National Travel Survey 2016

Over seven out of ten people (71.3%) made a journey on the travel reference day in 2016. This represents a slight increase on 2014. See Table 1.1(a). Nearly four fifths of persons living in the mid-West region took a trip on the travel reference day while nearly three quarters of Dubliners made a journey. See table 1.1 (b).

The average journey distance in 2016 was 14.7 kilometres and on average, took 23.6 minutes to complete. Average journey distance for persons living in Dublin has continued to get shorter, while average journey duration has got longer. The trend was similar in 2013 and 2014. In 2016, the average journey distance for Dubliners was 9.8 kilometres, while the average journey duration was 24.8 minutes. See table 1.2(a). Outside of Dublin, the Border region had the lowest average journey distance of 15.1 kilometres. The average journey duration in the Border region was 19.9 minutes. See table 1.2(b).

The most common reason for making a journey in 2016 was to travel to and from work (29.3%), an increase of over four percentage points compared with 2014. The next most common reason for making a journey was to go shopping (21.9%). Companion/escort journeys were the next most important reason for making a journey (15.2%). This follows the same trend as in 2013 and 2014. It should be noted that the survey was answered by those aged 18 years and over, hence the figures for education are likely to be lower than they would be if the survey had included all age groups. Return journeys, that is journeys back to the respondent's place of residence after completing a journey for a specific purpose, are excluded from this journey purpose analysis. See table 1.3 and figure 1.1.

The results show a strong affinity to the car when choosing a particular mode of transport. In 2016, almost three quarters of journeys (74.3%) were by car, either as driver or passenger. Only 4.9% were passenger car journeys with the vast majority (69.4%) as car driver. The next most popular modal choice was walking (14.6%). See table 1.4 and figure 1.2.

In 2016, the average journey was 14.7 kilometres and took 23.6 minutes to complete. There was a significant variation in the average journey profile across different transport modes. The average journey distance for public transport journeys (bus, rail, DART or LUAS) has decreased when compared with 2014. The average journey distance on rail public transport (rail, DART or LUAS) was 30.4 kilometres compared with 32.6 kilometres in 2014. The average distance for bus journeys has also decreased from 17.2 kilometres in 2014 to 13.4 kilometres in 2016. In 2016, the average distance for journeys as a car passenger was 26.1 kilometres while the average duration was 31.3 minutes. See table 1.5 and figure 1.3.

Almost half of all journeys (46.2%) in 2016 took place between the hours of 13:00 and 18:59. Just over one fifth of all journeys (22.2%) were made between 13:00 and 15:59 while close to one quarter (24.0%) took place between 16:00 and 18:59. See table 1.6 and figure 1.4.

In 2016, the vast majority of journeys (82.1%) took 30 minutes or less to complete. Over half of all journeys (52.9%) took 15 minutes or less to complete. Just 17.9% of journeys took longer than 30 minutes while just over 4% of journeys were longer than one hour in duration. This follows the same pattern as in 2013 and 2014. See table 1.7 and figure 1.5.

Just over four out of every ten journeys (43.3%) involved distances of eight kilometres or more. Over one quarter of journeys (25.5%) were less than two kilometres. This figure is slightly down on 2013 and 2014. See table 1.8 and figure 1.6.