Just 1.5% of commuters using public transport

THE latest Census figures show that just 1.5% of commuters in Sligo use public transport.

This can be an indication of the lack of public transport available in the county or the fact commuters just prefer to drive themselves.

The majority of working commuters in Sligo travel by car. Some 17,687 people living and working in County Sligo (73.5%) travelled to work by car, compared to 65.6% of commuters nationally.

While 9.3% of working commuters nationally used public transport, just 1.5% of those in Sligo did so. A further 1.3% cycled, while 8.7 % walked.

Commuters in Sligo had an average travel time of 22.1 minutes, compared to 21.7 minutes in 2011. Just under one in three Sligo commuters (32.0%) were travelling for less than 15 minutes, compared to 32.5% in Census 2011. Nationally, 22.9% of commuters had a commute of under 15 minutes. In April 2016, 5.2% of commuters in the county spent an hour or more travelling compared to 4.9% in 2011, while 2.0% had a commute of over 90 minutes, the same as five years previously.

There were 17,344 Sligo residents working in the county, while 3,730 people commuted into the county for work. A fur- ther 3,203 people commuted to work outside the county, giving a net gain of 527 in the working population. Among primary school children in Sligo, 65.0% travelled to school by car, while 14.7 % (1,068) walked. The percentage travelling by bus fell to 15.6% from 19.8% in 2011, while 0.7 % of students cycled to school.

The number of secondary school children walking to school fell by 140 to 583, accounting for 11.9% of secondary students, while 55.4% went to school by car, compared to 50.5% in 2011. Almost three in 10 (28.6%) travelled by bus, while 0.7 % cycled to school.