Have you ever wondered how much time you would save if you didn’t have to commute to work every day? With the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic making working from home much more common over the past year, a recent study found Vancouverites have saved several weeks of time by not commuting.
By looking into Canadian census data, a gambling-focused website found that the average Canadian has saved 12,073 minutes or 201.2 hours by not commuting over the last year. Vancouver is second only to Toronto in terms of time saved by not commuting via public transit or by personal vehicle.
The study found that an average one-way commute costs Vancouver workers 27 minutes by car and 44 minutes on public transit. By not commuting by car Vancouverites saved 8.7 days over the last year and ex-transit users have saved 14.2 days.
On a larger scale, the study looked at the 6.8 million workers who started working from home over the past year. Together they saved 1.3 billion hours or about 148,401 years' worth of time.
‘Small silver linings to come out of the pandemic’
In a recent release, OnlineGambling.ca says this saving of time is beneficial to employees in several areas.
“In Canada, the number of commuters and journey times has been steadily rising over the last decade. There have also been numerous studies that have highlighted the negative health implications that commuting can have on our health and wellbeing,” the release states. “Therefore, the move to remote working and saving one to two weeks of time which would have otherwise been spent on in the car or on a bus or train is perhaps one of the small silver linings to come out of the pandemic.”
‘The right to disconnect’
On the flip side though, this loss of commute time has caused people a negative impact on their work-life balance.
“Even though they have managed to claim back some time, working from home means no distinct separation between home and work life,” the study states.
This has given way to people taking a “fake commute” where people head out before and after work on a walk, drive or cycle to give them a clear start and end to their workday and help with their mental health. With that in mind, the federal government is looking into creating safe labour protections for those working at home. Filomena Tassi, the Labour Minister is asking Canadians to share their new realities of what it means to work, including thoughts on the "right to disconnect."
Results were determined by calculating how many days the average Canadian works on the basis that a typical full-time employee works Monday-Friday. Public holidays, sick days and vacation days were factored in. Then commute and travel census data (1/2) was used to calculate average commute times for cities across Canada.
