Cyclists, walkers are happiest commuters, survey finds

If you are one of many Canadians who dread their morning and afternoon commute, try ditching the car or bus and hop on a bike.

A Statistics Canada survey found 66 per cent of people who cycle or walk to work are very satisfied with their commute. This is a big difference from the 32 per cent of car commuters who are very satisfied and the 25 per cent of public transit users.

Terri Flinn bikes to work when the weather is nice and agrees with the survey.

"I'm happy six months of the year when I'm biking," she tells the Toronto Star. "And miserable the other six."

She looks forward to her eight-minute bike ride and dreads her 40-minute trip on public transit.

"In the winter, I don't want to go to work because I dread the streetcar ride," Flinn tells the Star. "Once I'm at work, I don't want to leave because it means I have to get back on the streetcar."

The other major difference is the number of people who say they are dissatisfied.

Only six per cent of cyclists and walkers report being dissatisfied. That number is much higher at 18 and 23 per cent for people who drive their own vehicles and take public transit respectively.

Cyclists and walkers may be the happiest commuters because their average commute time is the shortest of any mode at 14 minutes. Despite this, very few people cycle to work.

A 2006 Canadian census found only 1.4 per cent of people living in a metropolitan area bike to work on a regular basis. The figure isn't much higher in Toronto at 1.7 per cent, but the number of people biking to work increased by more than 30 per cent between 2001 and 2006.

How satisfied people are with their commute was one of many questions asked for StatsCan's 2010 General Social Survey. It also found residents of Toronto and Vancouver have the longest commutes in the country and commuting by car is significantly faster than taking public transit.

(Reuters Photo)