New figures show that since the easing of Covid-19 restrictions, the volume of cars on roads has been steadily increasing.
However recent new restrictions have slowed this recovery somewhat, the latest Central Statistics Office's latest Transport Bulletin shows.
Today's CSO figures show that the pace of recovery of road traffic volumes for cars and HGVs to pre Covid-19 levels continues to outstrip that of public transport passenger numbers.
The bulletin covers the period from March 1 to September 5.
The CSO said that traffic counter data shows that traffic volumes for the week starting August 30 were 15.7% lower in regional locations and 18.9% lower in Dublin than the same week in 2019.
The volume of heavy goods vehicles (HGVs) have exceeded 2019 volumes since June in Dublin and for nine of the last 11 weeks at regional locations, the CSO added.
Today's figures also reveal that the number of passenger journeys on public transport has dropped dramatically since the start of the Covid-19 crisis with rail journeys the most severely hit.
The CSO noted that public transport volumes are recovering at a much slower rate than road traffic.
The number of journeys taken by bus and rail remains more than 50% lower than journeys taken at the start of the Covid-19 crisis.
It also said that the volume of bicycles during off-peak hours was 9.4% higher in August 2020 compared to the same time last year.
Meanwhile, air passenger data also showed a dramatic fall in passengers handled by Irish airports due to Covid-19 restrictions.
The number of passengers travelling through Dublin, Cork and Shannon airports in the first seven months of this year is 70.3% lower than the same time last year.
The total number of passengers handled by those airports in July 2020 fell from 3,911,133 to 416,436, a drop of 89.4% when compared with the same time in 2019.
Data for Knock and Kerry airports was not yet available, the CSO added.
