Work-at-home trend stays static as daily commutes get longer across Canada
FREDERICTON — More members of the workforce are cramming the country’s buses, subways and highways each day, adding precious minutes to the daily commute, Statistics Canada reported Wednesday in its sixth and final batch of numbers from the 2016 census.
The number of commuters is larger than ever, the agency said — 15.9 million in 2016, a 30 per cent increase since 1996 — with a 59.5 per cent increase in the number of transit passengers and a 28.3 per cent spike in the number of people getting to work by car.
As a result, the average commute reached 26.2 minutes, up from 25.4 minutes in 2011. For transit passengers, the average was 44.8 minutes.
None of which matters a whit to telecommuters like Tyler MacKay.