By Greg Fry

Stats Can: Most Kamloopsians still driving to work

Nov 30, 2017 | 1:24 PM

KAMLOOPS — Kamloopsians love their cars.

That’s according to the latest Statistics Canada Census data.

“In the Kamloops 2016 Census, we found that 87.2 per cent of people are taking a private vehicle to get to work,” says analyst Katherine Savage. “We also found that just over four per cent of people are using public transit to get to work and for active transportation, including walking and biking to work, we found that 6.6 per cent of people are taking active transport to get to work.”

She adds the numbers haven’t changed much since 2011 in Kamloops.

“There’s been a .1 per cent increase in car, truck, or van use. And there’s been a .3 per cent decrease in people who walked or biked since 2011.”

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Savage says there could many many factors at play with these numbers.

“And these could be cost, availability, personal preference and environmental concerns.”

So, how does Kamloops compare to larger centres like Vancouver?

“In 2016, 69.3 per cent of people in Vancouver took a private vehicle to work. That’s lower than Kamloops or Kelowna. And in Vancouver, we see a higher proportion of people taking public transit at 20 per cent,” says Savage.

And in terms of the average amount of time it takes residents get to work, Kamloops is below the national average of 26.2 minutes, coming in at 19.4 minutes. The B.C. average is 25.9 minutes.