Traffic volumes on most Irish roads have risen significantly in the last week as children begin to return to school, new figures from Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII) shows.
Figures for the morning rush hour, between 7am and 10am, reveal traffic is up by between 4 and 16 per cent on the busiest routes in the country in comparison with the previous Monday.
However, Junction 20 of the M1, which is near the Border, experienced a 14 per cent decrease in traffic when compared to the previous week. TII said this is an “outlier” in that it is the only traffic counter to record a drop this morning.
"This is attributable to the fact that today is a Bank Holiday in the United Kingdom, " it said.
The M9 saw the highest weekly increase of traffic at 16 per cent, with a total of 1,752 cars on the road on Monday morning, followed by the M7 between Junction 29 and 30 in Co Limerick, which saw a 14 per cent increase.
TII said in the case of regional cities, the increase in car traffic volumes “represent(s) substantially higher growth rates than on the Dublin radial approaches”.
Other regional roads with increased car traffic includes the N40 Cork, which had a 12 per cent rise, and the N6 Bóthar na dTreabh Galway, which saw an eight per cent increase.
Car traffic volumes on the radial routes into Dublin are consistently up when compared with Monday of last week, TII said.
Car traffic is up five per cent on the M1 at Swords to the Airport, six per cent on the M4 at Celbridge-Maynooth, seven per cent on the N7 at Citywest and eight per cent on the M11 at Bray.
The M50 (N3 Navan Road to N4 Galway Road) shows a four per cent increase as compared with Monday, August 24th. This is broadly consistent with the growth rates recorded today on the radial approach routes, TII added.
The M50 was the busiest road on Monday morning, with 18,425 cars on the road, while the M1 near Dublin Airport and Swords had 14,372 car journeys.
However, traffic volumes still remain considerably lower than during the same period last year, with traffic on the same morning in 2019 being between 11 and 32 per cent higher than this year.
The M50 has the highest decrease – 32 per cent – when compared with the same day last year, followed by the N7 at Citywest, which was down 27 per cent at 13,500 car journeys.
The TII said that in the initial three weeks following the introduction of the March 27th restrictions, traffic volumes were very consistent at around 65-70 per cent less than pre-Covid times.
However, it added that since Tuesday, April 21st an upward trend in car traffic volumes became apparent as restrictions lift and society restarts.
