{"id":8816,"date":"2010-12-03T01:20:27","date_gmt":"2010-12-03T06:20:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spacingmontreal.ca\/?p=8816"},"modified":"2013-01-21T11:59:40","modified_gmt":"2013-01-21T16:59:40","slug":"active-transportation-on-the-rise-across-the-region","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/2010\/12\/03\/active-transportation-on-the-rise-across-the-region\/","title":{"rendered":"Active Transportation on the Rise Across the Region"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"pack<\/a><\/p>\n

Image:\u00a0 There sure do seem to be a lot more bikes on the road than there were 7 years ago…<\/em>at least on the corner of Berri and Cherrier<\/span><\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Last February, the AMT released the preliminary results<\/a> of their 2008 Enqu\u00eate<\/span> origine<\/span>-destination<\/em>, a transportation survey of 156,000 people in Montreal’s ever-growing metropolitan region. The AMT’s report spun the data to place the focus increasing transit ridership. Being a transportation nerd, I kept checking back for the full report, particularly in order to shed some light on my hunch that cycling is <\/span>on the rise in the city.\u00a0 I recently noticed that the AMT has quietly released a spreadsheet<\/a> detailing the 4.4 million trips that Montrealers<\/span> make every day.<\/span><\/p>\n

As far as I can tell nobody has taken on the task of learning what this survey can tell us about the state of active transportation in Montreal, so I have delved into the sea of data to see what I can turn up. Here I present the fruits of my number-crunching, followed by a bunch of cautions and disclaimers.<\/p>\n

Happily, I found a small increase in active transportation: 12.3% of trips were done on foot or by bicycle, compared to 11.4% in 2003.\u00a0 The AMT estimates that there are 544,150 round-trips are made by foot or bike each day, although it is quite likely that this number varies with the seasons (the survey was done in the Fall).<\/p>\n

Although there was a consistent increase across the metropolitan area, the difference is slightly more pronounced in the city centre. The neighbourhoods where over a quarter of trips made on foot or bicycle now include Outremont, Centre-Ville, Petite-Patrie and the Sud-Est. Longeuil also equals many parts of Montreal in terms of active transportation. <\/span><\/p>\n

In the Plateau Mont-Royal, the hot-bed of the alternative transportation discourse, cycling and walking accounted for 37% of trips in 2008, up from 31% in 2003, surpassing the automobile as the most common mode<\/span> of transportation.\u00a0 Keep in mind that this is before Projet<\/span> Montr\u00e9al<\/span> took the reins, before BIXI was introduced, and mere weeks after the Maisonneuve bike path was built<\/span>. <\/span><\/p>\n

Is it due to better infrastructure and planning, education, economics, or even fad?<\/p>\n

2008 Modal share of Active transportation:<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"2008<\/a><\/p>\n

2003 Modal share of Active transportation<\/strong>, originally posted here<\/a>.
\n\"2003<\/a><\/p>\n

Explainer<\/span> and Disclaimer<\/span>
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

The results presented here are meant to be more of a conversation-starter than the gospel. I am no statistician, and frankly, I found this data was poorly explained and difficult to manage, mainly for the reasons stated below. Here are a few things to take into account when looking at this analysis:<\/span><\/p>\n