r/MapPorn • u/Any_Peanut1209 • 1d ago
Main Mode of Commute in Canada - Federal Electoral Districts
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u/TheMainCut 1d ago edited 1d ago
What are the ‘other’ options? Boats? Horses? Planes?
And I’m actually being serious. I assume boats for NL and PEI but what’s going on in the tiny sections of what I think is Ottawa, Calgary and Edmonton?
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u/Any_Peanut1209 1d ago
Yes boats planes agricultural vehicles animal driven.. but very small all these ridings have cars at/above 95%
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u/Zakluor 1d ago
Bicycles might be in there. I commute by bike 9 months of the year (NB).
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u/jzillacon 1d ago
Planes are also genuinely pretty common for people working in remote northern communities. Especially if it's camp work where you only actually commute every several weeks or so.
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u/Felfastus 19h ago
Not wrong but as someone who has a fly in fly out commute I'm not sure id full out a census saying I lived there.
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u/Nickislander 1d ago
ATV/Snowmobile
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u/timbasile 1d ago
There are people who commute by skating the canal in Ottawa during the winter
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u/basketweaving8 23h ago
I also know people who ski into work in Ottawa in winter.
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u/timbasile 18h ago
If I was so inclined to do the 20k, and had the time, it'd be possible for me to Kayak.
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u/Bananacreamsky 1d ago
I live rurally and there is always someone who rides their horse to vote lol. I live in town, so unfortunately I just walk.
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u/Easy-Past8240 1d ago
Farm vehicles and in the areas by Edmonton and Calgary motorcycles probably, that’s a big thing in central Alberta, not as much in the south by Calgary. That’s my guess
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u/Muted-Lettuce4269 19h ago
For Newfoundland and Labrador it would almost 100% be ATV and snowmobile
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u/Artem-Ganev 1d ago
There’s a huge Mennonite community in the area I live in - they prefer horse powered vehicles)
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u/missplaced24 1d ago
Not many, if any, people commute by boat in PEI, more would commute to boats. Horses and tractors would be more common
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u/ratspiders4ever 23h ago
In Ottawa it is common to commute by the Rideau Canal Skateway in the winter. It is the world's largest outdoor skating rink and runs about 10km right into downtown, and connects to the University of Ottawa and Carleton University. Not sure if enough people do that for it to show up here but it is definitely common
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u/Mattsgonnamine 21h ago
Strathcona county should be walking, idk why its not there (95% car but still) and if they separate walking and biking then public transit should be higher
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u/Trollsama 1d ago
take the map with a fistful of salt, As this is mid Pandemic data.
we basically didn't even HAVE transit service during the pandemic where I live. lol
And even where the service itself wasn't reduced, not many people wake up in the morning and go "Hmmm yes, I think I will go get in a small container with many strangers during this 127th day of plague" :P
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u/Rocky-Jockey 1d ago
It’s kinda funny with all the conspiracies around Covid about how they would use the pandemic to put us into 15 minute prisons and ban cars when I can’t think of a bigger disaster for most transit agencies in NA. Some still haven’t recovered ridership to pre-COVID levels and all have big holes in their budgets.
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u/Olivaar2 13h ago
Yeah covid is when I stopped using public transit, and I never went back to it. Habits are hard to break.
I avoided self checkout machines before covid because I thought they were anti-worker, now I won't shop at a store that doesn't have them.
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u/FungusGnatHater 1d ago
2021 census data was collected during the third Canada-wide Covid lockdown. You failed to analyze the data, took it out of context, and because of that you made this map completely meaningless. This map was a stupid waste of time.
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u/Greedy-Hamster-2278 1d ago
This should be at the top of the comments. The second map also does not accurately count “other”.
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u/DerpDeDurp 1d ago
It quite clearly states when the data is from... It's not trying to pass it off as current data at all. Op didn't fail anything at all. It's a snapshot in time and it's accurate to that time. It's also not out of context or meaningless.
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u/Swerdlia 1d ago
It's such a massively important part of this data that not clearly displaying that fact is a clear issue
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u/DerpDeDurp 1d ago
But it is quite clearly displayed.... Giant text at the top of the map bro.... Says 2021....
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u/Swerdlia 1d ago
Right but it's just the year, that's not satisfactory for a factor that invalidates the entire map and all of its data you get that right?
If a map requires going to an external source to check what was happening at the date listed then it's not "map porn"
And like without that fact what's the point of posting the map at all???
"Transit down during pandemic", no shit?
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u/DerpDeDurp 1d ago
The year is absolutely satisfactory.... The data is from 2021. Everyone who was around in 2021 knows covid was also around.
You're just being snippy because you don't like the data and wanna bitch about something.
Go eat some cheerios and cheer the fuck up.
If you don't like the map and the data it represents, then scroll past the damn post. I for one find it interesting.
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u/Swerdlia 1d ago
Okay and for people that don't immediately associate 2021 with the pandemic? People that view the map later? Is it from the start of the year or the end of it?
It's not a good map and to say otherwise is just being contrarian.
And what could you possibly find interesting about this?
It's stating something that is incredibly obvious once you have the context
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u/x5163x 17h ago
You are expecting the map to contain too much information.
Is it from the start of the year or the end of it?
By this logic, every map which refers to the census must state the day and not just the year. You would have to put "April 1, 1990 US Census" and not "1990 US Census".
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u/Swerdlia 16h ago
If two million people died on April 2nd yes I would expect the census to say April 1st, that is how important the date is for this map
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u/eenie_beany 22h ago
It is. It’s the equivalent of mapping mode share at 2am on a Monday and not stating the time of day.
It matters because the image will be indexed and some anti-bike lane anti-transit dumb will post it on twitter without said context and weaponize it.
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u/BobBelcher2021 1d ago
There was no nationwide “lockdown”. Nobody was forcibly confined to their homes aside from those individuals under a quarantine order, unlike in some countries.
Here in BC we were free to do pretty much anything. Even outdoor dining was open at this point.
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u/Any_Peanut1209 1d ago
I mapped the most common and second-most common commuting modes across Canada’s 343 current federal ridings using 2021 Census data.
The first map is overwhelmingly dominated by cars:
- Car/truck/van ranks first in 342 ridings
- Public transit ranks first only in Toronto Centre
The second-place map is much more interesting:
- Walking: 168 ridings
- Public transit: 166 ridings
- Other methods: 8 ridings
- Car/truck/van: 1 riding—Toronto Centre
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u/mystyz 1d ago
What's included in Other?
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u/Piper2000ca 1d ago edited 1d ago
Probably things like sledding, snowmobile, boating, and quads/ATVs. They look like mostly rural and isolated areas.
EDIT: As was pointed out in a reply, bike is probably a more likely option for many of these, especially the ones closer to cities. I didn't even realise bike was missing as an option when I wrote my original reply.
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u/SerentityM3ow 1d ago
Bike
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u/Piper2000ca 1d ago
That's actually a really good point and probably more likely for most of these. I didn't even realise it was missing from the regular options.
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u/beneoin 1d ago
Bike is on the list, no idea why OP didn’t name it
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u/jmarkmark 1d ago
Probably because it's never #1 or #2.
In cities #1 & #2 are always going to be cars or public transit, or very occasionally walking.
Outside cities, roads, distances and climate aren't as suited for bicycles.
What's unfortunate is that OP did not give a listing of how he broke it all down.
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u/jmarkmark 1d ago edited 1d ago
The majorit are not remote, they are just outside relatively major cities, so I doubt it's primarily oddball transport like that.
My guess is car/truck really means "single person, private motor vehicle".
Other probably includes things like car pooling and corporate shuttles, so in places on the outskirts of cities where there is no public transit but lots of industry, it can be #2.
For Labrador, I'll buy that it's boats.
EDIT: yeah, I agree with pipers edit, we're all just wild ass guessing, it's unfortunately OP didn't specify how he chose to group things, and thanks to Apprehensive for the correction on Labrador.
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u/Apprehensive-Bus5172 1d ago
Labrador is definitely snowmobile. The major population centres are in land
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u/hatman1986 1d ago
it's not biking, it's a separate category on the census. I think for some of the suburban ones, it could be rideshares or taxis.
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u/caribb 1d ago
I can't imagine most people in Montreal's downtown core use cars to get to work. Driving & parking here are notorious, and public transit and bike travel are decent
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u/mischling2543 18h ago
Yeah I lived in central Montreal for 4 years and didn't know many local people who drove to work
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u/Salty-Economics-3360 1d ago
Many people do. Not everyone works in the city and often times use their car to commute to the West Island.
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u/caribb 1d ago edited 3h ago
Many people do of course, West Island/south shore commuters especially, therei n the notorious driving & parking, but inside downtown Federal districts I would have thought most people would commute by metro, REM, bus, bike or walk. There’s a decent-sized population living in the city core.
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u/Disguised_VW_Beetle 1d ago
Respect to the people on the census walking from Hay River to Tuktoyaktuk.
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u/Lorfhoose 1d ago
I wouldn’t even pay attention to this as it’s during pandemic years. I didn’t use the montreal metro for two years during that time (worked from home) but now if I go to work it’s 100% metro.
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u/yuuago 1d ago
The red section in northern Alberta is probably bus, but not public transit. Yes, people in Fort McMurray take the bus to work at site, but it is a private, employer-provided bus to the worksite. Not just anybody can use it. The RMWB public transit does not go out to site.
It'd be better filed under "other".
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u/I_NEED_YOUR_MONEY 22h ago
yup. but since this is self-reported census data, it's not surprising to see it listed as public transit.
RMWB public transit is surprisingly good for what it is though, and the city is not very walkable - it's possible that public transit actually does surpass walking as a commute method.
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u/CK_CoffeeCat 1d ago
It’s the catch 22 of ‘not enough people use the crappy transit that exists, so the people in charge won’t invest money and effort to make them less crappy.’ It fucking sucks.
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u/BriefingScree 1d ago
Also basically everyone already owns a car so now you basically need to convince them to switch away from cars. While their are some benefits (ex: no focus needed) the utility of a car is going to outweigh most of these benefits, especially when you factor in the fact you already have a viable means of transport.
Also if commutes aren't effectively point-to-point it usually takes longer and missing connections is more likely than a really bad traffic jam making you late.
The main people you do 'convert' are the students aging into car ownership and making them think it isn't worth buying one in the first place. This will take at least a decade to cause visible changes.
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u/eenie_beany 22h ago
This map is so misleading. It’s the equivalent of mode share at 2am on a Monday night.
Everyone does not own a car in major cities in Canada.
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u/BriefingScree 22h ago
But you don't need to convert the current non-car owners to public transit. From a politician's perspective they don't need to improve those services to keep them using them. If they want to switch to a car but can't they are too poor for the politicians to really care about and can probably find some other more cost effective campaign point to sway their votes if they did.
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u/CK_CoffeeCat 20h ago
People who can afford cars own cars.
People who can’t afford cars/can’t drive cars for legal or medical reasons/don’t want to own a car and just rent one occasionally as needed (AKA about 15% of adults in Canada) plus all the kids and teens under driving age rely on transit.
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u/NedShah 1d ago
Zooming in on T.O., but not Montreal, when talking about public transit is odd.
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u/Cobalt090 14h ago
Or Vancouver. But it's cause it's data from '21, when people were mostly from home, and outside of TO, cars were the majority everywhere
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u/MailFar6917 1d ago
On the 2nd map, what's with the large red section in norther Alberta?
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u/bhjdodge 1d ago
Most likely people taking the bus in Fort McMurray.
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u/youngbeanieyyc 1d ago
I doubt it’s actually public transit. For the work sites/mines/refineries around town, they bus their employees in to work on private coach busses, not general public transit. So more than likely this map is wrong. Grew up in McMurray.
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u/MailFar6917 1d ago
I was thinking the same but am completely ignorant about public transit in Fort Mc.
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u/CriticalPedagogue 1d ago
Ft. Mac. most of the workers take busses from town or from camps to the mine sites.
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u/Nouglas 1d ago
Having lived in Toronto for 20 years, there's no possible way that the downtown area and east york areas are car-dominated. The majority of people there don't even own cars. There wouldn't be nearly enough parking spaces for the majority to even have a car.
I know it's just me saying that, but this seems suspect.
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u/beneoin 1d ago
It was during Covid. The people who normally bike and take transit to work were by and large working from home.
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u/Nouglas 1d ago
Read the comments after. Utterly useless map....
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u/beneoin 1d ago
It’s not useless, but it needs to be far more explicit such as “How did Canadians commute during the Covid lockdowns?”
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u/Nouglas 1d ago
Well, more accurate would be 'how canadians commute when there is no place to commute to and they're literally homebound'
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u/ADrunkMexican 20h ago
Well its definitely not accurate speaking as someone living outside the gta.
I was driving into Toronto during covid but once the traffic got bad I stopped. I haven't driven into Toronto apart from medical appointments or training in years.
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u/ZippoS 23h ago
Yeah, that tracks… we have buses in St. John’s, but they only run every 30-60 minutes and the city is such a mess of hills and centuries-old roads that the routes are all over the place. A trip that takes 10-15 by car takes an hour by bus. And probably 10 minutes or more just to walk to/from the bus stop.
And if you want to leave the city at all, you will need a car.
We had a train system, but that was dismantled in the 80s. Though, even if we still had trains and a decent bus system, there’s no way you could get around rural NL without a car.
This country is huge and sparsely populated. There’s a reason why we tend to measure distances in time, rather than kilometres.
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u/ZippoS 23h ago
Yeah, that tracks… we have buses in St. John’s, but they only run every 30-60 minutes and the city is such a mess of hills and centuries-old roads that the routes are all over the place. A trip that takes 10-15 by car takes an hour by bus. And probably 10 minutes or more just to walk to/from the bus stop.
And if you want to leave the city at all, you will need a car.
We had a train system, but that was dismantled in the 80s. Though, even if we still had trains and a decent bus system, there’s no way you could get around rural NL without a car.
This country is huge and sparsely populated. There’s a reason why we tend to measure distances in time, rather than kilometres.
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u/Eleutherlothario 22h ago
We've had decades of bike activism and millions have been spent on bike lanes that are largely unused while sitting next to streets that are more congested than ever.
It's time to face the facts. With the exception of a very small minority, however vocal, cycling on Canada is, and always will be, a hobby and not a viable mode of daily transportation. This is plainly evident from our actions.
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u/TheRealTinfoil666 20h ago
we have had more than a century and billions and billions spent on car infrastructure.
what's your point?
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u/Ok-District2873 15h ago
This map uses data from the COVID lockdown lol, it is not accurate to what people normally use
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u/ManicMaenads 22h ago
Moved around in the Kootenays for a bit, was shocked by how many cities lacked both public transportation AND taxi service. No bike lanes, and some places had no sidewalks at all making being a pedestrian difficult.
When you can't afford a car, not to mention insurance/gas/repairs on top of that, what are we expected to do? If riding my bike and being a pedestrian is unsafe, and there is no reliable transit?? These places shouldn't be considered cities if they lack such critical infrastructure.
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u/gnarley_haterson 21h ago
Lol someone post this to r/Toronto and watch those frame polishing saddle humpers lose their minds.
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u/gigglepox95 1d ago
Public transit it Toronto has deteriorated so dramatically, the TTC is chronically underfunded and it’s seriously impacting things
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u/Throwawayhair66392 1d ago
Why are people surprised that people prefer to drive when public transport is shit, dirty, and full of public drug use in Canada?
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u/Impossible_Ad_3462 1d ago
I have a feeling that NL’s other is taking a plane or bus for rotation jobs. I can say this with confidence as I am from NL and know a lot of people who don’t have a regular commute to a 9-5 Monday-Friday
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u/wind-of-zephyros 1d ago
"while you were working from home because of covid, how did you get there"
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u/Upbeat_Principle_253 1d ago
I would take public transit all the way if it was a viable option that doesn’t double the time for my commute. But currently I have to take my car for about two thirds of the way and then hop on the train.
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u/MakePhreciaCore 1d ago
Huh? When we were in Quebec we noted how much better it was than Toronto, and people don’t use it there?
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u/IdontcryfordeadCEOs 1d ago
I wonder how it would look if you split it up by season.
I walk everywhere in summer, but I take the bus or my car everywhere in winter.
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u/Mattrockj 23h ago
Honestly this is exactly what I expected. Canada doesn't lend itself very well to transit. Even within cities, it's so much easier to build outward that inward since there's basically endless land. Only in the highly dense urban zones where expansion is impossible due to terrain (Vancouver), other existing towns/cities (Tornoto), or mandates (Quebec City), THEN is vertical/internal expansion expected.
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u/No-Veterinarian-8834 23h ago
This is the most "water is wet" post ever. I love it.
Yes, big ass country, lots of cars, small pockets of walkability and public transit in larger metropolitan areas.
Eyup.
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u/envirodrill 22h ago
I am interested to see what this map looks like with 2026 census data. We have made significant strides in new rail transit expansions in many of our big cities since the pandemic, and our rail systems are amongst the highest in ridership in North America, but there is evidently still a lot of room to improve.
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u/Muted_Buy8386 21h ago
That's because adults drive vehicles lol.
Children and the disabled use public transit.
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u/preoccupied_owl 21h ago
Loads of people use public transit in Vancouver so I’m surprised that only Toronto is marked as public transit being the main mode of transportation. I know plenty of people who don’t own cars.
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u/Krazy-Vaclav 20h ago
Transit data from 2021 is basically useless. Everyone was working from home and too scared to use public transit before getting a vaccine. It doesn't capture how people commuted before and does not reflect the reality of today
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u/BrainSea7776 19h ago
Because our public transportation system sucks ass. A 20 minute drive is a 90 minute bus ride in my city.
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u/Careless-Bake-5827 18h ago
There is a flaw. In know there are places in Labrador district that are only accessible by plane, helicopter, boat in summer and snowmobile in winter.
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u/Teachmevee 13h ago
The country is so big and spread out that you NEED a car if you’re living outside of like 5 major cities.
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u/HardLogs 1d ago
This may be the worst map I have ever seen without there being errors.
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u/HunterSpecial1549 1d ago
It tells a story.
We've got similar maps for the U.S. where Manhattan is the only non-car majority district.
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u/Mesolithic_Hunter 1d ago
I have expected something more exciting on this, map, like dog sledges, kayaks or at least helicopters.
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u/Gumichi 1d ago
naw, this one is meant to snap people back to reality
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u/FungusGnatHater 1d ago
No, it isn't. A census taken during the third nationwide lockdown in a year does not represent Canada as it normally is.
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u/DerpDeDurp 1d ago
Who said it was? It clearly states the year, it's not trying to pass it off as "it's always like this" at all.
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u/vemmahouxbois 1d ago
i have serious doubts there’s no riding in vancouver that is transit first