To better understand how people commute in Northern Ireland, I want to conduct some general research on transport. My primary aim for this is to uncover trends in travel methods and understand the main reasons why people are traveling.
I thought the best place to start was Translink’s Annual transport reports. These reports highlights a lot of different statistic on the usage of transport in the local area. The break down the different methods in which people commute to work, the split between usage in rural and urban areas, average distance travelled by certain transportation and the main reasons people travel.
From the 2017-2019 report, we can see that 71% of journeys were made using personal transport. This places is at the top of the list for the most used mode of transport in the country. The same pattern can be seen in the 2020 report were personal transport is also used the most.
We can see from these two reports that trains and buses are not widely used in Northern Ireland with only 5% from 2017-2019 and only 3% in 2020.
From 2017-2019 we can see that the main reason people travel is for leisure and other, and the same in 2020. from 2017-2019 20% of people travelled for work and business which dropped in 2020 to 16%, evidently due to the start of the COVID-19 Pandemic.
From 2017-2019 we can see that 17% of people travelled for shopping and in 2020 this was 18%.
The main mode of transport in Northern Ireland is personal transport and the main reason for traveling is leisure and other (visiting friends, entertainment, social activities, sports activities, holiday, day trips, just walking, other). From both reports we can see that public transport and cycling are not widely used by the public. I want to develop a service that will encourage adoption of these greenery modes of transport by making the experience enjoyable. This will ultimately create more value for customer and hopefully push us towards a cleaner environment.
From these reports we can also see the split between urban and rural areas. We can see that in both reports, there are more personal vehicles used in the rural areas of Northern Ireland, and this is mainly due to there being less public transport in the country. There are less bus routes and less bus stops as well as less train access. In 1950, many of the trains lines were dismantled leaving only a couple routes open, which only travel around the outer edge of the North. This has left most of Northern Ireland without access to train services.
This is evident to see in both reports as trains and buses are used mostly in urban areas where the trains travel through and were buses are more accessible. It is also clear to see that cycling is not a widely used mode of transportation in both rural and urban areas.
From both reports we can see that only 6% of people use public transport to commute to work and even less cycle to work. I believe that if the experience of using greener transport was better, more people would avail of it.
In 2017, the government travel survey found that around one in 30 respondents (3%) travelled on a train once a week or more, and an additional 6% travelled by train at least once a month, but less than once a week. It also found that one in six respondents (17%) travelled on a bus once a week or more. A further 9% travelled by bus at least once a month, but less than once a week, while 44% said they never travelled by bus. When asked what would encourage them to use local public transport more often, the most popular answer was cheaper fares (28%), followed by more frequent weekend services (19%).