Drive time: one in three spends two hours a day in traffic

ONE-IN-THREE motorists spends on average more than two hours a day stuck in traffic, with the number of cars on the road now at an all-time high.

The analysis of census figures by National University of Ireland Maynooth’s geography department also shows the distance people travel to work has doubled since 1990, with the average journey now almost 10 miles. The number of people travelling to work by car doubled from 492,709 in 1986 to 995,550 in 2002 according to the research.

More than 105,000 people travel at least 60 miles to their job each day in 2002, compared to only 44,276 six years earlier.