Irish National Public Service Media
Meáin Náisiúnta Seirbhíse Poiblí na hÉireann
Since the government asked people to resume remote work last month, commute traffic has hardly decreased.
The Irish transport infrastructure has confirmed that the number of cars on the Irish road network is within 1% of the pre-pandemic level.
On November 11, the national public health emergency strongly recommended that government people work from home as much as possible, and employers supported this initiative.
A few days later, Taoiseach Micheál Martin announced a series of measures aimed at slowing the spread of Covid-19, including that people should work from home unless it is absolutely necessary for them to go to the workplace in person.
TTI Communications Manager Sean O'Neill said in RTÉ’s Irish Morning News: “Traffic has changed. During the full cycle of the day, our national network traffic has only dropped by about 1 compared to before the pandemic. %"level
More in-depth data from TII shows that between 7 am and 10 am—this is the time when many people go to work—the number of cars on the road has hardly changed, comparing the days before and after the government announced the resumption of remote work.
"Nationwide, the percentage range has dropped slightly, about 2-3%, but we still have a lot of traffic now. We haven't seen a big drop," Mr. O'Neill said.
"If you look at travel times, it is between 7 and 10 in the morning, that is the peak time in the morning, and those times are likely to be times when people are going to work," he added.
Yesterday, TII's national road car traffic report showed that there were 21,347 cars at junctions 6 and 7 on the M50 highway, compared with 23,453 on November 11.
At junctions 1 and 2 of the M50 motorway near Dublin Airport, a total of 18,848 cars were recorded yesterday, compared with 20,266 on November 11.
The report shows that compared with a week ago, the traffic volume in the morning has generally decreased, and compared with the traffic volume on the same day in 2020, it has increased significantly.
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Compared to Tuesday, November 23, the volume of car traffic on the Jonesboro N1 road south of the Northern Ireland border has changed by -4%, and by +42% compared to the same day in 2020.
In terms of non-highway border counter stations, compared with Tuesday, November 23, today's traffic volume changes between 0% and +11%.
Since the same day in 2020, car traffic has varied from +5% of N16 east of Manorhamilton to +31% of N15 south of Lifford.
TII said in a statement: “The traffic volume at counters N2, N3, N13, N15, and N16 is lower than that at highway traffic counters, and traffic data may fluctuate more than other traffic counters.”
Traffic volume on the radial route into Dublin
-2% M50 in M1 to Airport -3% N7 in Citywest -1% Bray in M11 -4% M4 in Celbridge-Maynooth.
Comparison with November 23, 2020: M1 at M50 to Airport +11% at M11 at Bray +11% at M4 at Celbridge-Maynooth +7% at Citywest’s N7.
M50 (N3 Navan Road to N4 Galway Road) changes -4% compared to Tuesday, November 23, and +4% compared to the same day in 2020. The count is affected.
In terms of regional cities, compared with Tuesday, November 23, the changes in car traffic this morning:
N6 Galway -5% N40 Cork -3% M9 Waterford -3% M7 Limerick -4%.
Comparison with the same day in 2020: N6 Galway -6% N40 Cork -7% M9 Waterford +4% M7 Limerick +10%.
Since the announcement of remote work, the number of passengers of public service transport operators-including Dublin Bus, Bus Éireann, Luas, Iarnród Éireann (Irish Railways), regional bus services and local connection services-has also seen a slight decline.
According to data from the National Transport Administration on November 11, 655,000 people used public transport across Ireland that day, compared with 637,000 last Thursday.
In Dublin City, there was a similar decline. Approximately 350,000 people used these transportation services last Thursday, compared with 369,000 on November 11.
Tim Gaston, director of public transportation services at the National Transportation Administration, said these numbers are not surprising.
"We have seen a slight decrease in the number of people using public transportation, and more office workers have not entered the office and worked from home, but the interesting thing is that people are still using public transportation to do many other things. We are almost as busy as we are on weekends. Many parts of the network are before Covid," Mr. Gaston said.
"Commuter services will be hit hardest. Irish Railways will be reduced by 10% or more in the past two weeks," he added.
NTA data also showed that the number of Luas passengers has declined. The number of people using Luas last Thursday was 96,704, and on November 11 it was about 107,236. Before the pandemic, the average number of passengers per day was approximately 120,000.
"The numbers have dropped. We noticed the slight difference between this time and a few weeks ago, when people apparently followed the work-from-home regulations.
However, although the decline is small, it is a change in the way people travel. Transdev spokesperson Dervla Brophy said it is no longer crowded during the morning peak hours as it used to be.
In the past two weeks, the number of commuters in Iarnród Éireann has dropped by about 10%. On November 11, it served 83,000 passengers, compared with 76,000 last Thursday.
Dublin Bus had 314,000 people using their buses last Thursday, compared to 331,000 on November 11.
In the first week of November, the number of passengers in the Dublin city centre was 2.3 million.
Last week's passenger flow was also 2.3 million.
The town of Dublin, which represents traders, said that this represents a decline in trade volume, because traffic should increase on Christmas Eve.
It has added more workers working remotely, which is affecting businesses in the city center.
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