Victoria's suburban sprawl as a barrier to sustainable development
Subject
Abstract
Canada is a nation where over two thirds of the population lives in some form of suburb (Gordon & Janzen 2013). It is important to monitor the locations of population growth within our nation as it has profound effects on our economic effectiveness, environmental sustainability, and our overall public health. The purpose of this study is to estimate Victoria’s 2016 suburban population using housing density and journey-to-work transportation data to classify the Census Metropolitan Area (CMA) into exurban, auto suburb, transit suburb, or active core. Using Transportation Method 9 (Gordon 2018), it was found that 74.9% of Victoria’s population lived in suburban settings in 2016, with 65.3% situated in auto suburbs at the time of the 2016 census. Victoria had Canada’s highest active transportation average at 16.9%, with the second highest being Kingston at 9.5%. The population living in Victoria’s active cores was 21%, a 4% increase from 2011 with only 17% active core.