Dublin commuters lose up to 81 hours per year waiting in traffic due to high levels of congestion in the capital, new research has claimed.
According to the INRIX Global Travel Scorecard, Dublin featured in third place the rankings of congested cities, beaten only by London in first place and Paris, which placed second out of 25 European cities. Dublin had climbed one place up the list, from being in fourth position last year.
The report, carried out by the US analytics company, found that delays faced by Dublin commuters increased 13 per cent in 2024.
On the lower end of the scale, German cities featured among those with the least congestion, including Cologne, Stuttgart, and Munchen.
Large UK cities like Manchester, Bristol and Leeds, also fared better than Dublin when it came to congestion.
Authors said that across Europe, 315 (55%) of urban areas of the 572 analysed saw increased traffic delay over 2023, while 170 (33%) of areas observed decreases in delay. Just 15% (87 areas) saw no significant change in delay.
Over the past three years, London and Paris have topped the European ranking despite falling in the global ranking, with drivers losing 101 and 97 hours in congestion, respectively.
As some urban areas were added to the top 25 ranking, others fell. For instance, Leiden in the Netherlands fell 24 spots to 37th in the European rankings while Birmingham dropped 15 spots to 27th place.
The biggest move onto the top 25 rankings was Dusseldorf in Germany, which climbed 29 spots to 18th in 2024 from 37th in 2023. Budapest in Hungary also shot up the rankings (+21) as did Cologne in Germany (+13).
Analysts pointed to an increasing number of people returning to work in offices in Western Europe as one factor behind the rise, however it did not explain the reason for heavy congestion in Dublin.
In May, a debate at the Joint Committee on Transport and Communications, heard that congestion was a major factor facing commuters and drivers in Dublin. The chief executive officer of Bus Éireann said that the lack of prioritisation outside of Dublin was a real challenge.
“Compounded by the growth in population, especially in our regional cities, meeting our punctuality targets is proving extremely difficult to do on at least 50% of our PSO routes,” Mr Stephen Kerr said.
He said that infrastructural change was needed, including the creation of more dedicated lames and ensuring enforcement, adding: “We can change timetables, and we do, but run times now vary so much across the weekdays and weekends as new travel patterns have developed due to hybrid working that it is inevitable that we can run late on occasion when the bus is trapped in traffic.”
The Dail has repeatedly heard that Ireland’s transport system is in a terrible situation, including from Deputy Peadar Tóibín, who said last year: “Anybody who tries to commute into and out of the major cities is stuck in excruciatingly slow, crawling traffic. Traffic jams are blighting all the major routes in this country and people are living in commuter hell, spending three hours a day getting into and out of work. They are trying to rely on public transport but it is collapsing, with frequently cancelled services forcing them back into their cars.”
In March, the government launched a new strategy which it said would manage and reduce congestion, with the plan promising a scale-up in public transport, active travel and EV infrastructure.
It is estimated by the government that in the Greater Dublin Area, congestion cost the economy €336 million in 2022, rising to about €1.5 billion by 2040. Nationally, congestion is projected to cost €2 billion by 2040.