Here's how long Metro Vancouver drivers are commuting daily

Drivers in Metro Vancouver are spending an average of 30.5 minutes commuting per day, according to the latest data from Statistics Canada.

The average was captured in May 2024, and represents a significant increase from the 28.4 minutes local motorists were spending on the road in May 2022, in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.

"As far as I'm concerned, it's quite a mess,” said Johnna Sparrow, a driver in Vancouver. “Whether it’s close to home or downtown Vancouver, you've got to give yourself a lot of time to get where you need to go.”

The latest average is also longer than the most recent data captured before the pandemic, in May 2016, when drivers were commuting for 29.8 minutes per day.

Local traffic is far from the worst in Canada, however – among the country's largest census metropolitan areas, Ontario claimed the four longest commute times. Metro Vancouver came in fifth.

Nationwide, an average of 16.5 million people were commuting daily as of May 2024, an increase of half a million from the same month last year.

According to the data, commuters still prefer taking a vehicle than using transit.

“Car-dependant sprawl isn’t just causing green house gas emissions, loss of time, inefficient usage of resources – it's making us really unhealthy and stressed out and unhappy,” said Lawrence Frank, a professor of urban studies and planning at the University of British Columbia.

He said the increase in traffic is related, in part, to some workers moving further away from their offices during the pandemic, when employees suddenly began working from home en masse. Many have since been returned to the office, at least part of the time.

“They can move to where housing is more affordable, that is one thing that happened – but in doing so, the commute distance, when the people do commute, is longer,” said Frank.

Frank said the data shows cities need to build up, and not out.

“Vancouver’s worked very hard to grow up – not out as much – and that’s what’s made Vancouver attractive,” he said. “It makes it more European and more walkable and you don’t want to lose that.”