Traffic levels almost back to pre-pandemic levels
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Motorists' relief from the 8am and 5pm slog during the covid-19 pandemic years has proved to be only temporary, as traffic levels have nearly caught back up to where they were four years ago.
New data from the Central Statistics Office (CSO) in conjunction with Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII) show that by the middle of 2022, traffic levels were nearly the same as they were before the pandemic began, before tailing off slightly in the last third of the year compared to four years ago.
Unsurprisingly, being in your car or on the bus at 8am and 5pm was the worst time to get caught up in traffic, while at the weekends, congestion was heaviest around 1pm.
Just under 4.9 million vehicles were recorded at traffic monitoring units around the country in the first week of 2019, compared to just under 4.5 million in 2022.
Those levels gradually increased week by week in both years, with more than 6.3 million recorded weekly around the halfway point of 2019, compared to 5.9 million at the same point last year.
Levels were almost equal in both years for the next six weeks before 2022 weekly traffic dropped off compared in the last third of the year compared to four years ago, the data show.
The morning rush began in earnest around 7am before peaking at 8am in both pre-pandemic and post-pandemic years, while the evening grind got going around 3pm before peaking at 5pm and tailing off after 7pm.
The data is backed up by real-time findings from GPS firm TomTom, which currently ranks Cork at 154th in the world's most congested cities.
According to TomTom's data, it took nearly 16 minutes on average to drive 10 kilometres in Cork in 2022, up nearly a minute from 2021.
September 29 was the worst day of the year for traffic in Cork, when it took drivers more than 20 minutes on average to go 10 kilometres.
Some 146 hours were spent commuting by the average user, with 55 of those stuck in congested traffic, and nearly 900kgs of carbon emitted - almost 180kgs of that while the car is idling in jams.
When it comes to fuel used in daily commutes, Cork drivers spent more than €650 overall, but €131 of that was used while sitting in congestion, according to TomTom's calculations.
Dublin was third worst in the world in 2022, the data suggest. Nearly half an hour was spent just to drive 10km, up almost two minutes from 2021.