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Old 03-19-2014, 03:58 PM
 
Location: Foot of the Rockies
90,316 posts, read 120,244,119 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by memph View Post
Toronto commute times the longest in Canada

According to this, it's 33 minutes for Toronto vs 38 minutes for New York one way.

I think the 80 minutes round trip might have included stuff like dropping kids off at school.
It's pretty hard to go out of your way to a school and drop off your kids in 7 minutes. It's impossible to do so at a day care. It can sometimes take 7 minutes just to get out the door. And not everyone is doing child care. It's mostly women, and not all women.

It's a different study. They got different results. Probably asked a few questions differently.
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Old 03-19-2014, 04:20 PM
 
Location: Centre Wellington, ON
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Katiana View Post
It's pretty hard to go out of your way to a school and drop off your kids in 7 minutes. It's impossible to do so at a day care. It can sometimes take 7 minutes just to get out the door. And not everyone is doing child care. It's mostly women, and not all women.

It's a different study. They got different results. Probably asked a few questions differently.
I'm pretty sure I remember reading somewhere that the 80min study included stuff other than getting to work, but I don't remember where. And as you said, not everyone is dropping their kids off, some don't have kids, often it's only 1 of the two working parents (I'd agree mostly mothers), some kids take the bus (or even walk/bike).
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Old 03-19-2014, 04:24 PM
 
Location: Foot of the Rockies
90,316 posts, read 120,244,119 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by memph View Post
I'm pretty sure I remember reading somewhere that the 80min study included stuff other than getting to work, but I don't remember where. And as you said, not everyone is dropping their kids off, some don't have kids, often it's only 1 of the two working parents (I'd agree mostly mothers), some kids take the bus (or even walk/bike).
My kids had a school bus. I'd usually wait until I saw them get on the bus, then take off for work. DH was more likely to take them to school, when I was out of town or not available for some reason.
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Old 03-19-2014, 08:17 PM
 
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The best way to make bicycling more safe is to have more cyclists on the road. It gets drivers used to seeing and negotiating cyclists, and it takes more cars off the road (bicyclists who would otherwise be drivers). Unfortunately, to get the numbers higher, infrastructure is required because people don't feel safe in a lot of situations (of course, it depends on the environment we're talking about). I'm not an advocate of infrastructure in every case, because it can provide a false sense of security. Intersections, merging lanes, etc. can all be more dangerous when people have that false sense of security.

Having biked a LOT myself for transportation, I can say that anything over 10 miles one way starts to make my bike commuting less consistent. Of course, hills, climate, and especially traffic can push on my habits. It's not that 10 miles is a lot, but if you're really dedicated to it, then feasibility is a big part of your routine. It gets increasingly more difficult when it's hot out, because you sweat that much more in the summer...or you get that much wetter in the rain.

In any case, I think if someone really wants to do it, they can work it out at least a couple days a week. The single mom who has to drop-off/pick-up her kid every day? Probably not, but that's not the majority of commuters. Right now, I just started a new contract at a new client that's in the sprawling burbs of Richmond. To get there without a car, I bike downtown, workout at the gym, shower at the gym, catch the bus two blocks away (reverse commute on an express bus that only heads out twice in the morning and twice in the evening), ride the bus, scurry across dangerous traffic to my building...and then back the same way I came. I don't do it five days a week, but twice...sure.
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Old 03-19-2014, 11:29 PM
 
Location: Portland, Oregon
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Quote:
Originally Posted by memph View Post
Where is 16 miles the average? Canadian metro areas are well below that. The metro area with the longest commutes is Oshawa at a little under 7 miles, and it's not really its own metro area as much as a satellite of Toronto. Next longest is Toronto at a little under 6 miles for the whole metro area. 3-5 miles is typical for much of Canada's metro areas. There's even a few smaller ones that are a little under 3 miles, like Regina and Victoria.

On that note, is there any city that even comes close to the active transportation (walk+bike) mode share of Victoria? It has 33% commute mode share for the city, 16% for the metro. Maybe Davis, CA?

Smaller towns (<50,000) in Canada will often have median commuting distances around 1-3 miles.

The distance is in km by the way.
Average commute distance in the US, I have no idea what the average commute distance in Canada is.
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Old 03-19-2014, 11:32 PM
 
Location: Portland, Oregon
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Katiana View Post
^^ Good find.

And the "average" commute in the US is about as meaningful as the "average" temperature in the entire US over a year's time.

Interestingly, the potential transplants to CO from CA are all seemingly willing to undertake long commutes. We tell them, "wait till it snows". Although of course, we have some mega-commuters as well, most people like to keep within 30 minutes, less if possible.

The mean commute in Denver is 24.8 minutes, in Colorado, 24.4 min. (Census bureau)
Average commute distance, not average commute time, two different things. The average commute distance means there are plenty of people that live within 16 miles of their job and those people are the types of people that could bike to work if they wanted to provided they had a safe and usable bicycle infrastructure available to them.
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Old 03-20-2014, 12:18 AM
 
Location: Foot of the Rockies
90,316 posts, read 120,244,119 times
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^^Yes, I do understand the difference. However, the conversation took a turn towards commute time at post #136.
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Old 03-20-2014, 12:27 AM
 
Location: Portland, Oregon
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Katiana View Post
^^Yes, I do understand the difference. However, the conversation took a turn towards commute time at post #136.
Well I wasn't talking about commute times, which can differ from a bike to a car depending on traffic. I was looking at the point that someone said the distance one must bike to work is often too far and I disagreed with them, proving that many people live within biking distance of their work, but lack a decent bicycle infrastructure to make commuting by bike practical.
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Old 03-20-2014, 12:43 AM
 
Location: Oakland, CA
28,226 posts, read 36,715,742 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by urbanlife78 View Post
Average commute distance, not average commute time, two different things. The average commute distance means there are plenty of people that live within 16 miles of their job and those people are the types of people that could bike to work if they wanted to provided they had a safe and usable bicycle infrastructure available to them.
16 miles? Heck no, that is way too far. I think 5 is about the limit for an average person. More than that is too much bike time, unless you are training for something. Maybe 3 is more accurate.

Basically, the average person, will only want to spend about the same amount of time commuting, no matter the mode. So 20-35 minutes seems about right each way.
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Old 03-20-2014, 12:56 AM
 
Location: Portland, Oregon
46,001 posts, read 35,010,603 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by jade408 View Post
16 miles? Heck no, that is way too far. I think 5 is about the limit for an average person. More than that is too much bike time, unless you are training for something. Maybe 3 is more accurate.

Basically, the average person, will only want to spend about the same amount of time commuting, no matter the mode. So 20-35 minutes seems about right each way.
16 miles is the average commute distance in general, not average bike commute distance. Commuting 16 miles on a bike is doable, but rough if you are commuting to and from work. But if 16 miles is the average distance people commute to work, that means there are lots of people who have shorter commutes. Realistically it is easier to get people that commute less than 7.5 miles to work to bike with a bicycle infrastructure in place.

That is about 30 minutes biking at 15mph. Personally on my single speed bike I can easily get into the 20+ mph group due to the gearing on my bike, so I would be able to reduce the commute time if I had to commute 7.5 miles on my bike.
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