The impact of indoor walkway systems on the use of public transit in Montréal and Toronto

摘要

Clearly, large walkway systems such as R(E)SO in Montréal and PATH in Toronto have benefited from the presence of an efficient subway network and a continuously expanding network of commuter lines. This paper will examine the reverse proposition: to what extent has public transit benefited from existing and expanding climate-controlled walkway systems? Both cities are often proposed as models with respect to their underground pedestrian networks not only because each one is close to 30 kilometers long but also due to their attractiveness in terms of flows of users and general quality of their unique urban landscape. A survey of approximately 300 office workers in each city has been performed in 2007 by the Observatoire de la ville intérieure. The main results show a significant increase in the preference for public transportation in the connected as opposed to unconnected office towers, a differential of 15 percentage points in Montréal (87% vs 72% ) and 8 percentage points in Toronto (92% vs 84% ). These results are still valid after control for the differences in personal income and in travel time differential between private cars and transit mode of the surveyed workers. Discrepancies in parking fees among the sampled buildings will also be examined. These empirical findings will finally be contrasted with the strategy of local subway operators when confronted with proposed direct linkages between adjacent buildings and subway stations. This research has been funded by Infrastructure Canada.