Is the younger generation in Toronto more likely to use transit and will this trend last?

[denfromoakvillemilton]

yes and yes


why? less people are having kids.

 

[junior43]

It's all a combination of factors. Cities and urbanity in general are growing, bringing more people closer to transit that makes it a more sensible choice for them. I see this argument/debate closer to the same one on people choosing the suburbs vs downtown, they go hand in hand. Same with their kids, some in the burbs, want more action like Toronto, but there's still some that love driving. My nephew still loves driving and tonnes of outdoor activities, but my niece doesn't have her full license, so still depends on someone else driving her in some situations (she's also still in university, so no real need for driving/commuting yet.)

It all depends on where you live and how good your transit may be.

 

[Urban Sky]

If self driving cars become available as fast as automakers are expecting, autonomous vehicles will be prominent before many current 16 to 20 year olds reach the point in their lives where they'd seriously consider purchasing cars. This whole discussion about young people and driving would be moot in that case.

You may call me a skeptic, but I would have less troubles imagining the driverless car as the near future of the automobile if the car industry hasn't already promised it as such at every single occasion ever since General Motor's "Futurama" pavilion at the world exhibition in 1939...

I think there are a number of things at play. Kids are not into the suburban lifestyle of their parents, they don't have any kids and if they do they will have them much later in life, and young people today simply don't make the wages the younger people did before even though the cost of living has skyrocketed. When I graduated a BA was a ticket for a decent paying job for life while today it qualifies you to say "do you want fries with that"?

I guess a sample of two is hardly significant, but for what it's worth my wife and I are both aging boomers and one of the things we enjoy about visiting cities like London and Paris is the sense of freedom and engagement that taking public transit in those cities affords. We used to take the TTC when we were young and poor, and still do on the extremely rare occasions when it's a better travel option.

I suspect we're not unusual in that we came to value our time more as we got older and less poor. In Toronto that means driving for most trips. I would also guess the same will apply to the current younger generation, unless the TTC is vastly expanded, or driving becomes such a misery that even the Queen streetcar seems like a better way.

I only found data for Montreal and only for 3 data points (1998, 2003, 2008), but it shows that the gap between Transit and Car usage has started to close for every single age group and Transit trips even exceed car trips for the 20-24 age group:

Certainly true if you aren't schlepping young children or old parents around and you stay in the core. I wonder if there's any research to suggest that this generation really is different, or if behaviour changes as cohorts age.

The same data set allows to track changes in behavior over all different observation points for six age cohorts, and whereas the gap between transit and automobile widened for 4 out of those 6 age cohorts between 1998 and 2003 only one age cohort (those aged 20-24 in 1998) showed the same between 2003 and 2008, whereas this age cohort was also the only one showing a wider gap for 2008 than for 1998:

For Montreal, at least, it therefore does indeed seem like residents increasingly substitute car trips for transit trips, and that for both, the same age groups observed isolated and one age cohort observed over time...

I am heavily dependent on transit apps on the smartphone. I always wondered what life was like before they were ubiquitous.

It makes it much easier to prepare before the bus comes and see exactly where the bus is (complete with bus number even) within one minute.

It is nice that I have multiple different third party apps that tells me about car shares, bike shares, transit, commuter trains, and Ubers, all or most of the above in one unified app.

A win for Open Data!

What apps do you guys use? I wonder if they are also available here in Montreal...

 

[Johnny Au]

I use the Transit Now Toronto app.

 

[TheTigerMaster]

Transit app

http://transitapp.com/