Cycling in the Dublin Metropolitan Area takes up to 60,000 cars off the road every day, according to new research in the ‘Bike Life’ report published today in partnership with Sustrans and the National Transport Authority. The report was launched in Dublin today by Minister for Transport Eamon Ryan and Minister of State Hildegarde Naughton.
Key findings from Bike Life Dublin include:
- Nearly a quarter of adults cycle at least once a week in the Dublin metropolitan area, with 11% cycling five days a week or more
- 21% of adults don’t currently cycle but would like to
- Residents want segregated cycling infrastructure to cycle more
- 70% would find more traffic-free cycle routes away from roads, e.g. through parks or along waterways useful to help them cycle more
- 69% would find more cycle tracks along roads, physically separated from traffic and pedestrians useful to help them cycle more
- 84% of residents also support building more physically separated on-road cycle tracks, even when this would mean less space for other road traffic
- Cycling in the Dublin area takes up to 60,000 cars off the roads each day
- Every year cycling in Dublin saves 28,000 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions, equivalent to carbon footprint of 400,000 people taking flights from Dublin to London Heathrow
- Cycling creates €258.5 million in economic benefits for the individual and society annually
The Bike Life survey, the biggest assessment of cycling in urban areas in Ireland and the UK, is produced by sustainable transport charity Sustrans (www.sustrans.org.uk/bikelifedublinmetropolitanarea) in partnership with city authorities.
This is the first report outside of the UK and in partnership with the National Transport Authority (NTA) of Ireland.
The information in the report comes from local cycling data, modelling and an independent, demographically representative survey of more than 1,100 residents from across the Dublin Metropolitan Area, whether they cycled or not.
Background Documents:
For summary of the overall Bike Life methodology see Data Sources and Methodologies.
For details on the residents survey see Survey Methodology Bike Life Technical Report.
For details on methodology of health impacts and the savings to the HSE see Adapting Sport England Moves Model to Ireland Summary Report.
For details on the monetised benefits of cycling see Societal Gain Model Bike Life Technical Report.
Cross Tabulations for each question by demographics available here.
Data Sheet behind the Report
All the data behind the report is tabulated in Dublin City Data Sheet 2019 v3.0xlsx.
Mapping
Dublin_BikeLife_20200206.zip contains the shapefiles for the mapping used to compile different lengths of different types of cycling infrastructure
NTA_BikeLife_Categorisation Methodology.pdf is the methodology used to create the map
BikeLife_Attributes_20200206.docx explains how the different types of cycling infrastructure are represented on the map