For the first time in Saskatoon’s history, there are more vehicles in the city than people.
The startling statistic comes in the city’s traffic characteristics report, an annual report examining transportation trends, traffic volumes and travel times.
While Saskatoon’s population last year reached close to 220,000, there were almost 229,000 registered vehicles in the city, say Saskatchewan Government Insurance statistics cited in the report.
"This shows we need a paradigm shift," said Coun. Charlie Clark at the planning and operations committee Tuesday, where the report was presented. "We’ve got a choice to make to find out how to deal with this."
Clark suggests city hall implement targeted goals for different methods of transportation. According to the latest statistics, roughly 79 per cent of Saskatonians drive to work compared to the national average of 72 per cent. The city’s goal should be to bring the number of people who drive to work down to 70 per cent, Clark said.
In other cities, congestion woes have turned into a so-called war on the car, where the personal vehicle has become a pariah, joining smoking as a vice that can be taxed and discouraged.
Changing behaviour should be more about economics, Clark said. Fewer vehicles would slow the growing need for new interchanges and a more expansive and expensive road network, he said.
"We’re not going to have much success if we set it up as a war on the car," Clark said. "It shouldn’t be a guilt thing (to drive less), but a convenience thing. Economically, we know it’s not a very efficient way to build a city around the personal vehicle and it’s going to be very difficult economically to sustain that expectation into the future."
The number of vehicles actually overtook the population in 2007, but this is the first year the city included in its report SGI statistics for vehicles registered seasonally, such as motorcycles and recreational vehicles.
The full traffic report paints a drastically changing picture of life on city streets.
During the course of the last decade, the number of trips across the Circle Drive Bridge jumped by more than 20,000 per day. The commute time from downtown to the edges of the city has doubled from eight to 12 minutes five years ago to 18 to 20 minutes on average during rush hour.
The effects of more vehicles aren’t only on longer commute times. At the committee meeting, Mike Gutek, general manager of infrastructure services, said city snow clearing and street sweeping crews are having regular problems doing their work because streets are blanketed by parked cars. The collision rate has also skyrocketed.
There are socioeconomic reasons for the increase in the number of vehicles, said Don Cook, city transportation engineer. More people, particularly teenagers, are driving, and the city has become wealthier, he said.
Other theorists point out more people are in the workforce, vehicles are lasting longer than ever before and the multi-vehicle family — like the multi-television household — has become the norm.
Whether people in Saskatoon see the dominant car culture as an accurate reflection of their values is debatable, Cook said. Some may say it’s a product of having few options available to change their behaviour.
The city has added a universal bus pass for students, implemented a bus pass program for employers, upgraded the transit network to add rapid transit routes and is investing $2 million to upgrade the city’s bike network, but many people still argue it’s not convenient to use alternative modes of transportation.
"Really as the city becomes more congested, driving is less carefree, driving is less enjoyable, driving is more stressful than it’s ever been," Cook said.
"Whether people are going to stop driving and do other things, I don’t know, because tolerance is quite high and we know that driving actually has quite a bit of convenience.
"But we do hear from people all the time that they don’t have any choice. They’re saying they want use transit, to walk and bike, and to me that signals that we actually have to make the choices more economical, more practical, less time consuming and more comfortable so they actually feel they have real choices."
º PEOPLE vs. VEHICLES
Year Population Vehicles
1945 42,000 6,000
1965 106,000 39,000
1985 176,000 128,000
2005 206,000 197,000*
2009 219,000 229,000*
*Including seasonal vehicles
Source: SGI
Travel to work – transportation mode
Motor vehicle driver 72.3% 78.7% 79.6% 69.1% 75.0%
Motor vehicle passenger 7.7% 7.5% 8.1% 7.5% 7.8%
Public transit 11.0% 3.7% 4.2% 15.6% 9.7%
Pedestrian 6.4% 6.2% 5.8% 5.4% 5.1%
Cyclist 1.3% 2.4% 1.4% 1.3% 1.1%
Other* 1.2% 1.6% 0.9% 1.0% 1.2%
Comments
Want to discuss? Please read our Commenting Policy first.