Traffic volumes on motorways and primary routes nearly at pre-Covid levels

Traffic volumes on the State’s motorways and national primary routes are on average within one per cent of levels they were at pre Covid-19, during weekdays, according to Transport Infrastructure Ireland.

The authority which captures data on traffic using counters buried in the roads, said numbers of cars which increased significantly this summer as the country emerged from restrictions, remained very resilient.

A spokesman said the authority was somewhat surprised by the data, given the amount of people still working from home and the Government’s instruction that where possible workers should stay working from home, due to the upsurge in Covid-19 numbers.

“We can not say exactly where the cars are going, maybe they are going to the supermarket, but we know they are out on the national roads network”, a spokesman said. He said the volumes were perhaps not so concentrated in the 7am to 10am peak, but over the 24-hour period data “suggests we are in about one per cent of pre-Covid levels”.

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The indications are that while people may be returning to the office or workplace, they are not travelling during rush periods as much as they used to. However, all volumes are significantly up on this time last year.

Traffic figures for Wednesday morning show volumes on all radial routes into Dublin, were up significantly on the December 1st in 2020.

Comparisons show a 15 per cent in cars on the M1 at M50 to Airport; an 8 per cent increase on the M11 at Bray; a 17 per cent increase on the M4 at Celbridge-Maynooth, and 4 per cent on the N7 at Citywest.

The M50 (N3 Navan Road to N4 Galway Road) shows a 6 per cent increase as compared with this day in 2020.

In the case of the regional cities the changes in car traffic volumes on Wednesday morning, compared with last week, Wednesday, November 24th, are as follows:

– N6 Galway: minus 5 per cent
– N40 Cork: no change
– M9 Waterford: minus 1 per cent
– M7 Limerick: minus 4 per cent

Comparisons with December 1st, 2020 are as follows:
– N6 Galway: down 7 per cent ,
– N40 Cork: no change
– M9 Waterford: up 10 per cent
– M7 Limerick: up 13 per cent

TII said the traffic numbers last Wednesday, November 24th, 2021, were severely impacted by events associated with farmers’ protests on the M1, M2, M3, M4, M7, M11 and M50. These events restricted traffic flows at several locations and made comparisons with the same day last week, inadequate.

TII said overall, Wednesday morning’s traffic volumes showed a substantial increase as compared to traffic volumes to the same date in 2020.

Some notable increases on Wednesday morning included roads around the border, particularly car traffic just south of the Northern Ireland Border on the N1 at Jonesboro, which showed a 43 percent increase as compared to the same day in 2020.

In the case of the non-motorway, border roads traffic volumes on Wednesday showed changes of between 0 per cent and plus-10 per cent as compared with last week, Wednesday 24th November. The changes in car traffic volumes since the same day in 2020 ranges from 8percent on the N16 east of Manorhamilton to 24 per cent on the N15 south of Lifford.