Key findings

• Latest traffic counter data shows that the volume of cars on Irish roads increased consistently in the three weeks before Christmas but dropped off dramatically in the week commencing 27 December
• Car traffic volumes in the week commencing 20 December were just 13% lower in Dublin, and 13.8% lower in regional locations, compared to the same week last year
• Car volumes for the week commencing 27 December were 45.5% lower in Dublin and 45.1% lower in regional locations than the same week in 2019
• The volume of heavy goods vehicles (HGVs) on Irish roads in the week commencing 20 December 2020 was 33.1% higher in Dublin and 34.5% higher in regional locations than the comparable week last year
• There were eight more fatalities on Irish roads in 2020, an increase of 5.7%, compared with 2019
• The volume of petrol fuel excise clearances in the first eleven months of 2020 was 27.0% lower than January to November 2019
• The number of journeys taken by bus and rail, following the return to Level 5 restrictions on 24 December, is now 21.7% of the journeys taken at the start of the COVID-19 crisis
• Increase of 3.0% in the volume of cyclists in Dublin city during off-peak hours in December 2020 compared to December 2019
• There was a 12.4% decrease in the number of new private cars licensed in November compared with the same month last year
• COVID-19 continues to have a major impact on airport passenger numbers

Road Traffic Volumes

Source: Transport Infrastructure Ireland

Following the lifting of Level 5 restrictions in early December, car traffic volumes while still lower than last year grew in the first weeks of December. There was an increase of 8.9% in week beginning 6 December compared with previous week in Dublin sites. Regional sites also showed an increase of 9.3% in car traffic volumes in the same period. While there was a decrease in car traffic volumes in the week commencing 20 December compared with the previous week in both Dublin and regional sites of 15.4% and 14.6% respectively, overall traffic volumes were just 13% lower than the comparable week last year. However, the latest data available for the week commencing 27 December indicates that traffic volumes at the selected Dublin sites were down by 39.6% on the previous week, and volumes were 45.5% lower than the corresponding week in 2019.

The data, which is illustrated in figures 1 and 2, shows the impact of COVID-19 on traffic volumes since the beginning of March. In the weeks when restrictions were most stringent (from 29 March to 2 May) the volume of cars on the roads was more than 70% lower than in 2019. The volume of private cars for the week commencing 27 December was 45.1% lower in regional locations than the corresponding week in 2019. See table 1 and figure 1.

Table 2 and figures 3 and 4 provide an insight into HGV traffic volumes. The impact in HGV traffic due to COVID-19 restrictions has not been as pronounced as for cars. In the first three weeks of March, leading up to the severest restrictions, HGV traffic volumes in Dublin and in regional locations were higher than in 2019, although HGV traffic volume was decreasing in those weeks. Over the course of April and May, Dublin saw a greater decrease in HGV traffic than the selected regional locations. The year-on-year comparisons of HGV volumes for the weeks commencing 12 and 19 April 2020 are both affected by the timing of Easter (21 April 2019 and 12 April 2020).

HGV traffic volumes in 2020 have exceeded 2019 volumes since 21 June in Dublin and for 23 of the 28 weeks since 21 June in the case of the regions. Following the lifting of Level 5 restrictions in early December, HGV traffic volumes for week commencing 6 December were 11.9% higher in Dublin and 8.8% higher in regional sites compared with the same period last year. The volume of heavy goods vehicles (HGVs) on Irish roads in the week commencing 20 December 2020 was 33.1% higher in Dublin and 34.5% higher in regional locations than the comparable week in 2019.

Fuel excise clearances

Source: Office of the Revenue Commissioners

The Revenue Commissioners collect statistics on the volumes of fuel clearances covered by excise taxes. Clearances reflect the excise duties paid on oil removed from tax warehouses. Clearances data provide a proxy for sales and the associated level of consumption but do not reflect actual consumption per se. 

Excise clearances of unleaded petrol were 37.7% lower in November 2020 compared with November 2019 (see Figure 5). The figure for unleaded petrol of 53 million litres was the lowest excise clearance figure for the month of November in the 2000-2020 series reflecting: the impact of Covid-19; a change in the fuel type composition of licensed vehicles, and the move towards hybrid and electric vehicles.

The volume of excise clearances of autodiesel was 16.9% lower in November 2020 compared with November 2019 (see Figure 5). The cumulative total for autodiesel volumes for January to November 2020 was 14.9% lower than the equivalent period for 2019. See full release Fuel excise clearances November 2020.

Vehicles Licensed

Source: Department of Transport

In the first eleven months of this year, the number of new cars licensed was 83,277, a drop of 26.0% (29,299) when compared with the same period in 2019. The number of new hybrid and new electric cars licensed between January and November grew by 1,712 (15.8%) and 542 (16.4%) respectively despite an overall drop in new cars licensed for the period. There was an annual decrease of 12.4% in the number of new cars licensed in the month of November. See full release Vehicles licensed for the first time November 2020.

Road Fatalities

Source: Road Safety Authority

There were 148 road fatalities in 2020, an increase of 5.7% compared with 140 in 2019. Note: data is provisional.

Public Transport Volumes

Source: National Transport Authority

The number of passenger journeys on public transport has dropped dramatically since the start of the COVID-19 crisis and has fluctuated predictably with the recent changes in restrictions. Data relating to bus and rail journeys is presented in table 6 and figure 7.

The use of bus and rail services had fallen significantly since the introduction of Level 5 restrictions in Ireland on 22 October. However, there were consistent increases in passenger journeys across all public transport modes in the weeks leading up to Christmas following the easing of restrictions. The total number of bus and rail journeys taken during the week commencing 06 December was slightly over half (51.6%) of that taken in early March. The number of bus journeys outside of Dublin in the same week was 57.7% of pre COVID-19 levels. The corresponding level for bus journeys within Dublin is 54.1%. However, in the week immediately before Christmas and following the return to Level 5 restrictions from 24 December public transport passenger journeys have fallen once more. The latest data shows that for week commencing 27 December, the total number of rail and bus journeys is 21.7% of that taken in early March. The corresponding figure for bus journeys outside of Dublin is 23.2%

The data indicates that rail was the mode of transport that was most severely hit since the onset of the crisis. In the week commencing 05 April the number of journeys undertaken was 97.2% lower than it was in the first week of March of this year. The latest available data, for the week 27 December - 2 January, shows that the number of journeys by rail was 87.3% lower than pre COVID-19 levels. Rail data includes passenger journeys on Intercity and DART services. 

Data on Luas journeys taken is presented in table 7 and illustrated in figure 8. The data indicates that the impact of COVID-19 on the Luas red and green lines, while very similar, has been slightly greater on the green line. Data for week beginning 28 December shows that there were 76.5% fewer journeys taken on the green and red lines than in the corresponding week in 2019.

It is worth noting that the number of journeys taken on public transport is not recovering at the same rate as road traffic volumes. Rail continues to be the most severely affected mode of public transport.

Bicycle Counter Data

Source: Dublin City Council

Dublin City Council operate cycle counters at five locations across the city to aid traffic planning and gauge demand for cycling. The cycle counter automatically counts cyclists passing in both directions and relays information to Dublin City Council’s traffic control centre. Data from these counters is presented in table 8.

The data for peak hours shows a different pattern to that of the off-peak data. The volume of cyclists on weekdays between 7am to 10am and 4pm to 7pm decreased significantly when restrictions were most stringent. In April 2020 there was a drop of 75.6% in the volume of cyclists measured. Volumes are recovering slowly but data for December shows that volumes remain 44.9% lower than the same month last year.

The volume of cyclists during off-peak hours has remained close to or exceeded 2019 levels with the exception of the month of April, when there was a 40.1% drop compared to April 2019. Volumes for December were 3.0% higher than in the same month in 2019.

Aviation data

Source: Dublin, Cork, Shannon, Knock and Kerry airports.

Air passenger data shows a dramatic fall in passengers handled by Irish airports due to COVID-19 restrictions. Data on airport passengers is presented in table 9 and illustrated in figure 10. The number of passengers travelling through Dublin, Cork and Shannon and Knock airports in the first eleven months of 2020 is 77.4% lower than the same period last year.

The total number of passengers handled by those airports in November 2020 fell from 2,516,035 to 174,766, a drop of 93.1% when compared with the same period in 2019.  Data for Kerry and Knock airports was not available at the time of publication. 

For further COVID-19 related information go to the CSO COVID-19 Information Hub