In Census 2022, individuals were asked how many cars or vans were owned by, or available for use by, any member of their household. For cohesion across the text ‘with a car’ and ‘without a car’ will be used throughout this chapter to refer to whether a car or van was available for use by any member of the household. Cases where car or van availability was not stated are excluded from this analysis.
Data on distance to Transport Services by use of a car is available on PxStat by CSO Local Electoral Area, Administrative County, County, NUTS-3 Region, Type of Urban and Rural Area, and HSE Health Regions (and nested HSE geographies). The statistics in this chapter relate to individuals, not households. See Background Notes for more details.
Similar to the findings in Measuring Distance to Services in Ireland 2026 - Health Services, individuals with a car lived farther from services than those without a car.
Individuals with a car lived more than twice as far from ‘Rail Stops’ than those without a car, with median distances of 6.6 km and 2.6 km, respectively. A similar difference was evident for ‘High Frequency Rail Stops’, where the median distance was 6.9 km for individuals with a car, compared with 2.7 km for those without a car.
The median distance to ‘Bus Stops’ was 0.6 km for individuals with a car, compared with 0.3 km for those without a car. A similar pattern was observed for ‘High Frequency Bus Stops’, where the median distance was 0.9 km for individuals with a car and 0.3 km for those without a car.
The median distance to ‘Fuel Stations’ was 1.5 km for individuals with a car, and 1.0 km for individuals without a car.
In the Local Electoral Area (LEA) of Carrick-on-Shannon, County Leitrim, one in four individuals with a car lived more than 12.0 km from 'Fuel Stations'. Similarly, in the LEA of Manorhamilton in Leitrim, one in four individuals were at least 11.9 km from ‘Fuel Stations’.
For ‘All High Frequency Stops’, Kilrush in County Clare exhibited the largest difference in median distance by car use. Individuals living in households with a car had a median distance of 12.3 km to a public transport stop served over 10 times between 6 am and 8 pm midweek, compared with 1.1 km for those without a car. Carrick-on-Suir in County Tipperary had the second-largest difference, with a median distance of 10.0 km for individuals with a car compared with 1.1 km for those without a car.
In Tramore-Waterford City West, the median distance to ‘Bike Share Stations excl. Dockless Bikes’ was 9.5 km for individuals with a car, compared with 1.0 km for those without a car. Across six LEAs, 75% of individuals without a car were located within 1.0 km of one of these public bike sharing networks. These were South East Inner City (0.3 km), North Inner City (0.5 km) and South West Inner City (0.8 km) in Dublin; Cork City South Central (0.9 km); Waterford City South (0.9 km); and Galway City Central (1.0 km). In a further four LEAs, 75% of individuals without a car were located within 2.0 km of a public bike sharing service: Limerick City North (1.3 km), Waterford City East (1.7 km), Cabra-Glasnevin in Dublin (1.9 km), and Limerick City West (2.0 km).
The difference in median distance to 'All Public Transport Stops' by use of a car was particularly pronounced in ‘Highly rural / remote Areas’. Individuals without a car had a median distance of 0.7 km to the nearest stop, compared with 2.2 km for those with a car, meaning that the median distance for individuals with access to a car within the household was more than three times greater. In ‘Rural areas with moderate urban influence’, median distances to ‘All Public Transport Stops’ was 1.2 km for those with no car, compared with 2.6 km for those with a car.
The shortest median distances to ‘Fuel Stations’ for individuals with a car were observed in ‘Independent Urban Towns’ (0.9 km), ‘Cities’ (1.1 km), and ‘Satellite urban towns’ (1.2 km). In contrast, median distances were substantially higher in rural areas, ranging from 4.0 km in ‘Rural Areas with High Urban Influence’ to 4.8 km in ‘Highly rural / remote areas’ (see Figure 7.2).
The largest difference in distance to transport services between individuals with and without access to a car, at Administrative County level, was observed for rail services. In Waterford, individuals with access to a car had a median distance of 14.6 km to ‘High Frequency Rail Stops’, compared with 4.1 km for those without access to a car. A similarly large disparity was observed in Kerry, where the median distance to ‘Rail Stops’ and ‘High Frequency Rail Stops’ was 12.7 km for individuals with access to a car, compared with 2.4 km for those without access to a car, a difference of more than 10.0 km. In Kilkenny, individuals with a car lived over seven times farther from ‘All High Frequency Stops’ than individuals without a car (4.5 km vs. 0.6 km).
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