Commute times longer now than 6 years ago: poll

If it feels like it takes you longer to commute to work or school, a new poll says you’re right.

Whether you drive or take transit, commute times are on the rise in the city, according to Forum Research.

According to their latest poll, conducted for the Toronto Star, the average commute has gone up three minutes from 39 to 42 since 2013.

The most affected age bracket is adults aged 18 to 34, likely due to a higher percentage of public transit users.

“Young people, and particularly public transit users, are hardest hit by long commutes.”

The survey found those who take transit reported commute times an average of 12 minutes longer than drivers.

York-Etobicoke residents saw their commute times rise by 11 minutes over the last six years.

Scarborough and East York residents experienced small victories, declining by a couple minutes.

“On average, commute times have increased across the city, due to the massive increases we’re seeing in North York, Etobicoke, and York,” said Dr. Lorne Bozinoff, president of Forum Research.

“Young people, and particularly public transit users, are hardest hit by long commutes. The majority say that building more public transit is the way to alleviate congestion, but we’ve also seen an increase in the amount of people who want another option, or just don’t know how to improve the problem; it may speak to a general frustration about the state of traveling throughout the city.”

As for what all this is doing for the state of our health, the survey found the majority of people (60 per cent) said the time they spend commuting reduces their quality of life.

And it seems like the solution is becoming less clear.

While more than half (58 per cent) of the people asked said building more transit was the solution, that number was down six points from the 64 per cent in 2013. The same decline is seen in those who said building more roads (17 per cent down from 23 per cent).

As the same time, numbers rose of people who said they didn’t know (nine per cent, up six points) or that something else should be done to relieve congestion (16 per cent, up six points).

The poll was conducted June 8-9 via an interactive voice response telephone survey of 1,157 randomly selected Toronto voters. Results based on the total sample are considered accurate plus or minus three per cent, measured as the average deviation across all response categories, 19 times out of 20.

See the complete poll results below:

Toronto Commute Times Poll by CityNewsToronto on Scribd