Walking and Cycling takes 680,000 cars off the road every day in Ireland’s five biggest cities, according to the 2023 Walking and Cycling Index, published in partnership with Sustrans and the National Transport Authority. The report has been launched across the five cities by the various local authorities involved in the publications.
Key findings from the Walking and Cycling Index
Key findings from the Walking and Cycling Index include:
- In all the Metropolitan Areas in the state, more than half of adults walk five or more days a week, while at least 15% cycle once a week, while approximately one in two residents want to walk or wheel more, and approximately a third would like to cycle more
- There is a high level of support for more government spending on walking and wheeling, ranging from 74% in the Dublin Metropolitan Area to 68% in the Waterford Metropolitan Area
- There is a similar level of support for spending on cycling noted, ranging from 77% to 61%, this contrasts with support for more government spending on driving, ranging from 40% to 24% across the 5 Metropolitan areas
- Each year people walking, wheeling, and cycling in our Metropolitan Areas when they could have driven, prevents a total of 5,844 serious long-term health conditions, the cost saving to the HSE is equivalent to 1,600,000 GP appointments.
- The annual economic benefit from people walking, wheeling and cycling to individuals and society in the five Metropolitan Areas each year is over €3bn.
- The report also found that walking, wheeling and cycling saved a total of 160,000 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions across the 5 Metropolitan Areas, equivalent to 2,200,000 flights from Dublin to London.
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 five Metropolitan Areas, whether they cycled or not.
Reports can be downloaded for each region
Reports can be downloaded via the links to each Walking and Cycling Index Report below.
Link to subpages here for
- Dublin Metropolitan Area
- Cork Metropolitan Area
- Limerick Shannon Metropolitan Area
- Galway Metropolitan Area
- Waterford Metropolitan Area
Background Documents
- For a summary of the overall Walking and Cycling Index methodology see Data Sources and Methodologies
- For details on the residents survey see Survey Questionnaire
- 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
Links back to 2021 report and 2019 report