Calgary may still be considered a car-centric city, but newly released data suggests a majority of commuters opt for hopping on a bus or train over getting behind the wheel for their daily downtown commute.

The city’s 2014 “downtown cordon activity” data shows 361,000 Calgarians pass through the downtown core on average each weekday, with half now taking public transit — a significant shift over the past two decades.

“We did see a pretty significant use in transit over the last 15 to 20 years,” said Ekke Kok, manager of transportation data for the city. “It used to be, in 1996, about half the people were coming downtown by car and now it is only 39 per cent.”

During the morning rush hour, 61,000 Calgarians head into the core, with 50.1 per cent using transit, 39.3 per cent driving, 8.1 per cent walking and 2.5 per cent riding a bicycle.

The numbers, which are rounded up to the nearest 1,000, are collected each May by city staff at 31 key points — typically one spot per day — into downtown over a three-week period.

At individual locations, the data can show wild swings, particularly along pedestrian infrastructure where poor weather can discourage people from walking or cycling.

For example, the number of cyclists and pedestrians traversing the Peace Bridge in 2012 was 5,831 when city staff conducted the one-day count. The temperature that day was 21 C and no precipitation.

In 2013, the count dropped to 1,906 when the mercury sat at 14 C and the city received 25 mm precipitation. City staff conducted a second count in August, when the temperature reached 29 C, and pedestrian and cyclist traffic increased to 5,959.

This year, 3,298 people crossed the Peace Bridge by foot or bicycle while the city saw almost 1 mm of precipitation and a temperature high of 16 C.

Similar fluctuations were recorded on Louise Pedestrian Bridge and the Prince’s Island pedestrian bridge.

“When you look at individual locations it’s quite sensitive to weather, for pedestrians and cyclists,” he said. “But when you look at the overall cordon it’s typically a more average number you can compare year-to-year.”

Overall, the ratio has remained relatively steady over the past three years, with transit seeing an increase of 1.7 per cent to 50.1 per cent during the morning commute.

Conversely, the number of Calgarians driving downtown in the morning has declined 2.2 per cent to 39.3 per cent since 2012.

The number of people choosing to walk increased slightly from 7.9 to 8.1 per cent since 2012. The number of cyclists inched higher from 2.2 per cent to 2.5 per cent over the same period.

thowell@calgaryherald.com

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