Metro Vancouver Travel Profile Getting Greener

April 8, 2010

Two key travel studies support the idea that TransLink’s regional objective of reducing single-occupant vehicle travel to less than one-half of all trips by 2040 can be achieved. The 2008 Regional Trip Diary Survey and 2008 Screenline Survey show an increase in the proportion of trips taken on public transit as well as more people sharing car trip rides.

The Trip Diary study surveyed travel patterns of just under 20,000 households throughout the Lower Mainland (Metro Vancouver plus Abbotsford, Mission, Kent and Chilliwack) in the fall of 2008. This study, conducted by the Mustel Group, examined how many trips residents made in a 24-hour period, how and where they were taken, and their purpose.

The Screenline survey was undertaken at the same time, measuring how many vehicles and people passed through critical points in the Lower Mainland’s transportation network during a given period. This study found that, of the 5.9 million trips taken on a typical fall weekday in Metro Vancouver, 3.3 million of those – 55.9% – were taken by a driver in a car. This “mode share” for “auto drivers” is a significant decline from 2004, when almost 60% of trips were taken by a driver in a car.

As “driver auto” trips have declined, the transit mode share has increased by 16%, while the population of Metro Vancouver went up by about 6%. The number of trips being made on public transit is steadily increasing over the past 10 years, with a 12.5% mode share in 2008, compared to 10.8% in 2004 and 10.1% in 1999. Also, the combination of all modes other than driving a car – transit, cycling, walking and riding as a passenger in a car – reached a share of about 44%.

Changes in travel choice are helping the region to manage transportation more efficiently. The rate of trips per person on all travel modes in Metro Vancouver declined significantly from a peak of 3.24 per day in 2004 to 2.65 in 2008. This suggests people are combining more individual purposes into each trip, or “trip chaining.” This finding takes on even more meaning when one sees that the number of transit trips per capita has grown by one-third over the past 10 years – from 60 transit trips per person per year in 1999 to 80.

More people appear to be willing to share the ride, too, as the percentage of people using private auto as a passenger has increased from 16.5% in 2004 to almost 18% in 2008. The Screenline survey supports that observation, as vehicle occupancy increased from 1.19 persons (including driver) per vehicle in 2004 to 1.24 per vehicle in 2008, reversing a trend towards having fewer people in vehicles.

This increase in vehicle occupancy translates to 175,000 more people who are being accommodated without increasing the number of vehicles. In other words, as more people share rides and opt for public transit, there is more road room left for goods movement around the Lower Mainland. This positive trend is supported by the Screenline survey as it showed that truck volumes increased by 4% between 2004 and 2008 across critical points in the transportation network.

Looking solely at the percentage of trips to work in Metro Vancouver, transit holds a 16.6% mode share, ranking Metro Vancouver fourth in the country behind Metro Toronto (22.2%), Montreal (21.4%) and Ottawa-Gatineau (19.4%) and ahead of every major US city except New York (31.4%). Significantly, from the 2006 Census, the growth of transit usage in Metro Vancouver for travelling to and from work (2.3%) is second only to Calgary (3%).

“The fact that transit usage has increased by 48 per cent since 1999,” says Dr Michael Shiffer, TransLink Vice President, Planning, “while the general population increased only 18 per cent during that time indicates that people are seeing transit in Metro Vancouver as a viable alternative and that public transportation investments are being used.”

The Trip Diary Survey also validates TransLink’s planning decisions in the South of the Fraser Area, confirming that more and more people are travelling from one point to another within the same sub-region, rather than going to and from downtown Vancouver. Nearly 200,000 trips a day begin and end in the Langley-Surrey-Delta area. Similarly, over 216,000 trips a day begin and end within the city of Vancouver but outside the Central Business District.

A wide variety of initiatives has helped make public transit more attractive in the Metro Vancouver region over the past five years. These include the arrival of new buses, transit investments in the South of Fraser Area, the Canada Line (which opened since the surveys were conducted), the federal government’s Transit Pass Tax Credit, expansion of TransLink’s TravelSmart with measures like the Employer Pass Program and cutting-edge communications tools such as social media and an award-winning website*.

“This shows that strategic investment and policy-making can yield substantial positive results,” continues Dr. Shiffer. “Without necessary transit infrastructure and service, there would be a lot more cars on the road. Truly, if we didn’t build it – they would drive.”

_{* recipient of the 2009 AdWheel Grand Prize for Internet Home Page, presented by the American Public Transit Association (APTA).}

_{Source: Trip Diary, respective years}

Backgrounder – the 2008 TransLink Trip Diary Survey

For a nine-week period in the fall of 2008 (September-December), the Mustel Group conducted the TransLink Trip Diary survey. A random sample of 17,603 households in the Greater Vancouver Regional District and the Fraser Valley Regional District was surveyed regarding their travels over the previous 24 hours.

At the same time, TransLink conducted its Screenline survey, which measures movements of people and vehicles in both directions across critical points in the Lower Mainland’s transportation network (not unlike a department store, counting the number of people who go into each department).

There are 33 Screenlines in Metro Vancouver, including Boundary Road, Burrard Inlet, North Arm of the Fraser River, the South/Main Arm of the Fraser, 200th Street in Langley, SkyTrain west of Main Street, the Port Mann, Alex Fraser and Knight Street Bridges, University Boulevard West of Blanca and several other locations on Highway 1.

As well as quantifying the success of TransLink’s service planning and delivery and defining the travel habits of people on the Lower Mainland, the Trip Diary gives TransLink a glimpse of trends, in order to plan for the future. For this reason, the survey’s geographic reach extended outside Metro Vancouver as far east as Chilliwack.

Among the findings of the surveys:

• Some 6.6 million trips of all kinds are taken each day in Metro Vancouver and the Fraser Valley. These consist of trips to and from work, to and from school, running errands or going for recreation.
• The average number of trips per person per day dropped to 2.65 from 3.24 in 2004.
• While the total number of auto trips within the region is more than four times that of transit trips, the notable exception is on trips into the Central Business District, where the number of transit person trips was more than a third greater than the number of auto person trips.
• The “Auto Passenger” mode share has increased to 17.8 per cent while the “Auto Driver” mode share declined, suggesting more people are ride-sharing
• 50% of children in grade school are driven to school in the morning; 43.3% are driven from school in the afternoon.
• Nearly half of the daily trips (3.06 million) took place during the “rush hour” – 6:30-9:30am and 3:30-6:30pm.
• The average trip is 9.3 kilometres, while the average transit trip was considerably longer at 12 km.
• Auto usage dropped slightly in the Central portion of Metro Vancouver, but increased more than slightly in outlying areas.
• Truck volume increased 4% along key goods-movement routes.
• The highest volume of trips start and end within the same sub-area. For example, in Surrey, 200,000 (70 per cent) of the 286,000 morning peak period trips remain within that area and only 19,000 (7%) go to any destination in the City of Vancouver.