Census figures - Dependence on cars bad for our health

ANY lingering doubts about the dominance of the car in the fast-changing lifestyles of Irish people are well and truly scotched by the latest Census figures.

Commuting is now a fact of life and more than half of the 1.6 million workers in the State will drive to work today.

Car ownership has increased so dramatically, according to the CSO, that more than one million householders owned at least one car each in 2002, a one-third rise in a decade.