CSO: 69% of commuters drive to work

Over two thirds of commuters drove to work in 2011 as public bus users fell by 20% in the space of five years, according to new data released by the CSO this morning.

A total of 1,136,615 people, representing 69% of commuters, either drove to work or were a passenger in a car in 2011, but the number of commuters using public buses fell by 23,277 between 2006 and 2011, a fall of 20%.

There was an increase of 9.6% in commuters cycling however, with the census figures indicating that a total of 170,510 commuters walked to work, accounting for 10.5% of all commuters in 2011.

Meanwhile, public transport (bus, minibus, coach, train, DART and Luas) was most prevalent in Dublin, used by 93,034 commuters (21.5%), compared with just 6.8% in Cork, 6.4% in Galway, 4.4% in Limerick and only 1.8% of commuters living in rural areas.

Deirdre Cullen, Senior Statistician at the CSO said: “This report provides an insight into the commuting patterns of the Irish people in 2011, containing yet more analysis and results from Census 2011 on this very important theme.”