The Martin Prosperity Institute, a business policy and management research group at the University of Toronto, has recently conducted a survey of Toronto workers, focusing on their geographic spread across the city, and their connection to transit. The research takes a strong look at the service class of workers that make up a large majority of the city’s workforce (such as cashiers, salespeople, food preparers, administrative assistants, etc.).
“When the Toronto subway is superimposed on the workplace map, a clear pattern emerges. Only 21% of the red service-intensive tracts on the map above are within 500m of a subway station, while a full 65% of purple creative-intensive tracts are. So while the service class makes up the largest share of jobs in Toronto, creative class workplaces have significantly better access to the city’s fastest transit infrastructure. When we conducted a more fine-grained analysis that assigned scores for service mode and frequency, it reinforced this finding: service class workers tend to be served less well by frequent and convenient transit.”
Walkability, livability and transit access in cities are hot topics now as we begin to realize that our current urban forms are wasting energy, and as we find the need to replace and redesign urban infrastructure. This study aims to help inform policy in order to right this balance.
Read more on this study here.
