2013 Survey of Commute Patterns among Queen's University Employees

There is emerging research on the connections between health and active commuting, and on the opportunities presented for active commuting by public transit ridership. In September 2013, the City of Kingston implemented a major improvement to its public transit system through the introduction of \"Kingston Express\", an express bus route designed to connect residents in the west end of Kingston to the downtown core. The City has implemented these express routes in the hopes that service improvements will increase transit ridership, especially among individuals that work downtown, such as Queen's University employees. Thus, the objective of this survey was to investigate current commute patterns among Queen's employees and to assess whether these recent transit improvements have stimulated interest and willingness among Queen's employees to take Kingston Transit to commute to work. The survey data collected here will also serve as a baseline for subsequent surveys that will assess change in commute patterns to Queen's over time. The findings from this research will offer insights to researchers interested in the impacts of public transit as population health interventions, as well as to Queen's University in terms of understanding how members of their community could make better use of a key public resource in Kingston.