69% of commuters go to work by car

Some two out of three commuters drove to work last year as the numbers using buses has plummeted by 20% in the last five years.

Latest figures from Census 2011 on how people travel to work, show 1,136,615 people either drove to work or were a passenger in a car last year — representing 69% of commuters.

However, the number of commuters using public buses fell by 23,277 between 2006 and 2011 — a drop of 20%. Between 2006 and 2011 there was a 9.6% rise in the number of people cycling to work — from 36,306 to 39,803.

A total of 170,510 commuters walked to work, accounting for 10.5% of all commuters last year.

Meanwhile, despite tailing off between 2006 and 2011, the number of people using a train, Dart, or Luas to get to work rose significantly between 1981 and 2011. Almost 40,000 more people took a train to work last year than was the case 30 years previously.

Public transport was more prevalent in Dublin where it was used by 21% of commuters (93,034) compared with just 6.8% in Cork, 6.4% in Galway, 4.4% in Limerick and just 1.8% in rural areas.

Elsewhere in the data, it was revealed the number of female car drivers (551,638) surpassed male car drivers (515,813) among the working population for the first time ever. Some seven out of every 10 women drove a car to their place of work in 2011 compared with six out of 10 male commuters.

The average time spent travelling to work in 2011 was 26.6 minutes — a decrease from 27.5 minutes recorded in 2006 and 26.8 minutes in 2002. One in 10 travelled for an hour or more to work last year, in contrast to one in eight in 2006. Those in the Dublin commuter belt had the longest commutes to work.

More than a quarter of Polish nationals and people of other nationalities travelled to work either on a bicycle or on foot.

In contrast, only 13% of British and 11% of Irish nationals used one of these forms of transport on their daily commute.

Six out of 10 children were driven to primary school every day in 2011, while the remainder walked. One in five children in rural areas travelled by bus, compared with just 7% for those living in urban areas.

For the first time, more secondary students travelled to school by car than by bus with about 40% (126,172) travelling by car last year, compared with 30% (96,153) by bus. Less than 74,000 second-level students walked to school in 2011 — 28% fewer than 15 years previously. The numbers cycling to school have fallen by 87% since 1986.

In figures

* 2.7m — The number of persons commuting to work, school and college in Apr 2011.

* 1% — The increase in the number of commuters since 2006.

* 2.7% — Percentage increase in the number of female employees between 2006 and 2011.

* 16% — Percentage decrease in the number of male employees between 2006 and 2011.

* 551,638 — Number of females who drove to work in 2011, exceeding the number of male drivers (515,813) for the first time.

* 26.6 — The average travel time in minutes for all commuters in 2011.

* 152,465 — The number of persons who travelled for 60 minutes or more to their place of work in 2011.

* 30% — Percentage of the 91,676 bus commuters who were non-Irish.

* 56,689 — Net inflow of daily commuters into Dublin City in 2011.

* 20,110 — The net inflow of daily commuters into Cork City in 2011.

* 22,021 — Net outflow of daily commuters from Meath in 2011, the largest of any county.

* Sligo — Town with largest inflow of commuters (+7,433) in 2011.

* 24,260 — Number of secondary students who used a car (driver and passenger) to travel to school in 1981.

* 132,511 — Number of secondary students who used a car (driver and passenger) to travel to school in 2011.

* 8,530 — Number of third-level students who cycled to college in 2011.

* 53,606 — Number of third-level students who drove to college in 2011.