightly higher proportion are cycling
  • Place of work status
    • Fewer people working at home
    • Falling employment in agriculture is reflected in a declining number of farmers, farm managers and general farm workers working at home
    • More people with no fixed workplace address
    • The construction sector accounts for one-third of the gain in workers with no fixed workplace address
    • Working in a province or territory other than the usual place of residence

• Portrait of census metropolitan areas and their municipalities
  • Place of work
    • Sharp increase in the number of workers in the CMAs of Barrie, Kelowna and Calgary
    • Employment continues to grow faster in the peripheral municipalities of CMAs than in their central municipalities
    • Sharp increase in the number of workers in the municipalities of Vaughan, Surrey and Laval
    • Location of jobs in the metropolitan territory: many jobs in the peripheral sectors of large urban areas
    • Despite the decentralization of workers, the central neighbourhoods remain major clusters of workplaces
    • Municipalities where workers live are not always the ones where the jobs are concentrated
  • Commuting patterns
    • Residents of the Oshawa CMA have the longest commute
    • Recently built dwellings are farther from places of work in the CMAs
    • Modes of transportation
    • Cars used less than in the past years in most CMAs
    • Public transit is mainly an option in the largest CMAs
    • Public transit increases considerably in Calgary
    • In large metropolitan areas, public transit is used more frequently in Canada than in the United States of America
    • Workers in Victoria more likely to walk and cycle to work
    • Younger workers use more sustainable transportation
    • Some progress in the use of sustainable transportation among workers living far from their place of work
    • Commuters to Vaughan, Surrey and Laval made little use of sustainable transportation

• Portrait of the largest census metropolitan areas in the country's regions
  • Halifax
  • Montréal
  • Toronto
  • Calgary
  • Vancouver

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