Key findings

• The latest counter data shows that car traffic volumes have been increasing slowly throughout January, though remain at a low level following the move to Level 5 restrictions on 27 December. Overall, car volumes for the week commencing 24 January 2021 were still 55.2% lower in regional locations and 53.0% lower in Dublin than the same week in 2020
• The volume of heavy goods vehicles (HGVs) have dropped in both Dublin and regional locations since week commencing 27 December when compared to same periods in the previous year
• There were six fatalities on Irish roads in January 2021 compared to nine in January 2020
• The volume of petrol fuel excise clearances in 2020 was 25.9% lower than 2019
• The number of journeys taken by bus and rail, following recent restrictions is now 21.6% of the 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 3.0% in the volume of cyclists in Dublin city during off-peak hours in December 2020 compared to December 2019
• There was a 25.6% decrease in the number of new private cars licensed in 2020 compared with 2019
• COVID-19 continues to have a major impact on airport passenger numbers

Road Traffic Volumes

Source: Transport Infrastructure Ireland

Following the re-introduction of Level 5 restrictions on 27 December, car traffic volumes dropped significantly but have been growing slowly over the last few weeks of January. In week commencing 24 January, there was an increase in car traffic volumes compared to the previous week for both Dublin and regional sites of 1.6% and 2.5% respectively. The latest data shows that car traffic volumes were 53.0% lower in Dublin than the same week in 2020.

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 24 January was 55.2% lower in regional locations than the corresponding week in 2020. See table 1 and figure 1.

The impact on HGV traffic of COVID-19 restrictions has not been as pronounced as for cars. In general, from June 2020 onwards HGV traffic volumes exceeded 2019 levels, particularly in the lead-up to Christmas. However, since the beginning of the year HGV traffic volumes in both regional and Dublin locations have remained below January 2020 levels. In week beginning 03 January, HGV volumes were 5.1% lower in Dublin 1.8% lower in regional locations compared to the same period in 2020. For the latest data available, for week beginning 24 January, HGV traffic volumes are 15.9% lower in Dublin and 6.9% lower in regional sites. Table 2 and figures 3 and 4 provide an insight into HGV traffic volumes.

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).

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. 

Clearances of unleaded petrol in December 2020 were 37.2% higher than the level in November 2020 indicating a very substantial increase in car traffic by households (see Table 3 and Figure 5). In previous years the differences between November and December for petrol clearances were relatively small varying from a decrease of 1.4% in 2017 and 2018 to a decrease of 1.7% in 2019.

There was an increase of 9.0% in clearances of autodiesel in December compared with November. This increase was in sharp contrast to the decrease of 7.2% between November and December 2019. Excise clearances of autodiesel began the year 2020 with an increase on 2019 for January and February. With restrictions being introduced in March as a result of the COVID crisis, diesel clearances saw a fall of 55.3% in April, with 139 million litres being the lowest monthly excise clearance figure in the 2000-2020 series for that month. There was a steady recovery over summer until October and November where clearances fell to as low as -16.9%. December 2020 has seen a significant recovery back to 286 million litres, on par with previous years.

The annual total for unleaded petrol volumes for 2020 was 26% lower than that of 2019. The annual volume of 773 million litres was the lowest excise clearance figure for unleaded petrol 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 annual volume of autodiesel was around 3.2 billion litres in 2020, a decrease of 13.9% on 2019 volumes. See full release Fuel excise clearances December 2020.

Vehicles Licensed

Source: Department of Transport

In 2020, 84,309 new private cars were licensed for the first time, a decrease of 25.6% compared with the previous year. The number of used (imported) private cars licensed fell by 27.9% to 78,541 in 2020 compared with 108,895 in 2019. Overall 162,850 new and used private cars were licensed in 2020. The number of new hybrid and new electric cars licensed between January and December grew by 1,754 (16.1%) and 497 (14.4%) respectively despite an overall drop in new cars licensed for the period.  There was an annual increase of 41.6% in the number of new cars licensed in the month of December. See Vehicles licensed for the first time December and Year 2020.

Road Fatalities

Source: Road Safety Authority

There were six fatalities on Irish roads in January 2021 compared with nine in January 2020.

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. 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 re-introduction of Level 5 restrictions in Ireland on 27 December. The total number of bus and rail journeys taken during the week commencing 10 January was slightly over one-fifth (21.2%) of those taken in early March. The number of bus journeys outside of Dublin in the same week was 23.8% of pre COVID-19 levels. The corresponding level for bus journeys within Dublin is 23.5% of pre-COVID levels. The latest data shows that for week commencing 24 January, the total number of rail and bus journeys is 21.6% of those taken in early March. The corresponding figure for bus journeys outside of Dublin is a quarter (24.8%) of those taken in early March.

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, 24 January – 30 January the number of journeys by rail was 89.1% 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 the week beginning 25 January demonstrates that there were 86.7% fewer journeys taken on the green line and 81.7% fewer journeys taken on the red line than in the corresponding week in 2020.

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 during peak hours. Volumes had been recovering slowly but data for January shows that cycle volumes have now fallen back below April 2019 levels and are now 76.3% lower than January 2020.

The volume of cyclists during off-peak hours has remained close to or exceeded 2019 levels except for the month of April, when there was a 40.1% drop compared to April 2019. However, volumes for January 2021 now show a 27.0% drop compared to the same month last year.

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, Shannon, Knock and Kerry airports in 2020 is 78.2% lower than 2019.

The total number of passengers handled by those airports in December 2020 fell from 2,621,325 to 295,137, a drop of 88.7% when compared with the same period in 2019. However, the number of passengers travelling through Dublin airport in December 2020 was up by 114,482, an increase of almost 70% on the previous month.

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