Journeys by car and public transport decreased in 2021, CSO figures show

Journeys by car and by public transport decreased in 2021 amid the Covid-19 restrictions, according to statistics from the Central Statistics Office (CSO).

The CSO published the first of four publications on the results of the National Travel Survey on Friday, which was carried out in quarter four of 2021.

In 2021, more than three-quarters (77 per cent) of people aged 18 years and over took a trip on the day for which they provided travel information and of those who did not, more than one in 10 (11 per cent) were working from home.

The survey found that in 2021, journeys by car decreased, falling to 71 per cent of all journeys, either as a driver or passenger, compared with 74 per cent pre-pandemic, in 2019. Although car usage decreased in 2021, private cars remain the most common mode of travel.

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With some Covid-19 restrictions still in place in quarter four, public transport usage decreased. Public transport accounted for 4 per cent of all journeys in 2021, compared with almost 5 per cent in 2019, while journeys on rail, DART and Luas accounted for just over 1 per cent of all journeys. This is compared with almost 2 per cent in 2019.

Trips to visit friends and family and trips for the purpose of entertainment and leisure also decreased. Only one in 16 (6 per cent) of journeys were visits to friends or family — down four percentage points on the same period in 2019.

Active travel was the only category of travel which saw an increase among respondents in 2021. This includes walking and cycling. Walking increased from 14 per cent of all journeys in 2019 to 17 per cent in 2021, while cycling rose from 1.5 per cent in 2019 to just over 2 per cent.

Tuesday was the busiest day of the week in 2021 for making a journey, statistics showed, while the weekend was the least busy time.

A quarter of journeys taken were for shopping, an increase of three percentage points on 2019. Work-related journeys account for almost one-quarter (23.8 per cent) of journeys also in 2021, a marginal increase from the same period in 2019 (23.6 per cent).

Commenting on the report, statistician Maureen Delamere said this was the first survey on travel behaviour carried out by the CSO since the pandemic reached Irish shores. “The last one having been carried out in the fourth quarter of 2019, pre-Covid. When the 2021 survey was carried out, there were still varying levels of Covid-19 in the community, with related restrictions in place. Society and the economy had started to return to a new normal,” she said.

In relation to those who did not take any trip on the travel reference day, Ms Delamere said this was down to working from home, while more than 54 per cent said they were fully occupied with home duties, or had no need or wish to travel outside the home.