The main variable inside the city is bridge crossings rather than raw distance. A commute that stays on one side of the South Saskatchewan River tends to move quickly, while one that needs to cross at peak hours can slow down regardless of how many kilometres it covers.
Newer edge suburbs like Stonebridge and Brighton add distance from downtown but sometimes shorten the actual drive time to specific employment areas, so a longer-looking commute on a map is not always the slower one in practice.
Whether Saskatoon's commute counts as better depends entirely on where you are commuting from and to, which is worth mapping before ruling a neighbourhood out. Get your hand-reviewed valuation from Joel Dyck.