The Central Statistics Office released a National Travel Survey at the end of July, as part of their Quarterly National Household Survey. This survey is one of the most comprehensive household studies of travel patterns and transport in the Republic of Ireland.
The results of the Travel Survey show that Irish adults are spending a lot of their time out of home.
o Irish adults take on average 2.4 trips per day
o Each trip is on average 13km long
o Each trip takes on average 24 minutes
o Average speed 27kmph
Per week an Irish adult will make 17 journeys – each journey is an opportunity to see multiple outdoor advertising formats. 35-44’s take the most trips per week (20 trips per week) followed by 45-54’s (19 trips per week) and 25-34’s (18 trips per week).
Adults living outside Dublin travel further each week than Dublin adults, but they spend less time travelling per week. This is one reason why large format billboards perform so strongly in terms of audience reach outside of city areas. There is significant difference in speeds amongst urban and rural commuters. During the rush hour periods of 8-9am and 5-6pm there was a 90% difference in the speed at which urban and rural respondents travel.
8-9am average speed
Urban: 20kmph | Rural: 38kmph
5-6pm average speed
Urban: 22kmph | Rural: 42kmph
Work related journeys account for 25% of all trips made by Irish adults with shopping/food/drink accounting for 23%.
These trips, whether longer in distance travelled in rural areas and longer in journey time in urban areas is good news for outdoor advertising – every day Irish adults are on the move and exposed to roadside, retail, travel and transport formats.
For more information on the National Travel Survey, visit www.cso.ie