The number cycling to work across Ireland is now at a level last seen in 1986, according to the latest census.
While the number of primary aged children getting to school by bike has almost doubled since 2016.
The uptick in active travel has been welcomed by Transport Minister Eamon Ryan and active travel group, Dublin Commuter Coalition.
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Minister for Transport, Eamon Ryan said: "It's great to see the increase in active travel in the latest census for 2022. It’s particularly encouraging to see the increase in the number of school children commuting by bike – 88% more primary school children and 79% more secondary school students since 2016.
"I'm also interested to see that numbers commuting by bike to work is back to 1986 levels – it’s evident every day with the numbers of cyclists.
"Making it easier and safer for people to choose to cycle or walk is a key priority for this Government and we are allocating a million Euro a day - €360m a year – to put in the cycling and pedestrian infrastructure to make this happen.
"These census results also indicate that what we are doing is liked and supported by people. People are voting with their feet and their wheels every day. This is good for people’s health and wellbeing. It is good for our towns and cities – every walker or cyclist is a car less on our roads. And it is good for the environment."
In 2016 just 7,326 primary kids rode their bikes to school, but last year it reached 13,752.
The rise in cycling to primary school hasn’t quite reached 1991 levels (22,407) but the figures have been growing since 2006 when they were at 4,087.
Dublin Commuter Coalition chairperson and Green Party candidate in the 2024 council elections, Feljin Jose said: “We’re delighted to see that the number of kids cycling to school has almost doubled between 2016 and 2022.
“This is likely the result of the modest improvements in safe cycling infrastructure across Ireland in that period.
“Unfortunately, we’re still nowhere near the levels of the 1980s when most children safely walked or cycled to school.
“This hugely positive increase between 2016 and 2022 shows that, with continued priority and investment given to active travel, we could return to the same levels of children walking and cycling to school that we once had.”
Numbers of children walking to school have also risen gradually from 109,053 in 2006 to 133,314 last year.
Older school children, college and university kids are also taking the train, Luas or Dart in greater numbers while bus journeys have remained pretty steady in every group but workers, which has risen.
But there was some bad news on the commuter front as cars numbers were also up.
The numbers going to work by car have grown dramatically from 1986, when just over 400,000 drove. In 2022 it had reached almost 1.2 million - up around 50,000 from 2016.
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