Although more than 50% of Irish motorists would like to reduce their car usage to help the environment, young males in Munster are the least willing to give up their vehicle.
That’s according to new research from Aviva, based on a survey of 1,000 motorists across Ireland on their car usage and their attitudes to reducing it.
It found that 51% would like to or plan to reduce their use in order to help protect the environment, but 28% of these people said that the public transport networks in their location are not adequate for them to do so.
According to the research, 50% of motorists in Munster said that they could not see themselves “ever going without” their car. Of these, 53% were male and 78% were in the 18-24 year-old age bracket.
Meanwhile, motorists living outside of Dublin but in Leinster were the second-least likely to ever go without their cars, the survey said.
The reason for this may be out of their control however, as 26% of people in this region said that they would like to reduce their use, but added that the transport networks are not up to scratch where they live.
The survey showed that many rural dwellers feel the public transport links are inadequate.
43% of those surveyed in Connacht and Ulster said that the poor public transport networks prohibit them from reducing their car use. 34% of respondents in Munster expressed the same problem, while 25% of those living in Leinster, excluding Dublin, also had the same issue.
ln contrast to this, only 16% of survey respondents in Dublin said they were dissatisfied with the public transport links there, and 29% said that they have already or plan to reduce their car usage in the near future.
When asked in the survey about reducing the number of cars in a household, nobody in Connacht, Ulster or the wider Leinster regions said they plan to do this, and only 1% of people in Munster said that they will do so.
Meanwhile, 2% of respondents in Dublin said that reducing the number of vehicles per home is on the cards for them.
Age profiles
Analysis of the research shows that those in the youngest age bracket (18-24) appear less likely to make changes when it comes to their mobility patterns than some of the older respondents.
When asked if they are considering reducing how much they use their car, only 3% said they are. This is in comparison to at least 17% in the four other age profiles.
Furthermore, 0% of the respondents in the 18-24 year-old bracket said they have reduced the number of cars in their households and 0% are considering using an e-scooter or an e-bike more or instead.
In addition to this, 6% of survey participants in this age cohort said they are planning on using more public transport, but 0% said they have already done so.
When looking at the oldest age bracket (55+), 9% of people are planning an increase in their use of public transport and 6% stated that they have already started doing so, the highest of all age groups.