Key findings

• Traffic counter data shows that traffic volumes for the week commencing 30 August were 15.7% lower in regional locations and 18.9% lower in Dublin than the same week in 2019
• The volume of heavy goods vehicles (HGVs) in 2020 have exceeded 2019 volumes since June in Dublin and for nine of the last 11 weeks at regional locations
• There have been 13 more fatalities on Irish roads in the first eight months of 2020 compared to the same period in 2019
• The number of journeys taken by bus and rail, although increasing, remains more than 50% lower than journeys taken at the start of the COVID-19 crisis
• The pace of recovery of road traffic volumes for cars and HGVs to pre COVID-19 levels continues to outstrip that of public transport passenger numbers
• Increase of 9.4% in the volume of cyclists in Dublin city during off-peak hours in August 2020 compared to August 2019
• August is the first month since COVID-19 restrictions that the number of new cars licensed increased year-on-year
• COVID-19 continues to have a major impact on airport passenger numbers

Road Traffic Volumes

Source: Transport Infrastructure Ireland

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 data indicates that COVID-19 restrictions had a very similar impact on traffic volumes in Dublin and in regional locations. See table 1 and figure 1.

The latest car traffic data available, for the week beginning 30 August, indicates that the gradual recovery in traffic volumes seen since mid-April has continued. The volume of private cars for the week commencing 30 August was 15.7% lower in regional locations and 18.9% lower in Dublin than the corresponding week in 2019.

Table 2 and figures 3 and 4 provide an insight into HGV traffic volumes. The decrease in HGV traffic due to COVID-19 restrictions was not 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 nine of the eleven weeks since 21 June in the case of the regions. The rate of increase has slowed over the course of the last four weeks with HGV traffic up 0.5% in regional locations and up 1.4% in Dublin for the week commencing 30 August compared with the same period in 2019.

Vehicles Licensed

Source: Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport

In the first eight months of this year, the number of new cars licensed was 71,873, a drop of 30.6% (31,709) when compared with the same period in 2019. The number of hybrid cars sold in the period January - August 2020 increased by 8.2% despite this overall drop. There was an annual increase of 2.2% in the number of new cars licensed in the month of August. See Vehicles licensed for the first time August 2020.

Road Fatalities

Source: Road Safety Authority

There were 99 road fatalities in the first eight months of 2020. This compares with 86 for the same period last year.

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. Data relating to bus and rail journeys is presented in table 5 and figure 6.

The use of bus and rail services is continuing to grow but remains significantly affected by the COVID-19 crisis. The total number of bus and rail journeys taken during the week commencing 30 August was less than half (49.1%) of that taken in early March. The number of Bus journeys outside of Dublin now stands at 54.6% of pre COVID-19 levels. The corresponding level for bus journeys within Dublin is 50.6%

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. For the latest week under consideration, 30 August - 5 September the number of journeys by rail was 61.2% 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 6 and illustrated in figure 7. 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.

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 7.

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 79.8% in the volume of cyclists measured. Volumes are recovering slowly but data for August shows that volumes remain 63.2% 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 40.7% drop compared to April 2019. Volumes for the months of June 2020 and August 2020 were 9.5% and 9.4% higher than the same months 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 8 and illustrated in figure 9. The number of passengers travelling through Dublin, Cork and Shannon airports in the first seven months of 2020 is 70.3% lower than the same period last year.

The total number of passengers handled by those airports in July 2020 fell from 3,911,133 to 416,436, a drop of 89.4% when compared with the same period in 2019.  Data for Knock and Kerry airports was not yet available at the time of publication.

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