Getting Around
The new normal? Despite more people living in Toronto, fewer are taking the TTC, especially to offices. However, both traffic and bike sharing are increasing.
TTC ridership improved slightly, but is stagnating and looks quite different from subway to bus. This may be a signal of new working patterns.
- In the first half of 2024, weekday ridership was only 76% of the same period in 2019 and only increased by 8% between 2023 and 2024.xlvi
- Bus ridership has recovered significantly faster (89%) than either the subway (70%) or streetcars (69%).xlvii
- A primary cause of declining TTC usage is that office occupancy rates remain at less than 70% of pre-pandemic levels.xlviii
- Office vacancy rates vary greatly between the most desirable office buildings (down to 6%) and the least desirable (up to 26%), which continue to lose tenants.xlix
Many more people are opting to drive, resulting in Toronto having among the worst traffic in the world. Bike sharing is also a growing alternative.
- A 2023 analysis by GPS provider TomTom ranked Toronto as having the third-longest time to drive 10 kilometres out of 387 cities worldwide, with traffic volumes back to pre-pandemic levels.li
- A bright spot amid transportation trends is Bike Share Toronto, which is on pace to have six million trips in 2024 — triple the volume from 2018 and double from 2020.lii
ENDNOTES:
Infographics:
1. Source: TTC (2024). TTC Corporate Plan 2024-2028 & Beyond: Moving Toronto,
Connecting Communities. https://cdn.ttc.ca/-/media/Project/TTC/DevProto/Documents/Home/Public-Meetings/Board/2024/May-16/3_TTC_Corporate_Plan_2024-2028.pdf?rev=a43ff7ff2a584276b70296811771095e&hash=3609D80250F0AF0F2024FF31C0152704
2. Harvey, Lex. (2022, October 4). Here’s when Toronto traffic jams are the worst, according to the data. Toronto Star. https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/here-s-when-toronto-traffic-jams-are-the-worst-according-to-the-data/article_6be9f1c1-59ee-55a6-bed4-ac50aef3c805.html
3. Allen, Jeff & Liu, Mike. (2023, August). Exploring Bike Share Growth in Toronto. https://schoolofcities.github.io/bike-share-toronto/growth. 2) Lang, Ethan (2024, September 12). Bike Share Toronto set to beat 2023 ridership record by October. CBC News. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/bike-share-toronto-ridership-record-2024-1.7320598
Note: There were 1,918,000 bike share trips in 2018; 2,900,000 in 2020; and a projected 6,000,000 in 2024.
Data:
- xlvi City of Toronto, TTC Weekday Ridership (000s), https://www.toronto.ca/city-government/data-research-maps/toronto-economy-labour-force-demographics/toronto-economic-dashboard/#detail/1.24 Note: Ridership numbers were calculated by using the 2024 average monthly riders and comparing to the same period in 2019.
- xlvii Source: TTC (2024). TTC Corporate Plan 2024-2028 & Beyond: Moving Toronto,
Connecting Communities. https://cdn.ttc.ca/-/media/Project/TTC/DevProto/Documents/Home/Public-Meetings/Board/2024/May-16/3_TTC_Corporate_Plan_2024-2028.pdf?rev=a43ff7ff2a584276b70296811771095e&hash=3609D80250F0AF0F2024FF31C0152704 - xlviii Strategic Regional Research Alliance, Occupancy Index, August 1, 2024, https://srraresearch.org/covid/category/Occupancy+Index
- xlix Rubin, Josh. (2024, October 2). Toronto’s top-tier office towers are finally filling up — but outlook for older buildings is ‘very bleak.’ Toronto Star. https://www.thestar.com/business/torontos-top-tier-office-towers-are-finally-filling-up-but-outlook-for-older-buildings-is/article_124dbe14-8007-11ef-a9ca-43e64c6e2ba4.html
- lTomTom. Traffic Index 2023. https://www.tomtom.com/traffic-index/ranking/. Note: The average travel time per 10 kilometres was 29 minutes.
- li Harvey, Lex. (2022, October 4). Here’s when Toronto traffic jams are the worst, according to the data. Toronto Star. https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/here-s-when-toronto-traffic-jams-are-the-worst-according-to-the-data/article_6be9f1c1-59ee-55a6-bed4-ac50aef3c805.html
- lii 1) Allen, Jeff & Liu, Mike. (2023, August). Exploring Bike Share Growth in Toronto. https://schoolofcities.github.io/bike-share-toronto/growth. 2) Lang, Ethan (2024, September 12). Bike Share Toronto set to beat 2023 ridership record by October. CBC News. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/bike-share-toronto-ridership-record-2024-1.7320598
Note: There were 1,918,000 bike share trips in 2018; 2,900,000 in 2020; and a projected 6,000,000 in 2024.