Key findings

• Traffic counter data shows that traffic volumes for the week commencing 22 November were 39.6% lower in regional locations and 36.7% 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 21 of the last 23 weeks at regional locations
• There were 11 more fatalities on Irish roads in the first eleven months of 2020 compared to the same period in 2019
• The volume of autodiesel fuel excise clearances in the first ten months of 2020 was 14.7% lower than January - October 2019
• The number of journeys taken by bus and rail, following recent restrictions is now 36.8% 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 1.4% in the volume of cyclists in Dublin city during off-peak hours in November 2020 compared to November 2019
• There was a 30.3% increase in the number of new private cars licensed in October 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

This is the second edition of the Transport Bulletin since the introduction of Level 5 COVID-19 restrictions in Ireland on 22 October. While car traffic volumes initially dropped sharply in the first week of Level 5 restrictions compared to the previous week (Dublin sites -22.3%, Regional sites -25.5%), in the subsequent four weeks they have grown consistently. The latest data available for the week commencing 22 November indicated that traffic volumes at the selected Dublin sites were up 2.9% on the previous week, although volumes remained 36.7% 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 22 November was 39.6% 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 twenty one of the twenty three weeks since 21 June in the case of the regions. Despite the introduction of level 5 restrictions, in the week commencing 22 November, HGV traffic was up 4.5% in regional locations and up 11.2% in Dublin compared with the same period 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 28.7% lower in October 2020 compared with October 2019 (see Figure 5). The figure for unleaded petrol of 62 million litres was the lowest excise clearance figure for the month of October 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 13.2% lower in October 2020 compared with October 2019 (see Figure 5). The cumulative total for autodiesel volumes for January to October 2020 was 14.7% lower than the equivalent period for 2019. See full release Fuel excise clearances October 2020.

Vehicles Licensed

Source: Department of Transport

In the first ten months of this year, the number of new cars licensed was 81,809, a drop of 26.2% (29,091) when compared with the same period in 2019. The number of new hybrid and new electric cars licensed between January and October grew by 1,644 (15.3%) and 625 (20.0%) respectively despite an overall drop in new cars licensed for the period. There was an annual increase of 30.3% in the number of new cars licensed in the month of October. See Vehicles licensed for the first time October 2020.

Road Fatalities

Source: Road Safety Authority

There were 136 road fatalities in the first eleven months of 2020. This compares with 125 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 6 and figure 7.

The use of bus and rail services has fallen significantly since the introduction of Level 5 restrictions in Ireland on 22 October. The total number of bus and rail journeys taken during the week commencing 22 November was over one third (36.8%) of that taken in early March. The number of Bus journeys outside of Dublin now stands at 40.4% of pre COVID-19 levels. The corresponding level for bus journeys within Dublin is 39.7%.

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, 22 November - 28 November the number of journeys by rail was 76.9% 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 23 November demonstrates that there were 77.9% and 75.4% fewer journeys taken on the green and red lines respectively than in the corresponding week in 2019.

There has been an increase in the use of all public transport in the last two weeks of November compared to the first two weeks of the month. 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 November shows that volumes remain 52.6% 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 November were 1.4% 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, Shannon and Knock airports in the first ten months of 2020 is 76.2% lower than the same period last year.

The total number of passengers handled by those airports in October 2020 fell from 3,291,396 to 283,254, a drop of 91.4% when compared with the same period in 2019.  Data for Kerry airport was not available at the time of publication. 

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