Drivers pass transit users for commute to downtown
More Calgarians are driving than are using transit for their morning commute into downtown in 2017, says a city report, a significant turnaround from last year when most commuters opted for buses and CTrains.
According to the city’s 2017 cordon count, in which transportation officials collect data from Calgarians heading into the core from 13 different locations, only 40.6 per cent of commuters took transit.
At the same time, 46.2 per cent arrived in vehicles, with 12.7 per cent carpooling and 33.5 per cent driving solo.
Those numbers are a significant change from last year’s data, which saw as many as 47.1 per cent of commuters opting for transit and only 42 per cent choosing vehicles — 11.9 per cent carpooling and 30.1 per cent in single-occupancy vehicles.
Meanwhile, pedestrians and cyclists also saw their numbers boosted in 2017, with some 9.4 per cent of commuters choosing to walk and another 3.8 per cent opting to pedal. Last year, those numbers were 7.8 per cent and 3.1 per cent respectively.
And while city councillors representing the core and suburban areas blamed the economic downturn for low transit use into the core, they did admit that the city’s overall transit experience could use some improvements.
“We’ve lost a lot of jobs in the core, tens of thousands of jobs,” said Coun. Evan Woolley, whose ward represents the west end of downtown and inner-city communities such as Sunalta, Bankview and Killarney.
“But Calgarians are good at making decisions around time-efficiency, and they’re going to go into downtown in the fastest way possible. Because there is such little congestion, they are choosing to drive right now.”
At the same time, Woolley added, the LRT would be much more attractive if the downtown portion along 7th Avenue S.W. was underground, admitting that commuters coming from the west edge of the city who work on the east side of downtown sometimes suffer a slow go. As the LRT travels along 7th Avenue, it goes through eight different intersections and up to six stations, depending on its final destination. For many riders, that can be the longest part of their commute.
“There was definitely a lack of foresight when we initially did not put the LRT underground downtown,” Woolley said.
“But we’re trying to make up for it with other investments,” he added, explaining that BRT (bus-rapid-transit) routes, such as the one being built along 14th Street S.W. scheduled to be ready in 2018, will increase transit use.
Coun. Shane Keating agreed that the economic downturn and thousands of layoffs over the past three years are contributing to lower ridership on city buses and CTrains.
“Congestion has really dropped off, we’ve dropped by 25 per cent capacity in the core. We’re just not seeing as many people on the road, because they’ve lost jobs.”
Keating, who chairs the city’s transportation committee, added that downtown oilpatch workers who have been able to hang on to their jobs are more than likely executives or middle managers who have secured parking downtown, so they are continuing to commute in single-occupancy vehicles.
But as a suburban councillor representing deep-south communities such as Auburn Bay, Copperfield and Cranston, he definitely wants continued investment into park-and-ride lots.
“Up to 15 per cent of riders use the park and ride, it’s important to a lot of people,” Keating said.
Keating admitted that many commuters along the southeast line, including the Heritage Station, Southland and Anderson, fill up park-and-ride lots before 7 a.m. on weekday mornings.
But he, too, hopes the muchtouted BRT in the southwest will ease congestion at those same lots in the south. Before this year, the report says, transit has been the most popular way for commuters to get downtown on weekday mornings over the past decade.
According to the data collected since 2007, transit ridership started growing significantly in 2008, with a peak of 64,000 total trips entering the core by 2013. But that number dropped by 18,000 trips in 2016 and then another 8,000 trips in 2017, translating to a 28 per cent decrease from 2013 to 2017.