More people take bus to work: stats

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This article was published 01/12/2017 (2879 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The number of Winnipeggers using public transit to commute to work is steadily going up, Statistics Canada figures released this week show.

In 2006, 44,975 Winnipeggers said they used public transit to get to work — about 13 per cent of the 346,790 respondents.

In 2011, 48,905 Winnipeggers said they used public transit to get to work — about 13.4 per cent of the 364,745 respondents.

In 2016, 51,395 Winnipeggers said the same — about 13.6 per cent of the 377,845 respondents.

The average commute time for a Winnipegger using any sort of transportation was 35.7 minutes. The Statistics Canada results come as Winnipeg Transit faces a budget cut and service reduction.

Winnipeg Transit is going to be $10.7 million over budget for the year, mostly because of an unexpected shortfall in provincial funding.

The 2018 civic budget proposes a 25-cent fare hike and service reductions to make up for the deficit. Council will vote on the budget Dec. 12. Advocacy groups have decried the proposed fare hike and service cuts.

“The city has a responsibility to keep up,” said Joseph Kornelson, chairman of the advocacy group Functional Transit Winnipeg.

Kornelson thinks the data show that although there has been a slight decrease in transit ridership since 2013, according to Winnipeg Transit, the number of Winnipeggers who rely on transit for their daily commute is still significant.

“Maybe we’ve lost a few riders in the past few years, but the ridership is still way higher than 10 years ago,” Kornelson said, pointing to data collected by the United Way of Winnipeg in 2014 that shows a steady increase in ridership since 2003.

But it’s not all doom and gloom. On average, more Winnipeggers use public transit than Canadians overall, with the national average sitting at 12.4 per cent compared with Winnipeg’s 13.6 per cent.

In Edmonton — a city that spends 13.1 per cent of its $2.5-billion biannual budget on city-owned public transit, both light rail and bus — only 11.3 per cent of commuters used public transit to get to work, with an average commute of 40.2 minutes.

Mayor Brian Bowman’s office said he hadn’t yet reviewed the latest census data.

— with files from Aldo Santin

erik.pindera@freepress.mb.ca