Statistics Canada indicates that there were 2.8 million fewer people traveling to work last year compared to 2016, in particular due to the pandemic which has democratized telework.
In new data from the 2021 Census of Population, the federal agency points out that the COVID-19 pandemic has changed the ways Canadians travel to work. The number of people using cars, public transit and active modes of transportation, such as walking and cycling, all fell last year compared to 2016.
With fewer cars on the road, travel times have also dropped. Statistics Canada notes, however, that they are starting to rise again this year, but that they remain lower than they were in 2016.
Due to the evolving pandemic situation and working from home, Statistics Canada also compared its 2021 Census data with new figures collected last spring. These most recent probes show that in May 2022, the number of people who used the car to get to work was back at 2016 levels.
However, the number of workers favoring public transit remained lower than it was in 2016, in addition to representing only 7.7% of all workers.
One million Canadians mostly used public transit to get to work in 2021, which is lower than the 1.2 million people who chose this route when the data began to be counted in 1996. This also represented 50 % fewer people than in 2016.
In 2021, most public transit services were back to normal service, apart from the addition of health measures like mandatory mask-wearing on buses and trains.