Commuting Patterns in the Township of Langley

Buried within the October 2nd agenda for the Township of Langley's Economic Development Advisory Committee are maps that show the commuting pattern of the community based on the latest Census/National Household Survey data.

One of the interesting things that the Township likes saying is that it has almost one job available per one person that lives in the community. This number does not mean that everyone who lives in the Township could work in the Township, but that hopefully the Township has a skills trade balance. One of the reasons why regions like Metro Vancouver are successful is because of the skills and economic trade that occurrences within the region between communities. Of course this leads to complex travel patterns, and requires some people to leave their community for work.

49,600 or 90% of the Township of Langley’s workforce has to commute to work.

Flow of Non-Residents Travelling to the Township of Langley for Work Each Day. Source: Township of Langley. Click map to enlarge.

About 50% of Township residents actually work within the community. Another 30% of Township resident work within the South of Fraser communities of Delta, Surrey, White Rock, and the City of Langley. A further 6% work in the Fraser Valley Regional District. In total, 86% of all people who live in Township of Langley don’t cross the Fraser River to get to work.

Of the 24,120 people who commute to the Township of Langley, 56% are from the South of Fraser communities of Delta, Surrey, White Rock, and the City of Langley. Another 27% are from the Fraser Valley Regional District with the majority of commuters from Abbotsford. All full 82% commuters to the Township don’t need to cross the Fraser River.

Flow of Residents Travelling Out of the Township of Langley for Work Each Day. Source: Township of Langley. Click map to enlarge.

With this in mind, I find it very interesting how transportation infrastructure dollars are being spent by the Province and TransLink. With the exception of the South Fraser Perimeter Road, all of the current and future big-ticket road projects have focused around major river crossings. Looking at the commuting patterns, its no surprise that bridges like the Golden Ear are empty most of the time, and traffic volume through the Massey Tunnel is going down. In fact, most of the big-ticket road project don’t directly benefit most people in the Township.

Transportation dollars should really be focused on getting people where they need to go. For the Township that is within the South of Fraser and Fraser Valley Regional District. As there are physical constraints to building new, multi-lane highways in the South of Fraser, rapid transit sticks out in my mind as something that the Province should be investing in. To date, we have seen very little willingness by the Province to do this as they seem to be obsessed with billion dollar bridge building project that don't help the vast majority of people in the Township.