More Canadians are relying on their cars as their exclusive means of transportation, owing to an increase in suburban construction far from the downtown cores, according to a Statistics Canada study released Tuesday.

The study, which examined the travel habits of Canadians in one given day, found that 74 per cent of Canadian adults said they made all their trips — as either a driver or a passenger — by car in 2005. By comparison, 70 per cent of Canadians reported they travelled everywhere by car in 1998 while 68 per cent said the same in 1992.

A Statistics Canada report said that 74 per cent of Canadians over the age of 18 made all their trips exclusively by car in 2005.

In the study, Statistics Canada analyst Martin Turcotte links the growing car culture to the development of new low-density communities built since 1991. Statistics Canada characterizes low-density communities as those in which two-thirds of the housing units are single, semi-detached and mobile homes.

"There are very clear links between living in a peripheral neighbourhood and depending on the automobile as the primary mode of transportation for day-to-day travel," he said in the study, which culled data from the 2005 General Social Survey.

"The farther people live from the city centre, the more time they spend behind the wheel."

Per cent of adult population making all trips by car
Edmonton	77
Calgary	75
Quebec City	74
Winnipeg	72
Ottawa-Gatineau	71
Vancouver	69
Toronto	66
Montreal	65

Meanwhile, the percentage of people over the age of 18 travelling by foot or bicycle has decreased from 26 per cent in 1992 to 19 per cent in 2005, Turcotte said.

The federal agency also found that 77 per cent of Calgarians and 75 per cent of Edmontonians travelled exclusively by car as either a driver or a passenger, largely because of the cities' low-density neighbourhoods.

By comparison, 65 per cent of Montrealers relied solely on their cars. In smaller urban centres, 75 per cent of people living in the downtown core made all their trips by car.

The study also found that 80 per cent of people living in low-density areas made at least one trip behind the wheel of the car, compared to less than 50 per cent of people living in high-density neighbourhoods.

Differences between the sexes were also observed, with 81 per cent of men reporting they drove their vehicles at least once during the day, compared to 66 per cent of women. The study suggests the difference is likely linked to higher numbers of women being passengers in cars and reliant on public transit.