Nearly half of respondents never use bus services because of a lack of direct routes and services nearby, a new CSO national travel survey shows.

The survey, carried out in Q4 last year, shows that nearly three quarters of the adults surveyed took a trip on the day for which they provided information on their travel pattern

Walking

Journeys by car accounted for close to three quarters (73.7%) of all journeys, either as a driver (64.9%) or passenger (8.8%), while walking accounted for 13.5% of all journeys and just one in 20 (4.8%) were by bus.

Nearly one quarter (23.6%) of journeys in 2019 were work related journeys, while more than one fifth (21.3%) were for shopping, and a further one fifth were companion/escort journeys.

Of all adult respondents, 1.5% stated that they own an electric vehicle (EV), and of these, hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs) were the most common, accounting for 57.8%. 

In 2019, fewer than 3% (2.6%) of over 18-year olds were involved in a road traffic collision in the preceding year, however young males (aged 18-24 years) had the highest collision rate at 4.3%.

More than six in every 10 (60.9%) road traffic collisions were reported to An Garda Síochána and/or insurance company.

Collision rate

Women aged 55-64 had the lowest collision rate.

The average number of daily trips was three. Of all journeys, nearly one quarter (24.6%) were taken on Tuesday, while one in five were taken on Monday and Wednesday, 20.3% and 20.1% respectively.

Only 5.8% of all journeys took place on Saturday and 6.7% on Sunday.

Of all respondents surveyed, 48.5% never use bus services while more than half (51%) never use rail (including mainline rail, DART and Luas) services.

Direct routes

Respondents were asked what factors would encourage them to use public transport more. Almost one in ten (9.7%) cited more direct routes. One in sixteen (6%) would like more reliable timetables while better value and greater frequency of service, was cited by 7.1% and 6.9% of respondents respectively.

To encourage more cycling, the availability of safer cycling routes was by far the most common factor cited by respondents (31.7%), followed by better health (20.5%) and more cycling specific routes (17.3%).