Transportation

Metro Vancouver on the move: Traffic and transit by the numbers

With the passage of Labour Day, it’s back to bridge-and-tunnel lineups and packed Vancouver B-Lines for commuters headed back to the office or class. Here, we look at some numbers around commuting in B.C.

By Michael McCullough /

Stuck a little longer in Vancouver traffic these days? You’re not imagining it. In 2024, the average 10-kilometre drive in Metro Vancouver stretched to nearly 19 minutes—40 seconds longer than the year before—as afternoon rush hour crawled to a sluggish 25 kilometres per hour. Yet while cars slowed down, the region’s buses and trains kept picking up speed, with TransLink logging almost 241 million trips and record surges in ridership during big-ticket events like Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour.

Below, a closer look at how Metro Vancouver stacks up on traffic, transit and ridership in 2024.

  • The average 10-km drive in Metro Vancouver in 2024 took 18 minutes, 46 seconds—up 40 seconds from 2023. The average car speed was 32 kph, down 1 kph year-over-year.
  • During the afternoon rush hour, traffic slowed to an average 25.3 kph, raising the 10-km journey time to 23:44.
  • The busiest time of the week to drive in Vancouver is between 5 and 6 p.m. on Thursdays.
  • TransLink took passengers on  240.9 million journeys in 2024, a 3% increase from 2023. (By comparison, mileage driven in passenger vehicles in Metro Vancouver grew just 1%.) During the fall, the transit authority served 420,000 unique passengers on a typical weekday.
  • The Victoria Regional Transit System carried 25.4 million passengers in 2023–24. BC Transit, which services 130 other communities in B.C., carries 54 million passengers annually.

Rank of Metro Vancouver in:

  • Transit ridership per capita in Canada: No. 2 (Montreal is No. 1)
  • Bus ridership per capita in North America: No. 3

  • Number of overcrowded TransLink-managed bus trips during peak hours in 2024: 137,000 That’s an 11.2% share of all trips.
  • Traffic increased 116% at Vancouver’s Stadium-Chinatown SkyTrain station over the three days of Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour performances at BC Place last December compared with an average weekend.

 

Sources: TomTom, TransLink, BC Transit