Walking, Wheeling and Cycling takes 530,000 cars off the road every day in the Dublin Metropolitan Area, according to the 2023 Walking and Cycling Index, published in partnership with Sustrans and the National Transport Authority.
Key Findings
Key findings from the Walking and Cycling Index include:
- 71% of adult residents walk 5 or more days a week, while 47% use car 5 or more days a week.
- 25% of adults cycle at least once a week.
- 72% of residents support building cycle tracks physically separated from traffic and pedestrians even where that means less room for other traffic.
- Every day those who walk and cycle takes nearly 530,000 cars off the road in the Dublin Metropolitan Area. If these cars were all in a traffic jam it would tail back 2,500 kilometres equivalent to over 9 times the distance from Dublin City to Cork City.
- Residents walking, wheeling and cycling create an annual economic benefit for individuals and the Dublin Metropolitan Area of €2.39 billion.
- Walking, wheeling and cycling in the Dublin Metropolitan Area saves the HSE €64.5 million equivalent to the cost of over 1,170,000 GP appointments.
- Those walking and cycling instead of driving, save greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to 1.69 million flights from Dublin Airport to London Heathrow Airport.
- There is a €1.48 net economic benefit for each km cycled instead of driven and €1.01 net economic benefit for each km walked instead of driven.
- Across the 23 city regions in the Index, the Dublin Metropolitan Area has one of the highest levels of residents walking, wheeling or cycling 5 days a week or more.
- There has been a large increase in older residents engaging in active travel – 74% of residents aged over 66 now walk or wheel at least 5 days a week, up from 54% in 2021, and 12% of residents aged over 66 cycle at least once a week, up from 10% in 2021.
The Walking and Cycling Index, the biggest assessment of cycling in urban areas in Ireland and the UK, is produced by sustainable transport charity Sustrans (www.sustrans.org.uk/walkingcyclingindex) in partnership with city authorities.
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.
Documents below.
- Walking and Cycling Index 23 Dublin Metropolitan Area (low resoultion, 2Mb)
- High resolution file attached below
- Walking and Cycling Index 2023 Dublin Metropolitan Area IRISH
Extra Background Documents below
- For a summary of the overall Walking and Cycling Index methodology see Data sources and methodologies.
- For details on the residents survey see the Survey Questionnaire
- The Shapefile for the mapping off all cycle infrastructure in the Dublin Metropolitan Area is available here: https://data.smartdublin.ie/dataset/dublin-metropolitan-area-existing-protected-cycle-infrastructure
- Sustrans Data Dashboard: Sustrans has interactive dashboards available that can be used to explore the data: https://www.sustrans.org.uk/the-walking-and-cycling-index/walking-and-cycling-index-data-tool
