National Travel Survey 2012 and 2013

Seven out of ten people (71%) made a journey on the travel reference day¹ in 2013. This represents a slight decrease on 2012. 

¹ The travel reference day is the day for which respondents provide information on their travel pattern.

The average journey distance in 2013 was 14.3 kilometres and on average took 22.1 minutes to complete. While journeys in Dublin tend to be shorter in distance, they take longer to complete. In 2013, it took almost sixty per cent longer to complete a trip of the same distance in Dublin than in the rest of the country.

The most common reasons for making a journey in 2013 were to travel to and from work (24.8%) or to go shopping (22.7%). Companion journeys were the next most important reason for making a journey (15.2%). It should be noted that the survey was answered by those aged 18 and over, hence the figures for education are likely to be lower than they would be if the survey had included all age groups. Return journeys, that is journeys back to the respondents place of residence after completing a journey for a specific purpose, are excluded from this journey purpose analysis.

The results show a strong affinity to the car when choosing a particular mode of transport. In 2013, almost three quarters (74.8%) chose the car, either as a driver or a passenger, when making a journey. Only 5.8% travelled as passengers with the vast majority (69.0%) driving themselves. The next most popular modal choice was walking (15.4%).

In 2013, the average journey was 14.3 kilometres and took 22.1 minutes to complete. There was a significant variation in the average journey profile across different transport modes. Journeys of a longer distance were more likely to be completed using public transport, car pooling or motorbike/lorry. Journeys by rail, DART or Luas had an average distance of 28.0 kilometres and took on average 44.9 minutes to complete.  The average distance for journeys as a car passenger was 25.1 kilometres while the average duration was 29.6 minutes.

Almost half of all journeys (46.5%) in 2013 took place between the hours of 13:00 and 18:59. Just over one fifth of all journeys (22.9%) were made between 13:00 and 15:59 while close to one quarter (23.6%) took place between 16:00 and 18:59. The method of data collection changed from a 24 hour format in 2012 to a 12 hour format in 2013. Consequently, caution should be applied when comparing the timing of journeys in 2012 and 2013. 

In 2013, the vast majority of journeys (84.2%) took 30 minutes or less to complete. Almost six out of every ten journeys (57.6%) took less than 15 minutes to complete. Just 15.8% of journeys took longer than 30 minutes.

Just over four out of every ten journeys (41.7%) involved distances of eight kilometres or more. Over one fifth of journeys (21.1%) were less than two kilometres.