Data shows that 13.8 per cent of Hamilton commuters travel 60 minutes or more. Photo Credit: iStock.
A new report from Statistics Canada shows that Hamiltonians have some of the longest commute times in the country, with an average time of 30.6 minutes.
It should be noted that the local data is for the Hamilton Census Metropolitan Area (CMA), which also includes the City of Burlington and the Town of Grimsby.
That number is up from an average time of 27.0 minutes just a year earlier in May 2023.
Data shows that Hamiltonians have longer commutes than those in the Calgary, Edmonton, Montreal, Ottawa-Gatineau, St. Catharines-Niagara, Winnipeg, Victoria, and Vancouver areas.
Indeed, out of the 15 largest census metropolitan areas in Canada, Hamiltonians have the third longest average commute time.
Only those living in the Toronto and Oshawa CMAs recorded higher average commute times at 33.3 and 32.6 minutes respectively.
The Toronto CMA includes the regional municipalities of Durham, Peel, and York as well as part of Halton in addition to the City of Toronto.
While the report was released in August, the data was recorded in May 2024.
Statistics Canada says that the number does not include those “who work most of their hours at home” as it is meant to specifically be a measure of the time that commuters face.
The report also says that the number of commuters in Canada reached 16.5 million in May 2024, trending upward after declines in 2020 and 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The number of commuters across the country was up by 585,000 (+3.7 per cent) compared to May 2023.
The overview notes that commuting has financial costs and “can be associated with negative health outcomes and challenges maintaining work-life balance.”
“For people who work from home, time saved from commuting allows them to spend more time with their children, and on leisure activities, sleep, and household chores.”
Statistics Canada also collected data on commuters’ main mode of transportation.
For the Hamilton area, data indicates that 81.6 per cent of commuters take a car, truck, or van to work.
Meanwhile, 12.3 per cent of commuters are estimated to take public transit to work, while 5.2 per cent are estimated to travel by “active transportation” such as walking or cycling.
The report says that, nationwide, Canada’s urban transit ridership still has not recovered from the pandemic.
In May 2024, urban transit ridership was only at 87.0 per cent of pre-pandemic levels.
For example, the percentage of commuters taking public transit in the Ottawa-Gatineau CMA in May 2016 was 18.3 per cent, but was measured at only 11.7 per cent in May 2024.
However, Hamilton appears to go against the trend, with the percentage of commuters taking public transit up 2.4 percentage points compared to May 2016.
Since 2016 there have also been improvements to Hamilton’s transit service, with both new and more frequent HSR routes and more GO Transit options, which could help to explain why usage is up among commuters.
Additional data shows that 13.8 per cent of Hamilton commuters travel 60 minutes or more to get to work.
Statistics Canada says that they measure changes in commuting patterns in order to “plan commuting and transit infrastructure, and to better understand urbanization and changing business practices.”
Based in Hamilton, he reaches hundreds of thousands of people monthly on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter. He has been published in The Hamilton Spectator, Stoney Creek News, and Bay Observer. He has also been a segment host with Cable 14 Hamilton. In 2017, he received the Chancellor Full Tuition Scholarship from the University of Ottawa (BA, 2022). He has also received the Governor General’s Academic Medal. He formerly worked in a non-partisan role on Parliament Hill in Ottawa.
