Vast majority of cars on Cork city's roads have just a single passenger  

Sustainable travel in Cork city has improved since last year, but cars still dominate with 90% of them having just one passenger — so that thousands more vehicles are on the road than need be.

The National Transport Authority’s (NTA) Cork city cordon 2024 initiative undertook surveys at key locations to determine the inbound traffic past the line designated the Cork city cordon during key traffic periods on a typical weekday.

Vehicle-occupancy surveys were undertaken at 13 sites, and bus-occupancy surveys at 12 stops, to determine numbers, occupancy, and frequency.

The total number of vehicles, pedestrians, and cyclists that crossed the Cork cordon inbound was 169,772 in the 24-hour period of the survey. 

Increase

Overall, 22% of people travelling towards the city between 7am and 7pm used sustainable modes of travel: Bikes, pedestrian, bus, and rail. This marks an increase from the previous year, with the amount of people travelling by bus going up 18%, while the number travelling by car decreased 1%.

However, cars still dominated: Overall, 76% of people travelled by car and 17% by bus, with smaller amounts travelling on foot, by taxi, and by train.

In terms of vehicle occupancy, 88% of cars crossing the cordon inbound had single occupancy during the morning and 90% during the evening, and 1% had more than two passengers across the day. Some 52% of taxis recorded single occupancy or driver only. 

While buses had far more than one or two people on them, there was still a considerable amount of unused capacity — with buses only half full on average. Overall, people’s movements across all modes increased by 1% between 2023 and 2024, and sustainable travel increased from 20% in 2023 to 22% in 2024.

However, an additional 35,000 people could have been accommodated on buses already running. Nearly 115,000 cars could be taken off the road if each had five passengers.

Stark

Labour’s Peter Horgan, chair of Cork City Council’s transport committee, said increased confidence in our public transport options was drastically needed

“The fact that 115,000 cars could have been taken off the road is stark,” Mr Horgan said.

“We need the regularity promised under BusConnects to be realised to entice would-be commuters to leave the car at home some days and to retain the commuters we have. If a person has a positive experience on public transport, they are far more likely to use it again. We have to rebuild confidence once more.

“That can only be done by ensuring buses show up.”