Although retail and service industries contribute greatly to Canada’s economy and the economies of Canadian city-regions, the effects of new forms of retailing on transportation patterns are often overlooked in planning. Most often, transportation planning has focused on the journey to work, rather than travel for other purposes, including shopping. The rise of big-box stores in the outer suburbs and the clustering of big-box stores in power centres and power nodes has affected travel patterns, but these patterns are not yet well understood.

This study describes the rise of power retailing, shows where power centres are clustered in the Greater Toronto Area, and draws on data from the Transportation Tomorrow Survey to describe consumer travel patterns associated with retail development within Canada’s largest city-region.

Although only one new enclosed shopping mall has been built in the GTA since the mid 1990s, between 1995 and 2005 the number of big-box stores essentially doubled to more than 1,100. Most were built in the suburbs and on the urban fringe, where large areas of land are available relatively cheaply. In particular, power centres and power nodes tend to locate near highway interchanges.

Whereas shopping malls typically incorporate transit facilities (with transit stops or even hubs close to mall entrances) and are designed so that shoppers can walk from one store to another, power centres are generally developed with the automobile in mind. Individual stores are often so spread out, and the pedestrian environment is typically so exposed and dysfunctional, that shoppers visiting two or more stores will often drive from one store to another within the centre.

The peak times for weekday driving to malls and power centres are mid-morning, early afternoon, and early evening (after work). For the most part, shoppers time their trips so as not to coincide with the peak periods of travel for work, but the afternoon peak commuting period is nonetheless intensified by a certain amount of travel for shopping, including trips made to malls and power centres.

These trends run counter to the Vision of the region expressed in the Growth Plan for the Greater Golden Horseshoe (Places to Grow). The plan contains few policies relating to retail, and no specific guidance to direct retail to areas of intensification. Many of the Urban Growth Centres (UGCs) identified in the plan are served by power centres, and these power centres may compete with other retail opportunities (e.g., commercial strips and enclosed malls) serviced by a range of transportation alternatives. Indeed, the plan recommends the continuing development of retail at highway interchanges, potentially reinforcing regional trends towards increasing automobile traffic.

The Growth Plan presents a vision of sustainable communities in which people travel less by car, use transit more, and have opportunities to live, work, and shop in mixed-use areas, yet it provides minimal guidance for using retail to achieve growth management and sustainability goals.  Further research and policy development focused on the role of retailing in achieving sustainability is needed to better align contemporary patterns of growth and travel demand with current land use and transportation planning goals.


Ron Buliung is an Associate Professor in the Department of Geography, University of Toronto at Mississauga.  He may be reached by email at 
ron.buliung AT utoronto DOT ca.

Tony Hernandez is the Director of the Centre for the Study of Commercial Activity, Ryerson University.  He may be reached by email at 
thernandez AT ryerson DOT ca