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Access to public transit

Domain

Environment

Subdomain

Environment and people

Indicator

Access to public transit

Definition

  • Proportion of the population living within 500 metres of a public transit stop.
  • Proportion of the population who can access potential employment within a specified period of time using public transit.
  • Proportion of the population who can access amenities (grocery stores, pharmacies, health care, child care, primary education, secondary education, neighbourhood parks, arts and cultural sites, or libraries) within a specified period of time using public transit.

Measurement

Each of the components of this indicator is measured separately.

Proportion of the population living within 500 metres of a public transit stop

This indicator is measured through the Census of Population. The census measures this indicator using census metropolitan areas (CMA), which are formed by one or more adjacent municipalities centred on a population centre (known as the core) (please refer to the Census Dictionary definition for CMA).

Urban public transportation is a complex subject and it is difficult to measure its quality based on a single indicator. This indicator is influenced not only by the number and distribution of public-transportation access points in a city, but also by local zoning regulations affecting the proportion of the population living close to those access points.

The main method used to estimate the percentage of the population living within 500 metres of a public transport access point is as follows:

  • The locations of public transport stops of all kinds (bus, trolley, surface and underground rail) were accessed from city websites or acquired from local transit authorities. Complete coverage was obtained for the municipalities making up the 35 CMAs.
  • The public transit stop locations were incorporated within Statistics Canada's geographic databases containing population counts for 2016 Census dissemination blocks. A dissemination block is a block in urban areas (e.g. a city block) or an area bounded by roads in rural areas. The dissemination block is the smallest geographic area for which population and dwelling counts are disseminated. Dissemination blocks located within a 500-metre radius of a transit stop were selected, and their populations summed for the municipality.
  • In the final step, the total population living within 500 metres of a transit stop is divided by the total population of the entire metropolitan city, to produce the indicator of convenient access to public transportation, following the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 11.2.1 guidelines.

Proportion of the population who can access potential employment within a specified period of time using public transit
and
Proportion of the population who can access amenities (grocery stores, pharmacies, health care, child care, primary education, secondary education, neighborhood parks, arts and cultural sites, or libraries) within a specified period of time using public transit

Data from the Proximity Measures Database (PMD) are used to measure both the proportion of the population who can access potential employment within a specified period of time and the proportion of the population who can access amenities within a specified period of time. The PMD measures a dissemination block's proximity to the following destinations:

  • employment
  • grocery stores
  • pharmacies
  • health care
  • child care
  • primary education
  • secondary education
  • neighbourhood parks
  • libraries

A dissemination block is a block in urban areas (e.g. a city block) or an area bounded by roads in rural areas. The dissemination block is the smallest geographic area for which population and dwelling counts are disseminated. By using dissemination blocks to calculate proximity, the PMD provides the highest level of geographic detail currently possible.

Proximity measures are based on a simple gravity model that accounts for the distance between a reference dissemination block and all the dissemination blocks in which the service is located (within a given distance) and the size of the services. The measure also accounts for the presence of services within the dissemination block of reference. The size of the service is captured by the total employment or total revenue of the service, or more simply, the presence of points of access to the service within a given distance. For more information on the sizes of the services used for each measure, please visit refer to the section "Additional Information" on the page Proximity Measures Data Viewer.

Measures for public transit use the walking network distance between the centre of a dissemination block and any public transit stop within a given range. Rather than using a straight line calculation, using the walking network allows the PMD to account for natural barriers (e.g. rivers, cliffs) or built obstacles (e.g. buildings, stairs) in its proximity calculation. Currently, the measures of proximity to public transit encompass walking to the transit stop and the frequency of trips departing that stop.

The database has approximately half a million records from various sources, including authoritative open data sources. Information on proximity to specific locations is provided wherever possible, although some data limitations exist in certain geographies. As the number of authoritative open data sources increases, a trend in recent years, future iterations of the proximity measures will have more comprehensive coverage spatially.

The Proximity Measures Database derives proximity to employment using the employment counts of all businesses within a given dissemination block from Statistics Canada's Business Register (BR). It refers to locations where there is potential employment. It does not take into account factors such as job vacancies or characteristics of the potential employment which may impact its suitability for different individuals (e.g. type of occupation, pay, etc.).

Data sources

Proportion of the population living within 500 metres of a public transit stop

Proportion of the population who can access potential employment within a specified period of time using public transit

Proportion of the population who can access amenities (grocery stores, pharmacies, health care, child care, primary education, secondary education, neighborhood parks, arts and cultural sites, or libraries) within a specified period of time using public transit

Data visualizations

Proportion of the population living within 500 metres of a public transit stop

Proportion of the population who can access potential employment within a specified period of time using public transit

Proportion of the population who can access amenities (grocery stores, pharmacies, health care, child care, primary education, secondary education, neighborhood parks, arts and cultural sites, or libraries) within a specified period of time using public transit

Data analysis

Proportion of the population living within 500 metres of a public transit stop

Proportion of the population who can access potential employment within a specified period of time using public transit

  • Data analysis from the Proximity Measures Database on this topic are not yet available.

Proportion of the population who can access amenities (grocery stores, pharmacies, health care, child care, primary education, secondary education, neighborhood parks, arts and cultural sites, or libraries) within a specified period of time using public transit

  • Data analysis from the Proximity Measures Database on this topic are not yet available.

Frameworks

This indicator aligns with the following frameworks:

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