As if the difference between salaries and the high cost of rent in Toronto wasn't enough of a problem, a new report shows that despite the ongoing challenges with the cost of living, people who work in the city also have one of the worst commutes on public transit.
Stats from a "Post-Pandemic 2022 Global Public Transport Report" from a company called Moovit show Torontonians are facing the third-longest commute in North America while also travelling the longest on public transit across the continent.
This information was gathered from the data of millions of trip requests across 99 cities and 24 countries.
"Torontonians travel the farthest with public transit — averaging 12.29 km/trip — the longest average distance per commute in North America," said the report, while it also pointed to Torontonians who "endure the third longest commutes," at an average of 56 minutes.
Close to an hour getting to work is about the worst that it gets on average, with Toronto's 56 minutes just ever so slightly behind a 57-minute average commute in Washington, D.C. and Chicago. The longest commute on public transit across North America is in New York City, with an average of 58 minutes.
A graph showing the longest public transit commute times in North America. Moovit Post-Pandemic 2022 Global Public Transport Report
Compared to other major Canadian cities, Toronto's average commute time is 8 minutes longer than that of Vancouver and 4 minutes longer than Montreal.
Transit riders in those three cities enjoy a luxury that our American counterparts do not — less time waiting around per commute.
The report showed wait times on transit average 12 minutes in Toronto, 11 in Vancouver, and 10 in Montreal. That's compared to 18 minutes in Los Angeles and a whopping 21 minutes in Miami.
However, based on the average distance travelled on public transit, Toronto's 12.29 km/trip is by far the worst.
Five U.S. cities separate Toronto from Montreal on the list (9.06 km/trip), while Vancouver (8.75 km/trip) is among the shortest.