Longer commute times, particularly in the Toronto area, are helping keep Ontarians chronically crunched for time, according to the first Ontario report looking at the quality of life indicators in the Canadian Index of Well-being,
Even though fewer of us work 50 hours or more per week and more of us have flexible work times, Ontario commute times increased 12 per cent on average between 1994 and 2010, says the study from the University of Waterloo, being released Tuesday.
That amounts to 6.4 minutes more on average spent getting to and from work each day, or 27 hours over a typical work year — no surprise to commuters who faced lane closures on the Gardiner Expressway on Monday. “You may be travelling the same distance, but it’s taking you more time. There are more cars on the road,” said Index of Well-being director Bryan Smale, a professor of recreation and leisure studies at the University of Waterloo.
The increase in commutes, he said, “is fairly significant when you consider the population has grown and more and more people are coming into the major cities and that’s where the bulk of the commute times are really felt.”
Toronto residents have the longest commutes in the province — 65.6 minutes on average — longer than the 63.6 minutes reported by Oshawa commuters and 59.2 minutes by those from Barrie. The Ontario average was 47 minutes. Montreal and Vancouver commutes average 62 and 60 minutes, respectively. “It’s not just the length of time people commute, it’s the traffic congestion and their perception of it which has the greatest impact on their well-being,” said Smale.
The Canadian Index of Well-being looks at how the country’s health and lifestyles are faring and the Ontario report — titled “How are Ontarians Really Doing?” — is the first provincial snapshot of that information. The index measures well-being according to 64 indicators in eight categories, including education, community vitality, healthy populations, democratic engagement, environment, leisure, culture, time use and living standards. It showed most of Ontario’s gain in well-being was, like the rest of Canada, due to education. However, participation rates in social leisure activities in Ontario dropped 4.4 per cent from 1994 levels. For women, the dip was seven per cent compared to one per cent for men.
“By 2010, 20.5 per cent of Ontarians between 20 and 64 years of age were experiencing high levels of time pressure, up from 16.4 per cent in 1994. This represents a 20-per-cent increase in the 17-year period,” says the study.
During those years, Ontario’s gross domestic product grew 24 per cent, lagging behind the Canadian increase of about 30 per cent. But gains in well-being were up only about 7.5 per cent nationally and provincially.