TransLink recently released its 2018 Transit Service Performance Review which contains ridership information based on routes, municipalities, and sub-regions. One of the things that I hear often is that people in the South of Fraser don’t take transit, and that our communities are not designed to accommodate transit. According to TransLink’s latest data, this is not the case.
Between 2017 and 2018, the number of annual bus boardings in the South of Fraser increased from 43.3 million to 50.1 million. That’s a 15.6% increase! Surrey, Langley, and White Rock combined have the second highest bus ridership outside of the City of Vancouver/UBC.
A new metric that TransLink has presented this year is annual bus boardings by municipality. The results might be a bit surprising.
| Municipality | 2018 Population | 2018 Boardings | 2018 Boardings Per Capita |
|---|---|---|---|
| Vancouver | 672,963 | 146,602,000 | 218 |
| New Westminster | 76,799 | 11,086,000 | 144 |
| Burnaby | 248,476 | 31,608,000 | 127 |
| North Vancouver, City | 56,741 | 6,658,000 | 117 |
| West Vancouver | 44,886 | 4,527,000 | 101 |
| Richmond | 216,300 | 18,113,000 | 84 |
| North Vancouver, District | 90,814 | 6,864,000 | 76 |
| Surrey | 569,065 | 40,235,000 | 71 |
| Langley, City | 27,577 | 1,358,000 | 49 |
| Coquitlam | 149,490 | 7,027,000 | 47 |
| Delta | 109,484 | 4,917,000 | 45 |
| Port Moody | 35,613 | 1,262,000 | 35 |
| Port Coquitlam | 62,844 | 1,969,000 | 31 |
| White Rock | 21,370 | 451,000 | 21 |
| Maple Ridge | 88,626 | 1,832,000 | 21 |
| Langley, Township | 127,290 | 2,556,000 | 20 |
| Pitt Meadows | 19,772 | 370,000 | 19 |
| Belcarra | 684 | 6,900 | 10 |
| Bowen Island | 3,977 | 40,000 | 10 |
| Anmore | 2,389 | 19,000 | 8 |
| Lions Bay | 1,407 | 8,500 | 6 |
I was surprised to see that Langley City has higher bus ridership than most municipalities in Metro Vancouver. Compared to White Rock and Port Moody, communities that are similar in size and character, we had significantly more bus boardings. What was also interesting to see is that North Shore communities have some of the highest bus boardings per capita in Metro Vancouver.
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| 2018 Bus Boardings Per Capita by municipality. Select chart to enlarge. |
While Langley City has a way to go compared to communities like New Westminster for per capita transit boardings, the numbers show that we are on the right track. With the cost of fuel at record levels, it is more important than ever that governments invest in public transit, and in building walkable and bikeable communities.
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